Rear Doors Don't contact lower striker plate

nevanco

Member
Hey yall, I recently purchased a 2005 158". It's low miles and mostly rust free, but its a little beat up. I've recently been scratching my head a lot about the rear doors.

I have searched all over these forums for this specific issue, and haven't seen it pop up anywhere. Please excuse me if I have missed a potential solution. I have gone through the alignment process for the doors and everything.

My issue is that the lower locking pin on the drivers side door does not extend through the metal receiving hole in the van body. My van originally did not come with the top or bottom plastic striker plates, which I did order before performing the alignment process. It looks as if the actual metal body plating which the lower plastic plate snaps on to has been abused to the point where it might be lower than it should be. As such, with the lower plastic piece installed, I can actually see a light gap under the lower plastic striker, and the striker pads on the bottom of each rear door don't contact the plastic (and can't be adjusted low enough to do so). The lower latching pin does extend through the plastic striker plate, but not in to the hole of the metal body, causing the plastic to be the only thing retaining the bottom locking pin.

The doors seem aligned for the most part, there is definitely no amount of alignment that would adjust them enough for the latching pin to go through this hole. The door would need to come like an inch down. They rattle like crazy, and dont take a good seal down load because of this problem. Also, the only thing holding the doors shut on the bottom is the plastic striker plate. I have already destroyed one lower striker plate with a nice firm kick of the door from the inside of the van.

Has anyone had similar problems and found good solutions? I'm not adverse to welding or fabricating something up, I was just looking for some direction before doing more harm than good.


Thanks everyone!
 

autostaretx

Erratic Member
The only help i can offer is a measurement on my 118" short roof, the distance between the plastic plates at the edge of the locking pin holes is almost exactly 60 and 3/4 inches (60.75)
(i used a 6-foot straightedge ruler)

You could compare that to yours.

I'd also measure the side-to-side and the diagonal distance between the hinges to verify that the frame is square.

--dick
 

SkyGypsy

Member
I’m fairly certain my doors do the same thing. I can’t check right now but I do recall seeing this when I replaced the plastic strikes
 
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billintomahawk

Guest
Aren't you missing the door sill?

bill in tomahawk
 

Nautamaran

2004 140” HRC 2500 (Crewed)
(there are no dumb questions...)
Do the door pins extend properly when the left door’s latch handle is rotated?
My lower pin retracts to be about even with the stainless skid plate, and then extends into the metal frame. The wedge on the pin slides over the plastic insert and drops about 3/8” into the whole in the plastic.

-dave
 

nevanco

Member
Aren't you missing the door sill?

bill in tomahawk
The door sill is removed in these pictures, as it has been destroyed. What I'm wondering is if the lower pin is supposed to extend in to the metal body paneling. With the sill installed, the pin only extends in to the plastic piece, which causes the vibrations of the vehicle to eventually destroy that piece. Also, the striker plates on the bottom of the doors, which are supposed to press firmly against the sill when closed, do not contact the sill. I can post pictures with the sill in place, once i replace the sill which has been vibrated to death.


(there are no dumb questions...)
Do the door pins extend properly when the left door’s latch handle is rotated?
My lower pin retracts to be about even with the stainless skid plate, and then extends into the metal frame. The wedge on the pin slides over the plastic insert and drops about 3/8” into the whole in the plastic.

-dave
Would you say that the lower pin extends through the entire thickness of the plastic in to the metal hole under it? Or is it retained purely by the plastic itself. I would say that with the sill installed, my lower pin retracts about the same as yours.

If that is the case, there must be another reason that my doors are destroying plastic pieces... :crazy:
 
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billintomahawk

Guest
Nevanco,
You are picking a pimple but I love it.

These frikkin doors are a frikkin nightmare. IMHO no one knows what to do with them.
The replacement sill and the weatherstripping are expensive from MB and won't solve the problem without getting the doors to fit.

The instructions to adjust the doors are like reading tea leaves and munching fortune cookies.

