Door latch repair. Broken torsion spring.

[Hyper]

The door latch assembly contains 3 or 4 return springs. I've twice witnessed breakage on one of those (contemplated herein) due to corrosion, and assume this will become a well known problem.

The symptom is that the door will not latch correctly onto the striker bar unless some continuous force is put behind the closing action. IOW, the door will bounce off the body (to the failsafe position) unless done slowly and forcefully. It was this sensitivity to slam speed that provided the clue that this was a broken return spring, failing to keep a cog engaged as the striker bar passes thru.

On the first try, a spring was procured that exactly replicates the original. Unfortunately, the vendor not only charges a lot per spring but has a minimum order that will make your eyes roll. Nice result but I would think that any one could skip that BS and create a spring from wire and a mandrel. Note: Left hand latch gets left handed wrap.


** Procedure **
* Remove the outside handle. Remove the latch.
* Drill off two rivet heads. Swivel the frame.
* Pull up the plastic cover, enough to get the spring over its capstan.
* Form the tangential legs into a radial take-off. Note that one leg bends across the coil length to finish in the same plane.
* Install. Wind up the spring by a half-turn and hook over post.
* Assemble the assembly. Spot weld rivets using no more than 1.0 seconds @75A. Be quick with cooling spray.

[DavesNotHere]

Hyper, do you have the spring vendor's info? It looks like I need to repair a right-side latch.
Or, would you be interested in fabing one (or a few?)
Buying a spot welder to do this job is still less that buying a new latch from any source. Whew!

[Hyper]

The info is in the 2nd pic.
Since you are doing the right-side, google the right handed version: PT048-619-5000-SST-RH-2000-N-IN
I fixed a latch for myself and one other BF'er, but I can't be in that biz at the moment.

[DavesNotHere]

Thanks Hyper! (I did overlook the info in pic #2... D'oh!)
I ordered a returnable used door latch today on Ebay (51211980050, but I think that's a typo on their end - realoem doesn't show that as a legit part number, but it looks identical). Once it gets here, I'll order a couple each of LH & RH springs, rebuild the broken latch, and have parts for the inevitable future repairs. I can't really complain about a $40 minimum if it would cost me at least that much in time and materials to source the wire and wind them myself .

[Hyper]

...$40 minimum...

For that reason I have bought and carry inventory to distribute.
Currently in some bin, equivalent to saying a needle in the haystack, and I'm not going to look for it.

Good choice, doing both sides.
Everyone's will break eventually, due to oxidation (ed: corrosion) and stress on the fine wire.
Could be tomorrow, or it could be twenty years from tomorrow.