When I bought my investment property I was very happy with the double-glassed heavy patio door. That is, until the return spring in the locking mechanism broke and the door would no longer latch.

Being kind of handy I disassembled the door and took out the mechanism. Here it is below.

As you can see the latch is not extending as it should. Turns out there is a small piece of flexing metal that the manufacturer calls a spring. This piece broke and, as you can see, there is no way to open the mechanism for repair. When I checked online this mechanism was $400!

Click here to see some multipoint locks and lock mechanisms. Maybe yours is not so expensive

I was not going to let that stand. The small spring you see above to the right is a simple pen spring and it was my first attempt at repair. It was too small and bent sideways.

Instead, I bought a slightly larger spring at one of the home centers and proceeded as shown below.

Click here to purchase springs

The back of the mechanism had a small hole where the broken spring was:

I drilled 2 small holes above and below this hole.

This shows the holes with the first spring I tried (it was too small).

This shows the right size. It is actually larger than the hole but can be screwed in to fill the space and give a strong return for the latch. I cut off the excess spring and then placed a flat cover over the back and secured it with a screw into one of the small holes I drilled.

Finally, because the screw and cover created a small extension on the back side of the mechanism, I drilled out a pocket on the door where the mechanism inserts so it would lay flat. Be very careful when drilling the pocket as there is glass nearby.

Well, that is it, saved $400 and was pretty proud of myself. I was unable to find a repair like this on the internet when I looked so I thought I would make this page.

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There are some affiliate links on this page that provide a commission if you buy any of the parts from the link. However, since you really only need a $2 spring and some screws to make this work I probably won’t be making big money from this. If this helped you please consider making a donation using the button below.