Can you get a door handle spring repaired?

[Mark Lewis]

The spring has broken on one of our internal door handles. Is there anyone who repairs them?

I can buy a new pair of handles for about 20 quid, but would pay up to

50 to get this one repaired, as new handles will not match the others in the house and I would need to drill new screw holes. The originals are c1965 so not much chance of getting exact replacements.

The handle does not appear to be user repairable, it looks like you would have to remove a retaining metal ring and then replace the internal spring, presumably a job for a suitably tooled expert. Do they exist?

[1501]

Any chance of a photo to explain it better?

[Andy Dingley]

I've been known to fix mine, when I wanted to keep the original one.

I've not found a source for replacement springs (the old hairpin sort OTOH are still around in dusty boxes at the back of ancient hardware stores), so mine were taken off other handles that were lurking around in the shed (and cheap handles are cheap). They don't have to be a perfect fit. Diameter is usually consistent (or near enough), it's the angle between the end fittings that's crucial.

You might be able to screw the spring into place over the retaining clip. If the clip has two small holes in the ends, it's quite easy to remove and replace it neatly - but you'll need a pair of external circlip pliers. If it doesn't have these, it's probably soft metal (aluminium isn't unusual) and these are a sod to get off and on without putting a crimp into the back so they won't re-install. I've usually replaced these with steel circlips, taken from the same handle I took the springs off.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Depending on the exact construction you can make a new spring or pirate a cheap mechanism for one.

A picture would help.

If its a simple wire spring its a piece of piss to bend wire with a vice and a pair of pliers...

[Mark Lewis]

For all handle fetishists:

are the closest replacements I could find:

is not very good. Can you find any better? Backplate measures

10cm x 4cm.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ok. ISTR that sort have a square section spring? Which means pirating something.

Best bet is to pop the circlip off, dismantle into parts and photo again.

[Dave Osborne]

You can get them (springs) from your local locksmith or key cutting place. They may have to get them to order, so there will probably be an embuggeration charge, so you might want to order a slack handful. They should be in the order of £1 to £1.50 each. It pays to ring round before travelling.

NW Keys are (basically) trade only, and they will only deal with joe public from their retail key-cutting counter in Liverpool, but there's some photo's on their website:

to fitting the new spring, you're on your own ( as would a locksmith be) to find a way of dismantling/reassembling the handle.

It's worth noting that you can buy latches of various qualities with different spring strengths, so at a pinch, you may be able to replace the latch with a stronger one to compensate for the weak/broken handle (this would be a bodge, obviously) ;-)

[dennis]

You can't see anything of the spring, etc.

[Phil]

Dismantle, remove spring. Hope its broken near one end. Re-bend the broken end to resemble the broken off bit. Re-assemble.

[PeterC]

It's fuzzy logic, but not as we know it.

[Dave Liquorice]

I *might* have some of those complete with unbroken springs lurking in the garage removed from old doors. Squirreled away as they are ali and could be weighed in with all the other scrap bits of ali/brass/copper etc, when I get the tuit...

I'll have a look later.

[John Rumm]

If its the traditional open coiled flat spring with a lug on each end, then you can certainly get them as spares.

The ones I have seen usually have a circlip that retains the spring. A pair of circlip pliers help to remove the clip, but then its quite easy.

[John Rumm]

Here are some of the ones I was thinking of:

[John Rumm]

more here:

[Mike Barnes]

place by a circlip. A pair of circlip pliers will make the job easy and need not cost a lot.

[Dave Baker]

different casting internally but the same size, same 3 screw fitment and similar spring mechanism. I have a redundant pair somewhere that came off an old door which I might be able to find if you have no luck elsewhere.

[Dave Liquorice]

Had a look at what I have in the garage, close but 4 or 2 screw fixing. One has a proper circlip the other just a C clip (ie no holes for circlip plier prongs).

[Mr. Fix It]

Hi Mark,

Changing the spring in a door handle is quite simple provided you buy some circlip pliers (cost £2 to £3 for a cheap pair). Circlip pliers remove the 'metal retaining ring' or circlip. The following website has a good s election of springs

They also have step by step instructions on how to do it

Cheers, Stuart.

[ss]

5 minute job to change the spring, as previous poster stated a cheap pair of circlip pliers. As for the springs I took the old broken one and measured dimensions and scanned it and emailed some companies. I think I paid around £4 for 4 springs a couple of years back. May also be available on ebay.

[Vir Campestris]

That's a bit obvious, Stuart, posting a response to something from 2010. I think he'll have fixed it by now, and we can spot an advert pretending to be something else.

Mind, I don't know that it passes "moron in a hurry" status - did you check with your lawyers?

Andy