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The exterior door handles on my recently demised 240-DL wagon are not IMHO the work of Volvo's best engineers. Since I now have a 740, I thought I would share my rebuild tips with others before I move on to a newer model.
When I got my 240 Volvo, the handles were very cranky, so I got a handful of replacements at the pickapart, and rebuilt them to better than like-new condition. If the door handles on your 240 are inset and no longer flush with the surrounding frame, then the rubber tubing stop bumper has deteriorated and/or is gone. This makes the handle rattle and changes the handle-to-latch adjustment. Repeated use makes the handle worse as you have to pull harder to get it to open bending the stop pin and loosening up all the staked parts.
The rubber tubing used by Volvo as a stop bumper is a very unusual size that I was able to locate only at McMaster-Carr Supply Company. The original hose does not take well to repeated crushing and deteriorates quickly, but the rubber hose I got is very good in that respect, and it is exactly the right ID and OD for the job. I had to buy 25 feet to get the 3" I needed, so I have some left over. If anyone wants to rebuild their handles, I will send you some hose for $5 including shipping until I run out.
There are two styles of diecast handles. One style has sides all of one thickness and the other style has much much thinner side walls with full thickness only around the edges. (Were they trying to save weight?) I suspect that one style is early and the other is late. The best candidates for rebuild are the ones with the thicker sides, but if the sidewalls of the casting are not bent, this fix will work on them, too. The stop pin is staked into the side and is often bent and loose from years of pulling on it. On several handles I worked on, the diecast sidewall is bent. You can try to bend it back straight with a big crescent wrench, but it will usually fracture and break. The whole assembly is riveted and staked together so when the posts ans stops get loose, they egg out the casting and get real loose. If your casting is broken, get a new handle from the junkyard to rebuild.
If the stop post is just slightly loose, you can try penetrating locktite to lock it down. Because of the repeated wear and tear, re-staking or replacing the pin is a more secure and permanent fix.
A slightly loose pin may also be re-staked, but you must use a suitable anvil with a hole in it so the pressure goes to the pin collar or you will bend the pin and have to drill it out anyway as described below.
It the stop post has significantly egged out the hole in the casting, then I recommend that you carefully drill it out as follows:
Use a dremel tool with a cut-off abrasive wheel to carefully grind off the staked portion of the post flush with the casting. This will leave the post concave and make it very easy to drill out or depending on how loose it is in its hole you may be able to just push it out with a drift or punch.
Next run an 8-32 tap through the hole and replace the post with an 8-32 stainless steel button head capscrew locktited in place. I used a low-profile stainless steel nylock nut to secure the screw on the inside which beefs up the mechanical attachment of the screw to the casting, so it won't bend or get loose ever again. If you really get carried away opening your car door, you can bend the whole casting, but the screw and nut help to reinforce that, too.
Cut a small piece of the rubber tubing and push it over the threaded portion of the screw and you have a much more robust, tight stop post than the original factory one.
I strongly recommend that you run the tap through the empty hole on the other side of the handle, and add a second screw, locknut, and rubber bumper on that side. This gives the handle two stops instead of one, and you are much less likely to bend both of them in the future.
Re-stake the remaining rivets and stop pins as necessary to tighten them all up and/or add some low-viscosity locktite. Use caution here. The rivet or pin MUST be correctly supported so that the staking tool only expands the portion of the rivet that is supposed to be expanded. If you are not handy with this sort of thing, just use the locktite or you may be off to the pickapart again to find another handle to rebuild because you broke the potmetal casting.
Now, the handle can be re-installed in the door. Make sure you re-adjust the linkage from the handle to the latch so it has the specified clearance. The linkage should not be tight -- it needs to move a little before it makes contact with the latch mechanism. Often the linkage will be way off from mechanics compensating for a messed up handle with missing rubber stops.
With tight rivets, a straight and tight stop pin (or screw), a second stop screw added for additional strength and new rubber tubing bumpers on your handles, they will work smoother than you ever remember, and be ready for many more years of service.
I will hopefully get some pics soon which will be worth more than my 1000 words.
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