The International Cessna 170 Association

Bruce, using the search feature I found your post of April 22, 2017. I am looking for one or two replacement door handles for my 172 and the one you pictured in your post is what I need. (All of a sudden last week my interior door handle would not open the pilot door. If I pushed it in, it would work, but upon removing the handle I can see the outer most splines in the handle are worn out.) Guess after 52 yrs of use I can't complain----well I could, but it wouldn't do any good
Is the source you referred to, Dennis Carpenter Co, the best source for these replacement handles? These are pretty heavy, not some cheap ole knock off handles and I would like to get one or two like the originals. I will appreciate your reply and anyone else that might know of a source.

Frank, exact matches to the original handle, are not reproduced by anyone. One must find old Mercury handles from cars or of course another 170 or 172. However IF you are not necessarily looking to keep the same exact Mercury handle in your 172, you can order brand new different model Ford handles which will work perfectly. You can probably get 2 new handles for about what it will cost for an old Mercury handle. Reference all the car handles I documented that I personally looked at and compared to the Mercury handle to ensure they would work for our purpose. Dennis Carpenter is as good as any as Dennis Carpenter is likely the company having the handles reproduced in the first place.

My pilot side interior door handle was inop from the day I bought my airplane in 1982 until Mountain Airframe installed the later style latches during the rebuild, so I got in the habit of opening the window and reaching back to the exterior handle to open the door. That habit got so ingrained over 32 years that even though the interior handle now works perfectly, I still open the door with the exterior handle. I’ve tried using the interior handle, but it just feels awkward!