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What do you think i should do with these...they work fine and are not pitted or anything but sagging a little and it bum me out every time i walk up to the car (driver's side and passenger side have a similar sag). Should i try the cheap insert that is supposed to slide over the spring and prop up the flap, or should i bite the bullet and replace the handles? Second question, I can't tell if the handles already have the metal insert in place. I'm wondering if a previous owner already tried the cheap fix.
Thanks.
I have a driver side handle form my 75. Its pitted but works fine. If you can use it for parts to fix yours I'll send it to you. PM me your address if you want it.
Bob
Since you're are in good shape and work fine, for the price of the repair spring vs replacement handles, I'd give it a try. Worse comes to worse you're out maybe $15. Seems to me you can install them without removing the handle (IIRC) but I'm not totally positive on that.
M
I am sure these are made overseas but if that does not concern you, Rock Auto has new handles for $15. At that price you can take them apart and scavenge what you need from them.
The "pop-up" insert springs work great.
Mine lasted a very long time.
Eventually the pot-metal latch pivot broke off and I was finally forced to replace the entire handle.
I found an old pitted door handle in my parts bin an noticed when you press the flap in you can see the spring. so as i suspected these door handles already have the pop up inserts (see second picture there is a piece of metal covering the spring.
I removed the insert and both handles pretty much stayed the same (i.e. the inserts must have lost their effectiveness and the flap was sagging about the same with and without the inserts). I took one of the inserts and bent it in the opposite direction and put it back in and sure enough the flap sits perfectly now. I tried the same with the other one and not surprisingly it snapped in half.
So i think what i'm going to do is buy 2 new inserts...as they are cheap enough and seem like they will work in my situation. I know eventually they may fail (like the ones that were on there) , but i'm guessing they'll probably last years or at least long enough until the next time i plan to take more door panels off when it might make sense to replace the handles while i'm at it. I also noticed the vendors sell a replacement spring (not the pop up kind but correct spring which requires disassembly to install). Maybe what i'll do is buy a few of those and practice on the extra junk handle i have and then when i'm ready to take the door panel off i'll pull the handles and just replace the spring since the handles i have are in otherwise good condition. I've been reading on the forum and it seems removing the the handles are a bit of a PITA so i may not tackle that now. In the meantime sees the inserts work pretty well.
i'm going to go with the repair spring as pictured (for now). i'll also get some of the original springs so i'll be ready for when these fail or I happen to have the door panels off and an excuse to take the handles out of the car so replace the original springs and do a proper repair. In the meantime for 20 bucks i figure i can't go wrong ...even if they only last a couple years i figure i've got my money's worth and let's me procrastinate a PITA repair s little longer
My '81 C3 drivers side door handle had a strong spring, but wouldn't come up flush. It was obvious that it was contacting the inside edge keeping it from coming up. I fixed mine with a piece of 1" by 2" wood firing strip and a hammer. Putting the firing strip up against the side that was causing the handle from coming up and giving it a couple of hefty blows with the hammer fixed the problem. The handle now comes up and works freely.
05-12-2019, 07:18 AM
Exterior door handles
