Door handle falling off
Posted by Craig Hendrickson On 2017/3/30 21:30:18
I posted this in the 55-56 section, but it may well apply to earlier years.
On my 55 Pat the D-side front door handle falls off at times. I believe this is due to two things: the internal spring which fits into a groove on the 4-sided pivot has gotten weak over the years and it is a poor design anyway.
This is my fix on my 55 Pat which will also be applied to my 56 Panther. Hopefully, others will find it useful.
Remove the original spring with a pair of needle nose pliars. It will come right out with some twisting.
The trick is to find a way to drill the access hole and the hole to-be-tapped. I chucked the handle up in my bench vice between a couple of wooden blocks. I used a portable hand drill to drill the holes. I used a 1/8in allen-head set screw which requires a 13/64 hole for the 1/4-20NC thread of the set screw. I ended up using a 7/32 drill instead due to the fact I was using the makeshift jig. The access hole is larger than the OD of the set screw threads, of course.
Just screw the allen-head set screw with the appropriate allen wrench into the hole and push the lever onto the 4-sided pivot and tighten it down by hand.
Hope this helps someone.
Craig
On my 55 Pat the D-side front door handle falls off at times. I believe this is due to two things: the internal spring which fits into a groove on the 4-sided pivot has gotten weak over the years and it is a poor design anyway.
This is my fix on my 55 Pat which will also be applied to my 56 Panther. Hopefully, others will find it useful.
Remove the original spring with a pair of needle nose pliars. It will come right out with some twisting.
The trick is to find a way to drill the access hole and the hole to-be-tapped. I chucked the handle up in my bench vice between a couple of wooden blocks. I used a portable hand drill to drill the holes. I used a 1/8in allen-head set screw which requires a 13/64 hole for the 1/4-20NC thread of the set screw. I ended up using a 7/32 drill instead due to the fact I was using the makeshift jig. The access hole is larger than the OD of the set screw threads, of course.
Just screw the allen-head set screw with the appropriate allen wrench into the hole and push the lever onto the 4-sided pivot and tighten it down by hand.
Hope this helps someone.
Craig
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