As someone wisely stated earlier when assembling the door handles "the springs
go in before any of the bearings, pins or rivets - don't ask me how I know
this". Actually you want to install the spring first, then the rivet holding
the actuating lever to the handle, then the tubular bearing. The handle
stopping pin goes in last. A trick I learned while assembling my newly plated
door handles was to not to initially try to get the spring in it's final
position - under tension over the backplate - but with the spring's u-shaped
end between the backplate and the handle. After all the rivets, pins and
bearings are in place attach a twist-tie wire around the end of the spring and
through the opening in the back-plate - then with the handle in the full open
position use a pair of pliers on the twist-tie to pull the spring's U end
through the back-plate opening and with the spring fully tensioned, pull the
back-plate back into the closed position, trapping the u-shaped end of the
spring in it's final position behind both handle and back-plate. I spent a
good deal of time trying to do this the "logical" way but there were too many
pieces and too many forces at work. The way I arrived at is a "walk in the
park"!
Richard Bittmann BJ7 Tacoma
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