Door Handle Problem (Solved)

Attachment 9223

The driver's side front inside door handle stopped working in my 2007 XC70. It happened when I pulled the handle to open the door from the inside. The handle became misaligned and would not return to its normal closed position. After removing the door panel, I could see that a pin that the door handle is supposed to hinge on had slipped out of one side of the door handle, causing the misalignment. I'm attaching two images to show the problem and the fix.
In the first image, you can see the pin (the bronze object pointed to by the middle arrow). The pin should also be visible where the bottom arrow is pointing, but instead, you may see where it has slipped upwards to be visible through the hole at the upper arrow. Note that the two upper holes were made by me, so you won't see them in your door.
Anyway, the solution was to drill the two holes near the upper arrow, and use a screwdriver, inserted through the holes, to push the pin back in place (the second image shows it in place). Probably one hole would have been sufficient, if placed properly.

I put the door back on the car and everything was fine for a while. However, the pin eventually worked its way out again. So, I repeated the above repair but this time, after the pin was in place, I used JB Weld to fix both ends of the pin and I stuck a wooden dowel through one of the holes as good measure to prevent movement of the pin. It's been working now for almost a year.

No, I don't know what those brass colored rings are called or whether there is a tool to remove/install them. I did initially try to get those off, but decided the better route would be to simply drill the holes and manage the repair without removing the rings. I just felt like there was more of a chance that I would break something, and have to order parts, if I continued trying to remove the rings and the panel.