MKIV Driver's Door Handle

I’m puzzled that the handle needs to be assembled on the chrome strip before the strip is attached to the door. My memory might be wrong but I thought the only thing retaining the handle was the little screw in the end of the square shaft.

Peter

There is a coil spring, a cup washer with a square hole, and a split cotter pin which hold the handle against the moulding. These have to be put on before the shaft goes into the latch mechanism.

Probably missing on my car.

Peter

Hi Rob,

Just to explain my photo, the short piece of waist trim photo is just the remnant from a vandalised strip. When these cars were just junk, people ripped off any brass any way they could, for a few bob at the scrappy. It should be turned 180 degrees to be correct as it is the leading end of the strip, and is a rear door because of the squared end. On the other side, it is broken at the ferrule but I didn’t include a photo of this.

I forgot to mention that a flat washer with a square hole is also required, so the order of the handle retaining method is: flat washer, spring, spring cap, then split pin. The flat washer bears against the rear face of the waist trim, not the spring. The cap needs a square hole so that it doesn’t rotate against the split pin, which would eventually wear through and let the whole lot go.

A twisted shank is to compensate for the angle of the door edge from the vertical, otherwise the handle will point downwards. To twist a shank in the car usually means some significant distortion to the lock body as it is much weaker than the shank in this action. You will see some cars of the same era at shows or in pictures displaying ‘lazy handles’ with this fault, and some with rear handles sloping upward. In saying that, some locks have angled square holes to compensate for the door edge angle, so a conventional straight shank fits.

Just another point of interest, it is easy to make both doors on the saloons locking, as with the DHC bodies, provided you can get another locking handle and key barrel. This is acceptable if you prefer function to fashion. It makes life a bit easier when you have passengers to care for. It is also easy to ‘repin’ a barrel to be keyed alike by moving the ‘pins’ around and cannibalising pins from other old barrels. Just about any barrel from a British make of the era should have compatible pins, irrespective of the blank pattern - FS, FP etc. In later years, the pins were from thinner brass and although may work, they are sloppy with the key action. Conversely, if you have a later barrel, the original pins won’t fit. This subtle change occurred sometime in the '50s I think.

Hi Rob,

Of course what Peter Lloyd is describing is the chrome strips from a MkIV which are retained it a totally different way to those in the SS Jaguars.

Peter

Thanks for that, Peter. Mine is missing, and that would explain why the coil spring was sprung out. I’ll make one and put it in. Will check the others too.