Citroen DS window cranks

You would think that mounting the DS window cranks would not be worthy of a full post, but there was more to it than I thought!  My car had the wrong window cranks installed prior to the crash.   From my research they were from a DS model produced between 1962-1964.    This was an opportunity to fit the correct units while I was purchasing parts.

Something as simple as this turned into a much more involved project.   Firstly the window cranks I purchased were not much good to me.     They did not come with all the parts I needed to mount them.   No black plastic surrounds, no springs and the little metal pins for the old style cranks were much too short.   I ended up getting all those parts (with two attempts for the right size pins) and was ready to go.

When I was doing this job it wasn’t clear where the springs go.   My first assumption was that they go under the black plastic ‘cups’.   It was clear they did not fit properly there.   It was also clear that they were necessary, the window crank felt very ‘floppy’ without them.   People familiar with this job will already see my error – they go under the door cards.

The parts manual doesn’t make this easy as the diagram does not show the door card at all.   There is a separate diagram for the window winder mechanism (which includes the cranks) and another diagram for the interior (which includes the door cards).

My next move was to partially remove all four door cards and fit the springs.   I find the design rather odd as it pushes the whole card out instead of just the window winder.   Its possible I am wrong in how I have done this but I found a few references to it being this way.

Without the springs, fitting the cranks was a cinch.   With them, I found the easiest way was to push the handle in with my knee and use a small ratchet extension to get the pin started and a drill bit to push it home.   Once I was clear how to do it, I had all four doors done in about 40 minutes.

The picture above shows the almost finished product.   This is actually the drivers door before I removed the door card and fitted the spring.   The crank is now more snug on the door.  I’m happy with the results, I find the late DS window cranks more stylish than the early ones.