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[JeremyC]

As you'll have gathered from my wanted add I suffered a driver's side door latch failure whilst on holiday 360 miles from home in Northumberland.

As you can see from these first two picture the main spring in the latch has broken at one end losing about a centimetre or so:





This failure prevents the door shutting.

The spring rests against the little pillar that I have coloured red and because of the way the latch works actually runs against it as the latch operates. This makes a repair very difficult as if you were to sleeve the end of the spring it wouldn't run smoothly.

You can see from the next two pictures that the groove on the post that the end of the spring rests (and slides) in show considerable wear:





To add to my woes the nylon piece is also cracked:



The passenger side is showing no corrosion or wear (I took it off to check I was not about to suffer another failure). While wiring the door shut in the pouring rain it was apparent that water is coming through the window seal and dripping straight onto the latch and I guess that has washed the grease away allowing the corrosion and wear you see to occur.

If this happens to you, you can fix the door permanently shut by removing the door card and hooking some wire round the post (I actually put a full turn on it for security, we did have another 500 miles of driving ahread of us) and then passing it through two holes in the door. I had a cheap multi-tool with me so was able to use the pliers to twist the wire and get the latch held nice and tightly shut. Effectively you are replicating the spring tension using the wire.
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'93 Black 33 1.7 16v

[Oggie]

Hi Jeremy,
I think most of us have suffered the same thing over the last several years, a quick fix all be it temporary is to take a turn out of the spring and re attach, it works ok but won't last.
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PHAT 33

[BigAl]

I have a post not so long ago about the same thing JC, so you are not alone, what Iain suggests is what most people do including myself.
I now carry a bunge strap with me and loop it around the drivers and passengers door handles. I also lock the door which will hold the locking mechanism in place, I had the door fly open on me comming off a round about once.
How about a nylon washer that has the center hole the size of the red coloured bit and as tall as the gap and not too thick, the wire from the spring should hold it in place and prevent the wire from wearing the lock away any further.
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x2 33 16v
pictures http://www.alfa-pages.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5203

[JeremyC]

I think if it is well greased it shouldn't wear.

Good idea about unwinding the spring btw, hadn't thought of that.
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'93 Black 33 1.7 16v

[BigAl]

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x2 33 16v
pictures http://www.alfa-pages.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5203