How to fix washing machine door handle

Question

A door handle on my Bosch washing machine is broken and I am trying to replace it. I have bought a replacement handle, but swapping the two is not as easy as I hoped it would be.

It consists of 2 parts, small one (part A) that goes through the hole in the door frame and the handle itself. I am able to fit it with the broken handle, because the part of the handle that the metal pin goes into is broken therefore I am able to move it enough to put the small part though the square plastic bit in it. Top metal pin I don't have, and I hope handle would still be functional without it.

What I tried to do with the new handle is:

1. put the bottom metal pin into the handle (pin slides out of the frame easily)
2. put the small plastic hook into the door frame (part A)
3. put the handle (with the pin) into the frame
4. connect the small part (A) with the handle (put the back hook into the handle)

Part A

Frame with the pin in, with no part A nor handle

Part A in the frame, marked spot is what goes into the handle hole

Part A in the handle, you can see where the handle is broken at the bottom so the pin does not stay in place

Is the 1 - 4 method above correct?

Do I maybe need to take the whole door frame apart to fix the handle?

Answer 1

I am suspicious your fix will not work unless you fix this (arrow).

Your handle is meant to have a top and bottom pin. Those transmit the pull forces equally to the top and bottom of the door. Your top pin is gone and the plastic there has cracked.

If you have the handle with only the bottom pin it will pull asymmetrically and pull the top forward. It will not stay. If you substitute some sort of top pin (a bolt with a nut would probably work) the problem is that the plastic of the frame is cracked and the bolt will pull loose or worsen the crack with use of the handle.

Fixing cracked structural plastic is not easy. You cannot just glue it together because the forces on that area will (again) crack thru the joint. You would need to reinforce it with some overlay. Before I embarked on that I might see if there were a dead washing machine of the same make at the washing machine junkyard, and take the whole door off of that. You might be able to fix the cracked plastic with a layer of epoxy over fiberglass mesh to reinforce over the crack but you need to make sure that the fix does not bulk it up such that it cannot clear other things in its path when you close it.