Broken Door Handle Springs

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Joined
Aug 29, 2019
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405
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Location
North Surrey UK
My Car
1971 Mustang 302 V8
Well after removing my broken door handle, I found 1 Spring missing and anther one broken!

Now searching around on the net it seems that you can't just buy a replacement door spring.  The handles normally come as a complete unit.

So how to make a replacement spring.....

The spring type is called a "Torsion Spring"  

After carefully filing the flayed head of the rivet and carefully removing it from the door handle, I removed the broken spring.

I used a piece of 2mm x 300mm Piano Wire purchased from eBay.

Next job is to make a tool to bend the spring.  I used a small block of plywood which I drilled through and then placed the drill into the hole and clamped the wooden block in a vice.



Note: (Wire in picture is NOT the Piano spring wire, it's just for demonstration).

You need to clamp the end of the wire to the block, I used a couple of washers and a screw as you can see demonstrated above. 

With a pair of Vice Grips tightly pull the piano wire around the drill bit, Note: You need a drill bit smaller than the required final spring diameter, when you release the tension on the coil it will expand slightly so the smaller drill bit will allow for this. ;)

Coil made its now ready for bending



Here is the final result.......





Finally now have to make or find some replacement steel rivets

Note:  On the Door Handle the springs are wound different ways, there is a Left handed spring and a Right Handed spring with the catch J hooks hooking onto either side of the door handle.So if you are replacing just one spring, make sure you bend it the correct way.  ::thumb::

 
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Been down the same road as far as broken springs. I located a spring company that had the right size and number of coils. The only problem was had to buy lots of 100. Only needed 2. Ended up buying 2 new handles. :D Great job and write up.

 
Good job! You should be very proud of yourself.

 
::thumb:: Nice work

 
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Nice job! Your right they are hard to come by......sounds like Kilgon found some. Mike at Motor city Mustang gave me a couple.

I had broken springs as well (both of them). I used my lathe to make the posts. I ended up just installing one spring. For me 2 springs is to much tension on the handle.. with 2 springs It usually slips and snaps back so hard that it breaks the springs.

 
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