I did a search and couldn’t come up with anything specific to installing the ash tray spring. Before I snap mine in two, maybe someone can tell me how I’m configuring this wrong.

When I pulled the ashtray, the spring snapped off. I didn’t have a chance to take a pic of the setup. Now I’m trying to get it back together, and nothing I’ve tried results in a closing ashtray door. Here is a pic of how the spring is currently attached. I thought that the spring was actually unwound partially to create tension to snap the door closed, but I’m not able to get that to happen. Now it’s just loosely connected as I try and figure this out. Can anyone explain this install?

EDIT - Got it figured out. The spring in the pic below is bending the wrong direction. I tightened the coil of the spring until it went towards the back when the door was closing, and everything works fine.



As a future reference, here is a pic sent by a friend who helped me figure this out. You can see how the coil is behind and pivots upward and backward when the door is closed. I got mine in without it seating properly, and pushing the ash tray closed bent it to where it wouldn’t function correctly.



I found that for the best results in reinstalling, you should attach the bottom three hex screws on the hinge loosely, letting the door hang down. This gives you plenty of room to set them in place. Then raise the ash tray, twisting it slightly to set the left side stop back behind the dash (never remove the left stop). While doing this, pull the spring attaching clip onto the center point of the ash tray with your finger, then attach the set screw. Now tighten the three lower hex head screws on the hinge, leveling the ash tray by eye. Once tight, install the right side stop and screw. I then found that it was easiest to use a forked end plastic panel removing tool to push the spring back, closing the ash tray and setting the spring in the right position. In hindsight it was about 10 minutes work. With the spring confusion, it took hours lol. It’s not difficult, but I sure made it that way!