Spring for Fuse door

[JLPurcell]

I cannot find the original torsion spring for the fuse door on the console. Does anyone have one or know of a specific torsion spring that can be substituted? Thanks for your help with this. JLP

[kats]

Hi Jerry , is this what you are talking about ? 
I pulled this spring from my 1972 Orange 240Z and Fairlady 240ZG . Both fuse door lost one pin to be pushed in . The cause of cracking pin on the console side is too much high tension of this spring . 
I can say 90 % of them are broken . I had to repair ( actually I made ) a new pin to match the hole of the fuse door , but I gave up installing this spring because I didn’t want to break the pin once again . 
 

So I hope someone will make a replica of this spring with a lot lowered tension. 

Kats

 

[Namerow]

15 minutes ago, kats said:

So I hope someone will make a replica of this spring with a lot lowered tension

It's quite easy to make your own low-tension replacement spring.

Start with a 12" length of regular (non-tempered) steel wire (stainless preferred), about 1/32" diameter.  For a forming device, clamp an old 3/32" drill bit in your bench vise.  It should be clamped vertical, with the shank (smooth end) exposed and the cutting end clamped.  Now take the length of wire and wrap it ~ 1-3/4 times around the drill bit, so that the two legs form a 90-degree angle when the coiled part of the wire relaxes (it may take you two or three tries before you get the finished angle right).  Once you're happy with your result, trim the two legs to the correct length.  Remember to form the 90-degree bend on one of the legs before you cut away the excess wire.

The lack of temper in the wire won't affect the action of the spring.  There's not enough flexure created in the coil or legs to take the wire past its elastic limit. 

I made my own replacement spring this way several years ago and it still works fine.

[SteveJ]

To add to @Namerow's post, that would be 20 AWG wire. It might be easier to find that way.

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-316L-Gauge-Wire/dp/B07CJLTNR4

[kats]

Thanks Namerow , that is great ! I am going to try to make it by myself. 
Thanks SteveJ too !

Kats

[Namerow]

The diameters for the wire and the drill bit were based on my sometimes flawed memory.  You may need to experiment a bit (wire and old drill bits are cheap). 

I'll try to post a photo of my restored ashtray later today.  It had broken in the usual way -- the plastic boss for one of the door hinge pins had failed (perhaps due to the over-aggressive spring tension mentioned in this thread).  I rebuilt that area using scrap plastic and JB Weld.  After completing the repair, the OE spring looked to me like it was going to overload the area.  That's what made me decide to make a low-tension replacement.

[Namerow]

I decided to create a separate, new Topic to better explain the repairs that I did for my 70 Z's ashtray.  It's posted (with a few pictures) in the 'Interior' section.  More, and more accurate, details about what I did.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Namerow
correction