Inside door handle not working properly

[Dennis O.]

For the last couple of weeks, the inside door handle on my '67 coupe has been hard to operate. I really have to lean on it to get the door open. Today, I took the panel off, and found there was a broken spring on the inside door handle operating assembly (part number in the AIM is 3880169). This consists of two pieces of metal about 3 1/2 by 1 inch that are joined together by a large rivet in the middle of each piece. The rivet is very solid, but the spring that pre-loads it is obviously broken with a piece missing. Since the part of the spring which is missing wraps around the rivet, there is a lot of "slop" between the pieces, which I believe causes the two cross pieces to mis-align and become hard to operate. If I keep "leaning on it, I'm sure something will eventually break.

I have spent the last two hours on line trying to find this piece (or maybe just the spring, although it is an assembly in the AIM), with no luck. Does anyone know where I can obtain on of these, or perhaps someone who rebuilds them? Since it is inside the door panel, I'm sure I could "creatively engineer" something with my welder and a hardware store spring, but I'd rather have the correct part in there.

Also, when I was looking in the AIM, it shows a shield (PN 3768022) that is referred to as a shield that is missing on my car. Does anyone know a source for these, or if they are not available, a good description so I can obtain a suitable replacement. Material? (Metal or plastic) and dimensions would be nice.

Thanks

[Tom R.]

Re: Inside door handle not working properly

Both items you're looking for are at Long Island Corvette Supply. The handle part is called a door pull
mechanism. There are two shields. One is a round disc that fits over the threaded shaft for the door knob The other shield is a vapor barrier that fits between the door panel and the door. It has openings for all the assemblies to come through. The one for my 63 is paper but I think the later ones are plastic. It is installed with black rope caulk also available at Long Island in one foot strips.