The offside rear door handle on my 62 4 door does not spring against the body rubber when locked. In the diagram below item 38 is described as a barrel spring.
Could anyone please tell me.
1/ does this keep the handle against the body
2/ How is it accessed to replace it
3/ Are they readily available
Thanks for any help you can provide
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Just found an old post from 2003, is this valid for mk5
Remove door handle escutcheon (chrome finisher)
Remove the 3 countersunk screws holding the handle (rear face of door)
Remove the 2 screws holding the latch mechanism (inside face of door, where the door trim covers)
Move the latch mechanism down/forwards (only has to move approx 2cm)
Remove the door handle assy. The handle must be in the fully closed position to enable the hook to clear the door.
Normally the spring doesn't break but simply comes out of its location. the 'leg' of the spring fits into a groove which then is peened over to hold the 'leg' in place.
In my experience it is a case of removing the handle, cleaning out this groove of 40 years of dust/grime, levering and pushing the 'leg' into the groove then re-peening the surrounding metal over the 'leg'.
99% of the time this is successful. In the worst case, a small plate might have to be made to hold the spring 'leg' in place in this groove, but I haven't had to resort to that yet.
I don't think the rear handles ever changed during production. I did this repair on one of my handles some years ago and the instructions above seem to echo my experience very effectively. You're lucky that it is a rear handle because removal involves a lot less dismantling than a front one. Once you have the handle out it should be obvious what is required but yes - the "arm" of the little spring generally pops out of the groove and requires re-fitting. This is a slightly fiddly job and I drilled a small hole on my handle next to the groove for a self tapping screw which, with a small flat washer to cover the refitted arm, helped secure it forever! It is a job worth doing because a flapping handle is very annoying, All this applies only to the 4 door cars - along with vans and pick-ups. The 2 door models use an entirely different handle.
Handle now removed, the instruction were spot on. As predicted spring has popped out of groove.
Thanks for the self tapper idea, sounds more reliable than peening metal.
Just need to clean off 60 years of gunk to see the groove properly.
Having stripped and cleaned, I suspect part of the spring has snapped off, the arm is very short and difficult to put in groove, lack of leverage,
Ordered correct pin/spring from ESM
ManyMinors wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 7:54 am
I don't think the rear handles ever changed during production. I did this repair on one of my handles some years ago and the instructions above seem to echo my experience very effectively. You're lucky that it is a rear handle because removal involves a lot less dismantling than a front one. Once you have the handle out it should be obvious what is required but yes - the "arm" of the little spring generally pops out of the groove and requires re-fitting. This is a slightly fiddly job and I drilled a small hole on my handle next to the groove for a self tapping screw which, with a small flat washer to cover the refitted arm, helped secure it forever! It is a job worth doing because a flapping handle is very annoying, All this applies only to the 4 door cars - along with vans and pick-ups. The 2 door models use an entirely different handle.
Thanks manyminors for the screw idea, all done and refitted
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Hijacked post with the permission of the OP.
Ordered RH return spring for drivers side door handle. Struggling to locate the barrel to put the spring under tension on the handle. The pics show the barrel just inserted with the spring leg already in line which I understand is incorrect.
Any help as to where the spring barrel should be locating is greatly appreciated
You need to locate where ball sits into before putting pin in. Then push pin home in that position, the spring will then tension inside the pin as the leg is rotated against tension to it groove position.
Once the pin and spring are located you can feel the tension pushing the handle to closed position. There's a rubber stop on the door that the handle bumps against.
Any idea where the locating position may be? Rotating it doesn’t seem to lock anywhere. I’m wondering if the inside of the handle has been butchered previously. Hopefully not.
Dougie212 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 15, 2025 8:36 pm
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Any idea where the locating position may be? Rotating it doesn’t seem to lock anywhere. I’m wondering if the inside of the handle has been butchered previously. Hopefully not.
We were at crossed wires. Mine was a rear door and Dougie is working on a front
