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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Exterior door handle

One of my 1970 midget's exterior door handles is scruffy. I have obtained a much better secondhand one for peanuts and am looking to fit it soonish.

The method of attachment is straightforward - two screws and a stud+nut - but access seems less than obvious. The Workshop Manual just says remove the door card then undo the fixings, but gives no clue how best to access them. I've had the door cards off, no trouble, but am stuck at that point.

Is there a trick to it? What tools are best?
Pete AC

Children under the age of 5 have the perfect size hands... haha

Do you really need a nice new shinny door handle to enjoy the car

its one of the top 5 worst jobs on the spridget.... its not an sunday afternoon job if you have never done it before... its also a very bloody project ... every edge metal inside the door is sharpened to a sergical razor quality

if you still have to do this... find someone at the local club level to do the deed for you with lots of free bottomless stieen of beer

or.. go to the library section of the ( MG experiance ) website and there are several on line articals there that lay out the details ... most have been written by our membership... just remember... its there words but its your blood

Good luck... i dont want to be yeah

prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Oh well, as I have medium sized hands and prefer them only mildly contused, I'll leave the handles in the parts cupboard until the door has to be in pieces for some other reason. And then maybe I'll pay someone else to injure themselves doing it.

I did wonder why two handles in fairly good condition sold for £1.04. Perhaps all the other owners knew they couldn't fit them!
Pete AC

Pete, don't give up because of Prop's horror stories. ;-) Its fiddly, but not that bad!
Remove the door card. Need to take off the winder, door pull and the inner door release/ lock and its shaped plinth (NB very small screws)
With the card removed and the window glass right down there is an access hole that aligns a screwdriver to the two rearmost fixings. These may be Phillips screws, or possibly small hex head screws in which case you need a 1/4" drive socket and extension.
For the small front screw l think you wind the glass up again. I then use the ring end of a very small combination spanner (mine is actually an 8mm ratchet ring) Its tricky but you should be able to get the ring end onto the nut and get a 1/2 a turn or so using your finger tips before the spanner drops off and falls into the bottom of the door! Magnet on a stick is handy at this point.

To continue this way would be very laborious, but once the nut is slackened a bit you can then hold it with the spanner and carefully rotate the handle around to unscrew it. Take care of your paintwork though!

The handle has no physical attachment inside to the lock - just the plunger block that has an adjustable setting.

There should be a thin rubber gasket between handle and the door.


Replacement is equally fiddly, but once the front nut is onto its thread you can hold it and wind the whole handle around. The nut goes onto a tiny stud which is screwed into the handle. Its actually easier if the stud comes out with the nut still attached as it makes alignment through the hole in the door skin for reassembly easier. Hold the nut to your ring spanner with masking tape.
GuyW


""Pete, don't give up because of Prop's horror stories."""


yeah... just follow guys path as he laid it out....haha

prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Prop, you left the smiley off. I like your horror stories. ;-0 And I didn't say the blood letting wasn't all true!
GuyW

I used the HaHa... dosnt that still count

ΧΏ~


It probably isnt that bad of a project if you have a good detailed procedure... which was the source of my pain... it took 3 days as i recall... in my opinion the doors are the worst part of the car... i dont enyve anyoje doing this project
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Well, the horror story delayed my attempt but I tried it in the end, and succeeded. And it wasn't that bad. No blood spilled.

I only dropped the screw into the door bottom twice and the first time was almost a good thing, as it caused me to find a disused lock clip that was rattling around down there.

I'm glad that I was pre-warned of the difficulty, because otherwise I'd have expected it to take a few minutes and got cross and sweary when it proved tricky. Instead, I was expecting to take ages, hurt myself and possibly still fail, so taking 2 hours seemed like a result.

Thanks all.
Pete AC

This thread was discussed between 02/04/2016 and 07/05/2016

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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