Older VW Interior Door Handles

I bought an older set of interior VW door handles that are in reasonable condition so as to get a little beefier feel, originals are kinda wimpy. Last week I finally got around to trying to replace these with the original handles on my Beck. Not the best fit so far. The splines are not meshing well and won't allow the handles to slip far enough in for the pin to reach the slot on the door splined post.
Anyone else ever tried this change out? My suspicions are some corrosion on the older handles' splines. I haven't tried any hard core pounding and am reluctant to do so thinking I'd either break something or they'll never come off again. I'm thinking maybe a little WD-40 or PB BLASTER soaking might "soften up" the slots within the spline, I had tried a little teflon spray to no avail last week.

I have used these older VW handles many times and have not had one that didn't slip right on, so I am not sure what the exact issue is, and the early to late splines should be identical, except fot the depth... The issue I do run into is that the splines seem deeper on the older handles and you have to thin the buffer in order to reach the splines. One thing that we are doing differently is that rather than the pin to hold them on, I am drilling the holes in the handle and tapping them to 4mm and using a 20mm long 4mmm Alan set screw to attach the handle. Tightens it up like never before and they will stay in place. If you have the solid door buffers (not the hollow kind) then you have to drill an access hole through the buffer on the bottom side in order to run the set screw in, but you'll never see it and it is a MUCH nicer way to attach the handles...
If you need pics or better instructions drop me an e-mail and I'll send them across.

Thanks Carey, I'll add that to future speedsters I do. ~Alan

I recently did the same swap for my Beck. The original old style VW handles are tapered slightly at the splines,and the Beck door splines are long and do not taper. I used a small (approx 1/4" diameter) drum sanding bit on my Dremel and simply grinded away the tapered part near the bottom of the splines on the handle i.d. and I lightly sanded until they were able to slide on all the way and the pin fits in to lock it. It takes a little time and patience but it is WELL worth it,they handles no longer wobble on the door and the original VW handles are of much higher quality than the repros. Mine were from a vintage 50's era VW bug.

Thanks, Tom, this sounds like the solution to my problem.

Take your time and try to only grind the bottom of the splines,so yo do not lose the upper spline material.

Is there any reason, other than a mess, that you couldn't do this in the opposite way and grind down the posts on the door? It seems like you'd have a better view of what you're deleting.

I figure it is better to "mess up" a door handle (just incase you grind it too much)than to mess up the door latch mechanism!

Good answer.

I did this on Suzuki regulors with a dremel. Its a pain to do but it can be done.

I used them on the D