I reloaded my Aspen C3 at 3am today, and when I went to push the door handle downwards to close it, it wouldn't go. I worked it up and down as much as I could to try to get it to pop to the closed position but it wouldn't do it. Obviously I was trying to get the door shut ASAP on what was a fairly hot reload. I eventually got the handle to go down but I could feel something giving. It latched securely and I figured I'd deal with it later.
Turns out the giving I felt was the bending of the retention bracket holding the little ball/spring detent below the handle. Something must have seized up or gotten out of position so I was fighting the entire thing instead of just the little metal ball on the spring. I removed it when I got home today and the fire had burned down, and it appears to only be there to hold the handle in the up/open position so you don't just smash it into the striker when you close the door. The latch/handle is profiled underneath to ramp up and lock into place with the handle open, using that detent ball.
I removed the screw, retention bracket, and detent and the latch still holds and locks in like it did back when the detent was working. So, at least the profile of the door latch itself seems to have been designed well. I just have to be sure to lift up on the handle while closing the door so the latch reaches under the striker first. If this causes any other issues I will follow up, but hopefully this is helpful to someone else in the future if they encounter the same issue and have to address this while they are under fire.
Kind of a chintzy design so assuming it can be done without, it's nice to be able to remove it when it does cause problems.
Turns out the giving I felt was the bending of the retention bracket holding the little ball/spring detent below the handle. Something must have seized up or gotten out of position so I was fighting the entire thing instead of just the little metal ball on the spring. I removed it when I got home today and the fire had burned down, and it appears to only be there to hold the handle in the up/open position so you don't just smash it into the striker when you close the door. The latch/handle is profiled underneath to ramp up and lock into place with the handle open, using that detent ball.
I removed the screw, retention bracket, and detent and the latch still holds and locks in like it did back when the detent was working. So, at least the profile of the door latch itself seems to have been designed well. I just have to be sure to lift up on the handle while closing the door so the latch reaches under the striker first. If this causes any other issues I will follow up, but hopefully this is helpful to someone else in the future if they encounter the same issue and have to address this while they are under fire.
Kind of a chintzy design so assuming it can be done without, it's nice to be able to remove it when it does cause problems.
