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C172 Door Latch

2004-03-25 02:13:17

C172 Door Latch

One of the springs on the passenger side door latch is broken. I have ordered replacement springs from Yingling and they should be here is a few days. I was wondering if this is the kind of repair I can do as the owner/operator of the plane or am I going to need to shell out money to my local mechanic?

Thanks;

Dave

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2004-03-25 03:58:47

Re: C172 Door Latch

Dave, Ive changed door latch mechanisms on older 172's and actually had to drill some rivets to enable for removal. As far as just changing the return spring without removal of whole mechanism , never tried it, but maybe it can be done. As the aircraft engineers will say to the mechanics, " you guys will find a way or fabricate a tool".

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2004-03-26 00:24:39

Re: C172 Door Latch

David,

I think the story goes that as long as what you do is not very complicated and has nothing to do with the aircraft flight and performance characteristics and structural integrity you can do it.

I can not see how working on the latch will impact any of the above. If it fails in flight and the door opens it will scare the heck out of the passenger and maybe you but not have an important effect on continued flight.

In fact, you can replace the side windows yourself but not the front wind screen. So using that as an analogy, I would believe it's OK to do.

my thoughts...
Barry