The rear driver's side door(1/2 door) had been opening with difficulty for awhile. While it was in the body shop, about 2 years ago, for an unrelated issue I had them "fix" it and it functioned o.k since then. It began to act up again a little while ago and then suddenly stopped opening all together. When you pull the jamb lever it doesn't seem to be pull or release anything, maybe the top latch, I don't know. Is there anything special I should know before opening up the door panel? Is this a common problem for a 99' model?

 

Good luck, I took good door apart enough to get ideal of how linkage works. Was able to figure from that. A 20 dollar cable was my issue.

 

I had the lower latch on my cab door go back a few months ago. Fortuantly it was in the open position so it was easy to work. Either the cable from the handle is bad or the latch itself. Both are easy to replace. When you pull the door panel I recommend getting a clip pulling tool otherwise you may damage the doghouse for the clips and the panel might not go back on so well.

The scan below shows how to pull the panel. The "push clips" are the ones you have to be careful of. Also, the clips can get roughed up pretty good, if you need a few, let me know, I found a good website and ordered 100 new clips just to have around a spares.

 

Yea, took it apart today. It appears the body shop just re-used the plastic push clips that were virtually destroyed when they took the door panel off! And there were 3 or 4 missing! Hacks! I might need that resource for extra clips. I took apart the door that was working and figured it out. The bolt that held the pull rods to the latch had come loose and was laying in the bottom of the door. A little plastic piece that holds the cable in the jamb side latch was broke so only the jamb side latch works. I guess I'll have to replace the entire cable to get the interior latch to work.

 

the truck I just bought had the same problem..
I had to remove the top latch from the ceiling
while holding the lower latch rod up I had to pry the door open.
the bottom latch for stuck. a little bit of WD-40 and presto.. the door works fine again

-dkenny