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Front door latch spring improvement

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:48 am
by Haf-e
My front door latches have always been "lazy" in that they didn't latch well. Recently I had a door swing open when I slowed and turned and nearly hit a parked car... time to do something about it.
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I disassembled the door and took the latch out. Cleaned.it all and lubricated the mechanism including the internal handle pivot and pull rod mechanism. Once reassembled it worked much better but the interior handle still didn't retract completely and the latching was not fully positive.

I looked in a spares box and found a suitable spring to add to the interior handle mechanism to ensure it fully retracts. The stock spring in the lock mechanism looked too hard to remove and match up and it is pretty indirectly connected to the interior handle. An additional spring was easier to add and worked better.

I drilled two small 1/8 inch holes - one inside the door and the other in the rod and added the spring. Now the interior handle snaps back nicely and let's the latch work as designed.

So I then went to an auto parts store to find a matching spring - here is what I used - it came with a second spring that works as a throttle return spring which is always good to carry. Cost was about $5 for the pair of springs...
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The spring fits in well behind the door panels without any rubbing or noises.

Re: Front door latch spring improvement

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 4:28 pm
by DeStoriesair
I like that idea! I was going to be pulling my door panel off to add a Molle plate, maybe now I will include a spring :)
I had gone around a corner one time and my passenger door swung open, lucky enough I straightened out harder than normal and got it to shut :)