GloveBox Handle Repair

Overview

The lock body is held in with three size 20 torx screws. The inside of the lock body looks like this

Pics 1 here

The part which the release lever should go up and down in is in this next pic. Although the lever/handle is made from ABS it is still an obvious weak point, and liable to break.

Pics 2 here

I decided I could make the lock and hande much stronger, and thus less likely to fail, if I replaced the pivot points/hinges and the catch release lever with stronger material. The diameter of the original Ford pivots was 4mm to I simply replaced them with 4mm steel tent pegs

Pics 3 here

I decided to use one peg to replace the two plastic pivots, and a second peg to replace the catch release lever, but to also glue this bit of peg into the body of the handle to give it maximum strength. It was simply a case of bending the peg to the right shape, and cutting it to length. I also drilled a 4mm hole in the part of the handle where I had filed off the stump of the broken catch, so the new steel handle would be in exactly the same spot.

Pics 4 here

I used two part epoxy glue to hold the new lever bar in place, as it is very strong and will flow into any gaps quite well. While glueing the new lever into place I temporarily fitted the new steel pivot, to make sure both were in the right place, before the glue set.

Pics 5 here

Pics 6 here

I gave the glue time to set, and then fitted the handle into the lock body. The glove box release catch needed to be pushed down before fitting the handle, so that it will operate properly afterwards. The new lever needed a small adjustment just to get it sitting just right in the release catch slot, but this was not a problem really.

Once I was happy with the fit, I trimmed the pivot bar to a better length, and then held it in place with a small blob of epoxy at each end to avoid it slipping out of the lock bodies original holes.

Pics 7 here

Pics 8 here

This was a really easy change to make to a quite poorly designed item. The lock will be much stronger now, not to mention it only took forty five minutes to do, including coming up with the idea in the first place.

Images to be uploaded

Thanks to Raykar for the orignal information & pictures.