The exterior handle on my 2001 suburban's barn door is 'sticky'. I have to push in the handle fully in order for it to lock/unlock. I've attached a picture of the inside of the door with the handle fully pushed in and another with it not pushed in.

I'm thinking the spring in the middle of the first image needs to be replaced, but I'm unsure if that's the issue.

Any help fixing this would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would spray some genuine aerosol silicone lube on that.

 

Hi Cusser,

Thanks for that advice. I tried some silicone lubricant on that spring but it didn't seem to improve it. I dug around inside the door a bit more and found another spring located on the door actuator. I applied some lubricant on that spring and it fixed the issue.

Here are some pictures if anyone has this same problem in the future:





I'm also hoping to rig up a way to open the door from inside the vehicle. I'm able to push on the rod to the right of the spring in the first picture and that allows me to open the door. Does anyone know of a push button with a rod that has about an inch of travel?

Something like this?