rebuilding Early sliding door mechanism

[mdbww]

1983 Vanagon.......

So i finally decided to look into my sliding door latch which was jamming up on me on a regular basis now. the manual lock/unlock lever floats up and down freely so i knew there was a spring broken. aside from that, it still works fine.

i searched online for replacements, found that they were NLA. found some spares in europe but not willing to spend $200 or so for something that only needs a spring, so i decided to rebuild it.

unfortunately, once apart, theres no sign of the broken spring! so i have no idea what it looks like to replace it! i can't find any pics anywhere of a unit disassembled... so i thought i would throw some up. one before cleaning. PN 253843654 for 80-85 vanagons.

can anyone tell me what the spring looks like that operates the manual lock/unlock mechanism????? anybody have any pics of another one taken apart with the spring still intact?

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'83 Vanagon mTDI NAHT - Naartjie SupaZ
'89 golf syncro > 1.8t haldex project - Little Thunder

[VWagabond]

Wish i could help. Have you thought of looking thru the parts classifieds for a good used one?
Tom
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The Road Goes Ever On & On……...
VWagabond
87 Camper GL
87 Syncro GL

[heidi85ho]

Just a thought. Have you looked inside the door for your missing spring? It might just have popped off and is residing inside the door panel.
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85 westy-1.9-standard trans, FAS GenV 2.0

[mdbww]

thanks for the ideas, but i tried both already. i found some in good shape in europe for 180E without shipping.. thats about it. thats what prompted me to just fix mine.

so... yesterday i decided to think like a german engineer. picked up a torsion spring that i could bend into what i thought it would look like. put it in, bam. lock working. put it back together, lubed, rivets and mounted back on the van. perfect. no more jamming, handle works better than ever and nice n snappy!

hopefully it lasts.

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'83 Vanagon mTDI NAHT - Naartjie SupaZ
'89 golf syncro > 1.8t haldex project - Little Thunder

[Chugach]

Some would keep such info proprietary, hoard the springs, and tease other's suffering the same malady! thanks for sharing

[mdbww]

[VWagabond]

Great Info & excellent solution..Thanks!

Tom
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The Road Goes Ever On & On……...
VWagabond
87 Camper GL
87 Syncro GL

[pomfritz]

Thanks for that!

My inside lever doesn't do anything when I move it. Was going to investigate soon. I bet that's my issue too. Anything specific as to the spring you used and where you can find one?

I have a used parts source near me so hopefully I can get whatever is needed.
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83.5 233K. GW 2.3, SS exhaust, My German Frau named her Stefi

[Abelabelabel]

This is really great stuff.

Same problem on my van. My lock nipple/lever wiggles, so that you have to swing it up, and then turn the handle to open. Otherwise it remains locked/jammed.

This is awesome, and timely!

Can you get in to a little more grueling detail about how you modified that torsion spring?

And after that - STICKY!
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1991 Vanagon GL / Carat Interior / Auto - White "Daily"
1990 Vanagon Carat / manual / Cherry Red "Bella Rouge"

[jerrydog411]

[mdbww]

well, i am from van, but the van and i are in florida working on a boat.. so i picked it up at a local hardware store that stocks tons of random items... not sure where i would go in van tbh.. grainger comes to mind... maybe a good hobby store?? quick google found this in van: http://www.dendoff.com/springs/torsion-springs/

as for the spring itself, its tricky.. given more time i would have found just the right spring, but i just made what i had work. ideally, you want a LEFT HAND torsion spring. this will allow the spring arms to sit correctly between the body and the lever. the spring i used was a RIGHT HAND which flexes the torsion spring body. i made it work, but the left hand would be better.

ideally, i think a single coil stainless spring would work best, but the coils of the spring need to be small enough to pass between the lever arm and the body as this is what needs to happen for the spring to work correctly.

latch lever down

latch lever up

what i think the torsion spring should look like (stock image from net)

the arm of the spring attached to the lever should be longer than the arm connected to the body. this is hard to explain, but the spring works in two directions. it pushes up and down. in order for this to happen, the spring rotates. picture this: if the lever is up, when you press it down, it compresses the spring until it reaches the 'apex' between up and down. once it has passed the apex, the spring then rotates and pushes in the opposite direction. vice versa when going up. this is why the coils of the spring seem to shift in the pics.

finally, the spring tension shouldn't be too hard nor too soft. they are small springs, so the more tension, the harder it is to lock/unlock but more importantly, the more likely the tabs on the spring will fail to to the nature of the spring flip and friction on the tabs.. this is most likely why these springs fail in the first place. I'm sure the coils are fine.. its the retaining tabs that fail most likely.

if anybody knows exactly what this spring looks like, please chime in! even better, where to find them!

as for when you open up the unit, thats a whole other bag of beans...

there are 4 machine pressed spacers which hold both sides of the body together. drill a hole through the centre SMALLER than the diameter of the bore. this will ensure that the spacers stay in place and aligned correctly. this is important because the spacers are also the pivot points for many of the arms inside the body. the two that have arms on them are the centre and upper left (i drilled the upper left out by accident)

to split the unit in two, then drill out the remaining press fittings ON NON-COATED BODY SIDE ONLY (the one with the long arm!) until you get to the body and poof.. you can now open er up and still have all the mechanisms in place on their spacers! to put together, sandwich back together, make sure you lube the whole assembly and use rivets to hold it all together. nothing should be out of alignment.

you may notice that i also used brass binding post screws on a couple spots.. this is just to make it easier to take apart if ever the prototype spring fails!

well folks, have atter n good luck!
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'83 Vanagon mTDI NAHT - Naartjie SupaZ
'89 golf syncro > 1.8t haldex project - Little Thunder

[djkeev]

Binding Post Screws...... Also known as Sex Bolts......

Fix that lock like you did?
You have skills way beyond average!!!

GOOD WORK!!!!!

Dave
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Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[mdbww]

[mke_cad-e]

I am going to have to give this a shot. Same issue on my 82’. Tired of holding up the floppy lock button in order to open the door! Thanks for the post. super informative.

[JSlate]

I got as far as removing the body of the lock, but couldn't figure out how to open it up. I may need to drill through it, but based on my last projects, Ill end up breaking more than I fix

[VWagabond]

[t3 kopf]

I did this job today and wanted to add my experience to help anyone trying to find the right size torsion spring. A safety pin with the ends clipped and bent will save you the trips to hardware stores around town that I went through today.
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'90 Carat w/ '95 phase 1 EJ22 OBD2 conversion

[1988M5]

[jlrftype7]