Why Does My W116 Door Open Soooo Hard?

It may require a simple adjustment that you can do yourself

If one or more of the doors on a W116 sedan require an excessive pull on the door handle for the door to open, you may be able to easily fix this yourself by removing the handle from the door.  Kent has done an ON DEMAND video that covers how to remove an outside door handle without damaging the door or paint and adjust the handle to make the door open more easily. You should only have to pull the door handle out to about half of its full travel for the door to release. If you are pulling the handle all the way to the stop before the door latch releases then this is the answer. See link to video

Problem & Solution

Common among these chassis:

W116