Door Internals Question

[Chaparralman1974]

Morning all!

I am to the point where I now can rebuild the doors. Unfortunately, I discovered that the coil spring on the door latch relay mechanism is busted. See the picture below. As I understand it, the '67s are a one year wonder with this part (as with so many other things I have discovered) and it doesn't look like there are '67 repops available....only 68-71 and 72's. So, is there a way to rebuild this, or should I just ditch it and get the 68-71 version?

On another note, I started on the rebuild for my window regulators. I ground down the rivets for the crank gear mechanism and found that it was toast. I can get the new crank gear thing for like $34, or I can get an entire repop window regulator for $38. Am I better off to restore the original regulator, or are the repops out there of decent quality?


Thanks, Clay

[HO455]

If you go with the 68-71 or the 72 version your 67 only handles won't work. See 1st link.

If you drill the rivets out (Yellow circles in photo) and disassemble them. I'm pretty sure you can swap a later spring in. Then re-rivet or tack weld the relay back together.

One issue with old relays is the hole on the back can get really worn out. Which causes the handle to be really floppy. See arrow in photo.

http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=714399

[dmjlambert]

After looking at the forum thread link HO455 gave, it seems a new 68-71 relay would work with 67-only door handles by grinding down the splined area to shorten it a little.

[Chaparralman1974]

Well, I was able to take a closer look at the door latches themselves and the springs in those are busted as well....so I guess there is no reason to save them. The rust seems to have just killed the internal door stuff. My internal and external door handles and cranks were also trashed so I had planned on replacing those as well. If I have to change the internals to 68-71, I will just use the appropriate handles at this point.

I am still curious about the window regulators though. Would I be best to just rebuild them, or are the repops reliable enough to use?


Thanks, Clay

[1970cstblazer]

I have the repro door window regulators on both of my trucks, and they both work smooth. I made sure to fully lubricate them prior to assembly. My originals had chewed up gears.

If your originals are stiff, but otherwise intact, I would use them. Most of the time a good cleaning and greasing will make them work well.

[69cam]

X2 on the repro window regulators. I got mine from GMC Pauls. They work great and after some new window felts and window track adjustment, they go up and down like butter.

[Jason Banks]

I have had good luck with the repro window regulators.... except for the 1 that I had to use an angle grinder to remove after it failed when (basically) new. The spring came out in a way the the thing would no longer move.

[Chaparralman1974]

Ok, thanks for the info everyone! I am going to just go with repop regulators. It will actually cost a tad more to fully rebuild my regulators, so there is really nothing to gain by doing it. I am just going to replace all the guts in the doors....the rust just killed all the springs and such. My handles were all trashed anyway, so I think I am just going to get the 68-71 stuff for it.

Clay