The International Cessna 170 Association

Springs that hold the baggage door latch in the closed position broke. Likely original springs from Cessna. Door operates normal, latches just fine. Looked at the whole setup and I cannot figure out a way to replace those springs without drilling a bunch of rivets and splitting the inner and outter door panels. If that's the case, fine. But if there's a way to get in there and replace the springs I'd like to know. Thanks everyone!

This is another instance of a customized installation without documentation. Baggage doors were not installed in Cessna 170 aircraft except as “aftermarket” or “custom” modifications. The best were usually accomplished in accordance with STC or other approval.

The actual baggage door might be original to a 172/175/182/185 or other and so variations in the latching mechanisms exist unique to the “donor aircraft”.

Historically the baggage door was created by Cessna for the 175 “Skylark” in order to provide access to the aft-mounted main battery which had been moved from the 172 installation at the firewall to a location behind the baggage compartment bulkhead. (In fact, the baggage door we installed in my B-model came from an original 172 in the ASOD salvage-yard…but the data-plate inside the door structure identifies it as a C-175 item… implicating the original source-design.)

You may have to create an inspection hole on the inside -facing structure to access the area. Removing any upholstery may show an existing “lightening hole” in some doors.

Pics might help.

No access hole. No upholstery. I’ll dig some more but might be outta luck. Thanks.

Nathaniel,
Cessna used several different styles of latches on baggage doors. Here's what mine looks like:To get access to replace the mousetrap spring one would have to unrivet the door skin from the inside frame. To avoid all that work one option might be to use tension springs as described here.

Thanks for the link I’ll check it out.