remove door lock barrel tricks

Because my driver door handle on the outside does not work anymore, I need to remove it. Found some helpful how-to's. 
It's a late 2005 TF, so the only colorful clip I have is the red one, the rest MG-factory thought it wise to make it a one time assembly, in their assumption it would never fail. Wrong assumption!
To make the job easier, I also tried removing the door lock mechanism held by the 3 torx screws.
I managed to remove the lock pin rod from the lock mechanism, but no luck in removing the rod to the lock barrel. 
I was hoping by removing the rod from the barrel to the lock mechanism, I could avoid removing the retaining clip on the lock barrel and dismount the door handle and lock barrel all in one, by pulling the whole door handle unit including barrel to the outside. 
But after jiggling the lock mechanism around for more than a hour inside the door, no luck, the barrel in question cannot be unhooked from the lock mechanism. 
The door handle is held in place by 2 special threaded bolts for plastic mounting and at the bottom by a plastic push clip. All that I could disassemble, but now the door handle removal is still prevented by the lock barrel. This is held by a U form spring-clip, and I have no clue how to remove that. Therefore my attempt for the described workaround, that in the end did not work. 
So it appears I need to remove the malicous U spring from the lock barrel. 
Any ideas how this can be done ?
Any other make-life-easier tricks in removing and refitting the door handle of course also very welcome. 
Doing this job makes me wonder how on earth did they do this 20 years ago on the assemby line, it feels like you need chirurgical skills for the (dis)assembly. I can hardly see what I am doing inside the door, it is half visual half by feeling the fingertips. 

Thanks for knowledge sharing. 

 

It's a while since I changed one but i think i remember the U clip round the barrel just pushed off. It was easier than unclipping the linkages

If the door handle doesn't operate the lock then it sounds like the linkage has either come off the handle end or that the tab on the handle is broken. 

Taking the handle off is easier with the window down. 

 

I’m no expert on this topic and my hands are neither small nor huge.
I renewed the door handle which included swapping the lock barrel.
I struggled to achieve all that whilst others on here renewed the electronicall part of the system in a fraction of the time I spent doing it.
i tried fitting the electronic parts and then the barrel and failed miserably.
To resolve that I removed the electronic parts (again) to give space. Then I fitted the lock barrel and it’s retaining clip.
Re fitting the electronic bit afterwards was easy if a set sequence was adopted.
i would have to search my records to see if I can find that sequence if necessary.
yes the window was down I think although I think I also raised it at one point.

Well, I finally managed to get the lock barrel removed, with a long small screwdriver, a pair of long small pliers, a bright flaslight to see what's where, and the backpain from having to curle under the door, because I am doing this job in front of my house. 
After removing the barrel, the door handle was quick to remove. 
The plastic pieces from the door handle, intended for mounting the screws, have broken. See the photo's. Also the one remaining plastic screw mount, is on the point of breaking, cracks are visible. 
Perhaps this is due to the very extensive anti-rust treatment my TF had, about 5 years ago. Plastic and oil-based coatings,(waxoyl) don't go very well together perhaps. 
Anyway, step 1 is trying to glue it back together with Colad Magic Fix. Our Dutch AA (ANWB) has on my audi fixed a broken cooling pipe with this, better than new. Since then I have done several repairs with this stuff on broken plastic pieces. 
Plan B is to get a new handle, but I need one in X-power grey, could find many colors exepts this one, so that may be difficult. And having one in the wrong color and spray it over is an expensive time consuming. solution. 
Also the simplicity of the door lock mechanism strikes me, reassuring that loosing the key will never prevent me from entering the car, knowing how the internals work. 
Anyway, phase 1 completed, could lock the car with centrail lock and closed the door handle gap with tape, parked the car where this is not immediately visible. 

The screw turrets breaking off is a well known fault. Its caused by a combination of heavy handed pulling of the handle over many years and a design flaw allowing plastic fatigue. I doubt your rust proofing treatment is the chief culpit.   Ive yeat to hear of anyone who has sucessfully repaired the turrets as a long term fix but maybe someone out there has had some joy.   A few have drilled through where the turrets are to fit blind headed bolts which can be made to look acceptable by carefully countersinking and painting the blind heads. 
Looking at a handle on the bench it did occur to me that it should be possible to devise a rather less obvious fix by using the existing holes for the small rubber buffers, something that can only be seen when the moveable part of the handle is lifted.  A blind headed bolt and a small DIY metal bracket on the inside should hold it nicely.

" the simplicity of the door lock mechanism strikes me, reassuring that loosing the key will never prevent me from entering the car, knowing how the internals work." 
That can only really be claimed once the troublesome and pointless deadlock wires have been disconnected. The Search facility is your friend here- regard dealocking as an enemy that will jam your door locks permanantly closed when it goes wrong.

I think it depends on how much time you want to invest in repairing these.
I’d be reaching for the epoxy resin & buying some brass threaded inserts off eBay. Initially I’d cover the existing screws with silicone & start them in what remains of the turret, run some epoxy around the bottom to create a good base & let it harden, but not fully. Remove the screw & use that to screw the inserts onto the base, use some plasticine to build a reservoir around the insert to create a new turret & building around it with epoxy until you have effected the repair.
There again you might simply buy some used items & possibly be faced with the same problem all over again.
M

The bonding phase is realized, I used Colad Magic Fix. 
Need yet to see if it will fit, but I guess it will, otherwise dremel is my friend, that I also used to make the surface somewhat rough before bonding.
Using the original screws will have the risk of breaking again, so I am considering to bond a few stainless steel short threaded rods in the screw-holes, and fasten the handle with 2 self locking nuts.
That way the bonded pillars will only have tensile stress, and no radial stress,