How-To: Removing "Spring Type" Nissan Grab Handles

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VStar650CL
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2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

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Many late model Nissans and Infinitis no longer use screws for the "oh s#%t" handles in the headliner, instead using handles held in with spring clips. These can be a genuine Chinese puzzle if you don't know how they work. To remove them you'll need three tools, a small hook, a small slot screwdriver or prybar, and a needlenose pliers (preferably with a good, sharp nose).

This is what you'll see when you pull the handle down. The little tab at the top center is the pawl that releases the plastic retainer from the body of the hinge:
20220506_094835.jpg
To remove the retainers, use the hook tool to pull the tab towards you (red) while simultaneously prying upward at the seam between the retainer and the hinge body (green). The whole retainer will slide upward and out:
20220506_095045.jpg
Once loose, you'll see the spring that holds the whole thing together:
20220506_095142.jpg
After removing both retainers, the handle will slide off the springs:
20220506_095236.jpg
The springs are held into the rectangular holes in the sheet metal by a pair of pawls top and bottom. Butt the nose of the pliers up to the sheet metal and grab these pawls, not the big metal tongues. Grabbing the tongues will probably allow the spring to fall back through the hole and behind the headliner, making your life very complicated! The second pic shows a spring grabbed properly with the plier tips:
20220506_095353.jpg
20220506_095437_001.jpg
Once the springs are removed, reassemble the entire handle, springs and retainers. This is how they come at the factory, as an assembly that the workers simply snap into place. First, reinstall the springs, making sure the little oval locator is through the oval hole in the back of the spring:
20220506_095631_001.jpg
Then reinstall the retainers by pushing them down (red) through both rectangular holes in the spring (green) until they snap into place:
20220506_095746.jpg
The assembly should look like this, and will simply snap back into the holes when the rest of your job is finished:
20220506_095828.jpg

Hope this helps you, and happy motoring!


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PapaSmurf2k3
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I haven't had to mess with these yet, but I'm sure the day will come.
Hard to believe all of that is cheaper than a screw...

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VStar650CL
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2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

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PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Tue May 17, 2022 4:06 pm
Hard to believe all of that is cheaper than a screw...
Labor is the biggest component of almost anything built domestically, and screws have the added liability of some pinhead cross-threading one and disrupting the whole production line. Those babies just snap in and are pretty much pinhead proof. I can see why any OE might like them and use them.

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nissangirl74
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VStar650CL wrote:
Tue May 17, 2022 4:24 pm
screws have the added liability of some pinhead cross-threading one and disrupting the whole production line.
As someone who has worked on assembly lines next to said pinheads, you are 100% correct.

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PapaSmurf2k3
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They always say - "design a pinhead proof method, they'll design a better pinhead".

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VStar650CL
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Even Darwin recognized that idiot-proofing is futile. You simply compel Nature to produce increasingly superior idiots.

For good or ill, evolution works. :lolling:


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