High Bob,
Your sketch of the assembly is correct. You need to assemble the plastic bush to the clip and into the hole in the lock lever before you insert the rod through the bush, the rod spreads the bush "legs" and locks it into the lever..if you insert the rod beforehand you won't then get the bush through the hole in the lever. Sorry if that's obvious !
1owner69Elan wrote:I could not get the rod (16) that is actuated by the external door handle button to stay in the slot with the normal clips. Kept falling out. Don't know if the slot on my mechanism was worn after the years and thus too large. I probably was also doing something else wrong.
I found that too and deduced it was because the plastic bush rotates 'til the two "legs" align with the slot and no longer hold the clip in place. I overcame it by fitting the clip the other side of the lever so the plastic bush goes through the slot then through the clip and locks more securely into the round hole, need to tweak the offset in the clip a little to account for the thickness of the lever or it won't clip onto the rod.
Edit:-Looking through my pictures I'm reminded that you can fit at least one and possibly both of the short rods to the lock before you fit the lock to the door, may help a bit !