Bulletproof your modern inside door handle

This has been done before, but I thought I would document the process for reference sake.
We have all heard the horror stories of the inside door handle breaking off in ones hand helplessly locking the person inside their trailer.
Some of us have done the door pick MOD involving strategical drilling a hole in the door frame and screen door that allows you to “pick” the latching lever allowing you to exit the trailer in the event the door handle does break off in your hand. Here’s a link to that thread.

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f453...od-150277.html

Now let’s look at why the door handle breaks and how to help prevent it.
Why? Because it is cheap potmetal casting
How? The door handle and metal “trip” mechanism are held together with a simple swaged joint. The square end of the door handles shaft is inserted into a square hole of the mechanism. The end of the door handles square shaft is then swaged or flared (mashed flat) in order to hold everything together. Overtime the use of the door handle to open and close the door causes this swaged joint to become loose, wear and eventually break.

Solution:
By drilling and tapping the end on the door handle you can add a washer and machine screw to the end of the handle significantly increasing the strength of the joint between the door handle and trip mechanism. This machine screw and washer prevent the handle from wiggling which will prevent the degradation of the swag joint.
I drilled and tapped my handle for a 10-24 x3/4” machine screw and used a couple of washers ( one to fit over the handle end and one to hold everything nice and tight. I also added a few drops of loctite to the machine screw to prevent it from loosening over time.
See photos below.

Attached Thumbnails