[carkarl]

On a camping trip, I think I snagged the underside of the cargo cover's handle on something and it fell apart. In the twilight, I managed to put the handle's hinge points back in but could not find the spring that keeps the handle in its normal rest position flush with the cover. Instead, it just hangs straight down, leaving the hole open where your hand goes through the cover. Once we returned home and fully unpacked the car, I found what I assume is the missing spring.

Does anyone here have a knack for macro photography and would you be willing to post a picture of the hinge and spring as it is supposed to be assembled? I think you should be able to see it while the cover is still installed in the car, if you just roll it back and flip up the last part containing the handle...

 

[carkarl]

Fixed it

Well, once I had time to remove the cover and take it inside where I could work on it, it was clear how it had to reassemble. Here are details in case someone else has theirs fly apart and needs a little encouragement to put it back together...

The spring fits back into the barrel of the hinge pin on one end of the handle. The other hinge pin is on a flexible plastic arm so you can easily compress it to slide back into its mating hole on the handle frame, after the rigid pin with the spring is already in place.

The only awkward bit is figuring out how to wind up the spring with enough tension so that it performs its duty once the handle is reassembled. The keyed slots in the plastic allow you to wind the spring even while it is half way out of the barrel where it will live. So, you can wind it by hand, slip the longer end of the spring into the retaining slot in the plastic frame, then slip the hinge pin into its mating hole. Once the hinge pin was starting to go into its receptacle, I used a screwdriver tip to slide the spring deeper into the barrel before pushing the pin all the way home.

I took a few pictures while I had the cover out in good light:

1. The parts of the hinge as you'll find them after it has fallen apart.
2. The spring inserted back into the barrel of the rigid hinge pin.
3. The spring wound-up with tension and the hinge pin partially inserted back into the frame.
4. The opposing flexible hinge pin compressed and ready to slide into position.
5. The opposing flexible hinge pin after it is fully reassembled.

In steps 4-5, notice the little plastic wing that is pushed out of the way by the hinge pin in step 4. It will spring back into position to fill the gap behind the flexible arm of the hinge pin. If you want to remove the handle again, you will need to push that little wing out of the way so you can again compress the arm on that hinge pin...