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Over the past 2 years, I have had some issues with the front door latch mechanism and the solenoid driven dead bolt on my H3. Recently, with really bad weather comming, I grabbed the door release handle, yanked and it came off in my hand. No, it did not open the door.

On a couple of other instances during cold weather, the dead bolt would not slide open when using the key pad. I remedied this several times with cleaning and lubing. But, that's not the whole of the story.

Lets deal with the broken release handle first. I made a call to Dandy Dave Wishnoff at Liberty. Not because I thought the Dave would know what to do, but because he would know what it was I needed. He promptly asked me did I have Vince's phone number? To which I respond "Yes Dave, it is in the bus, that would be locked in the bus." So Dave gives up the numbers for Scott and Vince. I get a hold of Scott first and he tells me to knock a hole in the pot metal door handle casting. I take the more elegant approach and drill a few pilot holes first. Get enough of an opening in that bad boy on the left side and you can reach right in there with a pair of needle nosed pliers, grab that linkage bar, lift it up and voila, home sweet home.

If you look at the picture, in the bottom right corner, there is a partial circle around some components. Using what appears to be a black, round component as a reference, just below it, you can see the edge of the cut-out in the exterior handle housing. To the right, is the vertical linkage bar you grab and lift to release the door latches. I received a new latch from Prevost today and have started the install.

Much thanks to Dave, Scott and Vince, true gems. And Frank, they did not pay me to say that.

Now let's talk about the nagging issue of the "sticky" deadbolt. I have lubed it several times, I have cleaned it several times and the faulty performance resumes. I spent time looking at this mechanism and I believe I found the culprit.

In the center of the picture, I have circled a fitting on the throw bar for the manual deadbolt throw and the solenoid deadbolt throw. This fitting ties the throws to the deadbolt. In my situation, the top screw (seen inside the circled area) was loose enough that it would allow the deadbolt to slip. When it slipped, the bolt was binding on the "Bolt Guide"

So, the solution:

Tighten the screws with locktite. Clean every part of the deadbolt mechanism with a solvent to remove all old sticky grease, polish off all the rough edges caused by the binding using emory cloth and relube with a dry lubricant. To be completely honest, just tightening the screws improved the performance of the deadbolt dramatically.

Hope this helps someone.