The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors Exterior door key slot cover spring

For as long as I have owned my 1950 3100 the cover over the key slot has never stayed in place. Today I removed the key cylinder and of course the spring is long gone. I have looked and none of the catalogs I have offer just the spring. I don't want to spend $55 on a new cylinder. So I am looking for a cheap solution. I assume it is a matter of removing the small set screw and inserting a new spring. But where do I find that spring?

If you can discern from the housing shape what the spring should look like, you can wrap your own using some piano wire, or check McMaster Carr for their selection of springs.

Robert, if you used piano wire, wouldn’t it have to be tempered?

The stuff we used came from McMaster Carr:

https://www.mcmaster.com/89085K85/


This stuff comes hardened...

I took a look at my door lock and it's a bit different. Rather than a slotted screw securing the spring in place, the end of the shaft has a groove in it where the spring fits and the groove is peened shut to secure the spring. I think you could probably find a spring at your local hardware store and modify the ends a bit to work.
Here's a picture of mine.

I was able to find the right spring. Stainless Steel. From Amazon.
0.8mm x 8mm x 10mm. It was a 10 pack so I have extras.

I was able to use the needle nose pliers to create that tab.

I will need some lock tight to secure the screw.

Thanks for the help. It’s good to have someone to talk through this stuff.

I love it when I can fix and keep the original. I had mixed results with the overseas repops. Good Job!

It will be a while before I get the lock back in place, but I like what I see. It’s like, wow, so that was how it was supposed to work!

Nice job on that lock.