[V8] Fresh Air Flap: 90 V8 Quattro

[Les Dane]

Even though I'm no mechanic, I followed the advice in the Archives and was able to remove the plug (thanks to Dave Conner) and while I was at it, removed the flap.  It was then quite easy to access things BUT to my surprise, the spring is in excellent shape, just disconnected.  My problem is: what do I connect it to?  It looks like there's a horizontally-ridged bar with a vertical groove in the centre (or maybe there was two bars - one left, one right).  The right-hand side was bent, and when I touched it, it broke off entirely.  So now I have a short post on the left.  Did the spring eat through the softer-metal bar?  Anyway I attached the spring to the left side - it caught on the ridges, and worked fine for a couple of days.  Then it slipped off.  Am I SOL or am I missing some simple thing that any knowledgeable person would think obvious?
(Les:)