Posted by: Rus Curtis
« on: March 22, 2021, 11:24:45 PM »Spacecrab,
I've seen both; with and without that Retracting Spring Link. I had nothing so I ordered it all. I don't believe the spring (with or without the link) is that critical - it just needs to pull the Operating Lever back to where the shoes aren't engaged when you push the cane handle in. If you had a stretched spring, you could stretch it to the clevis so that it has a little tension (use your fingers to guage what it needs to pull the Operating Lever back to disengage) then clip it with wire clippers, bend that end of the coil 90* forming a hook so you can attach it and call it a day. Moving the lever forward and backward will show you how much travel the spring needs.
On a side note, I thought about going to the local big box home improvement store (they have a lot of springs) to just get one of those (even though I didn't know how tight it was supposed to be) but since I was placing an order already for a bunch of other parts, I just added all that in with it.
I've seen both; with and without that Retracting Spring Link. I had nothing so I ordered it all. I don't believe the spring (with or without the link) is that critical - it just needs to pull the Operating Lever back to where the shoes aren't engaged when you push the cane handle in. If you had a stretched spring, you could stretch it to the clevis so that it has a little tension (use your fingers to guage what it needs to pull the Operating Lever back to disengage) then clip it with wire clippers, bend that end of the coil 90* forming a hook so you can attach it and call it a day. Moving the lever forward and backward will show you how much travel the spring needs.
On a side note, I thought about going to the local big box home improvement store (they have a lot of springs) to just get one of those (even though I didn't know how tight it was supposed to be) but since I was placing an order already for a bunch of other parts, I just added all that in with it.