Sagging door handle

[CRCAIN]

All of a sudden the exterior door handle on my 1948 Buick 56S is sagging about 45 degrees from (normal) horizontal position. It still works OK; just looks bad. Anyone else had this problem? Cause? How to remedy? Thanks for your help.

Charlie Cain

Texas

1948 Buick 56S

1949 Packard 2382

1956 MGA

[mrpushbutton]

This is a very common problem with old cars having that style of door handle (the kind that turns--not unlike a lever-style house door handle). There is a clock type coiled flat spring inside the door, as part of the handle latch mechinisim. That spring has lost tension (they all do sooner or later). Remove the inner door skin, dissasemble the latch mech, take it over to your bench and remove that coiled spring. De-grease it, and place it in a photocopy machine and get a "picture" of it that way. Contact Restoration specialties in Winber, PA, FAX that photocopy picture to them, they have a blue million of those springs. DO NOT CALL THEM with your year,make,model and expect them to locate the part this way. There is no reference on those springs, they just match them to your picture. I've done this many times, and it's not that expensive, nor difficult, you just need to know how to locate the part.

[DizzyDale]

Dear mrpushbutton,GREAT advise,and i didn't ask the question.Thanks.diz

[CRCAIN]

Thanks for the good info. I will follow through.

Charlie Cain

Texas