The International Cessna 170 Association

Unreal. The new repro door handle fell off the inside today. At least it chipped the chrome really nice when it hit the concrete hangar floor. I put a tighter clip in it. Now the door latch just flops. The handle will “open” it. So the latch “rod” ribbon is connected. It’s just the janky Cessna designed latch and striker plate can’t be accessed without drilling rivets. Have I got a spring broken? What just happened? Ugh. Thanks.

Hard to say what might be wrong, if there is anything wrong or more correctly stated, more wrong than most. It is true, the door latch mechanism is a real mouse trap. Yes the only way to get the latch out is to drill rivets. If yours are original, it says something. What is says is this contraption, we all call rinky dink has worked with out repair for 70 years. Maybe it's not so rinky dink, but a genius example of something built to last twice as long as the 30 years expected.

So study it. Drill some rivets. Remove the mechanism. Study it. Repair it. It probably needs a spring. Reinstall it and proclaim yourself another expert in the repair of the 70 year old mouse trap Cessna door latch.

Thanks Bruce. I bet it’s the spring after googling and reading the board here.

When I had a 48 it came with out inside handles never missed them!

Make sure the handle is pushed all the way onto the shaft so the splines engage. It possible to put the handle on halfway so it looks right and the clip goes on, but it just flops. The upholstery and backing spring are hard to push against when installing the handle.