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Well guys, I spent 30 minutes today disassembling 6 broken door handles, and managed to construct one working one from the internals. All you need is a punch set!
You can see how here the actual handle broke off here, this is a non typical failure in my experience having held in my hand 8 broken door handles to date.
This drift pin needs to be punched out in order to remove the broken handle actuator, it's very small, maybe 2mm? I used a 1/32" pencil punch. Once that's removed, there is a much larger pin which also needs to be punched out, it holds the spring and actuator to the handle unit.
and HERE is the typical culprit, this is the little trigger which pivots on a little bump build into the handle actuator, it has the rod which actually pushes down the pin in the door which opens in attached to it with a rivet that can not be punched out. 7/8 broken handles I've seen broke here.
To remove it, a small drift pin gets punched out. I am interested in finding a source for this part. The Porsche parts are made of cheap zinc pot metal which gets stress weakened with repeated use and leads to failure. The other big cause of failure is the drift pin that holds it to the actuator rod working it's self loose, which then allows that part to rock laterally as it pivots, which loads the part in a manner it was not designed to handle.
My question is, does anyone know if the VW handles have that same component which could be swapped in? I know lots of people have made the VW handles work, but I have 4 nice script handles and I'd like to make them functional again.
To be clear, I am talking about this component>>>>
Our friend Ian at 944online has a repair kit for ~40/handle which definitely does the trick, but seeing as the how the VW handles in their entirety are 1/6th the cost, I'm wondering if its possible to source that component from them. Otherwise, I'll be getting 4 of those kits from Ian.
I was going to re-make this part on a CNC mill. It would cost me about 100.00 apiece to make them out of 2021 aluminum. Even on runs of 500 units, the price would be exhorbitant for a pair. Esp since the parts can be had from Lart or Ian more cheaply. There seems to be two variations for the bellcrank (that's what I call it). One has additional struts/bracing molded into it. the other is plain, and therefore weaker,IMHO.
Any way that part could be had from VW handles? I know in general the handles require modification to fit, but maybe that one part has the same dimensions.
12-11-2015, 12:12 AM
Inside the guts of a broken door handle