Soldier on brothers...take one for the team.

I'll show you my door sill if you show me yours?

bill



 

nevanco

Member
Bill,

Thanks for the pictures. I think one of the best ways to answer my woes is to just know what its SUPPOSED to look like! You made me realize something else as well. When i bought the van, it didn't have either the top or bottom plastic striker plates. So I hopped on ebay and bought them! Within a couple days they had been reduced to dust, so i bought some more from another supplier on ebay! Those have since suffered a painful death. I'm going to guess anything other than Mercedes is inferior plastic and I should give my dealer a call..
 

Nautamaran

2004 140” HRC 2500 (Crewed)
Bill,

Thanks for the pictures. I think one of the best ways to answer my woes is to just know what its SUPPOSED to look like! You made me realize something else as well. When i bought the van, it didn't have either the top or bottom plastic striker plates. So I hopped on ebay and bought them! Within a couple days they had been reduced to dust, so i bought some more from another supplier on ebay! Those have since suffered a painful death. I'm going to guess anything other than Mercedes is inferior plastic and I should give my dealer a call..
My van came with a top plate that was missing the plastic tube that holds the door's latch pin snug. Top plate was about $20 at the Dodge dealer, plus a bag of the plastic pegs that secure the plate. Money well spent, I think? It helped solve the squeaky-creaky noises... the other half was getting the top pins properly adjusted to lightly compress the door in the frame.

My bottom plate is cracked and chipped, but still has the pin hole for the driver's side door, and the skid plates for both, so with the new top plate and pins adjusted my doors both wedge snugly into the frame. IIRC, the dealer wanted $175 for the bottom plate. Too dear for my Scottish blood!

If your door is destroying the plastic plates, you may have the top pins extended too far, which would make the door too tall so you'd need to slam it hard to get it to latch, and the plastic wouldn't last very long. Or the cheap ones aren't glass filled...

-dave
 

ClyneSnowtail

Active member
I was gonna cut a piece of flat aluminium, drill a hole where the striker is supposed to go in and just ram some long screws through the plastic, into the steel and call it good.
 
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billintomahawk

Guest
That's my kind of plan. Sheet steel might be better?

bill
 
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Nautamaran

2004 140” HRC 2500 (Crewed)
Dave,
What the heck is that?

bill
There is a square hole in the plastic top plate that the driver-side door pin extends up into.
That hole is actually a square plastic tube that extends up into a larger hole in the metal roof frame. On mine, the square plastic tube had snapped off, leaving just the larger metal hole - which is about 3/32" over on each side? So my door rattled and creaked badly, didn't close tightly, the rubber seals leaked, etc. etc. Because the driver-side door was loose, the passenger-side door also moved, adding to the creaking and wearing the center latch pin.

I can't stand listening to vehicle creaks, so on the annoyance elimination scale that $20 dealer part was likely the best value I've had to date?

-dave
 

nevanco

Member
So this was my temporary solution. I just secured a 3/4" pine board down with a notch milled in it for the striker pin. With the door closed, the notch is placed so the pin contacts it snugly and pulls the door closed further. The majority of vibrations are gone, I intend to do something similar on the top, or buy a new top plastic piece.

See attached
 

Attachments

Zundfolge

Always learning...
That's really top notch work

Edit: I've been thinking about modifying my rear door strikes too, and my plan is to use UHMW polyethylene. If you're not familiar with it, it's a wonderfully versatile high abrasion resistant, impact resistant type of plastic that slides smooth as butter. If that pine ever wears down that is...

UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) Sheet, Opaque White, Standard Tolerance, ASTM D4020, 1/2" Thickness, 12" Width, 12" Length https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ILJZF2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_FngKCbNAZQBT1
 
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billintomahawk

Guest
Spent some more quality time on mine the last two afternoons playing with the adjustment screws on the hinges and the latch striker attempting to get a tighter fit where the doors meet at the top and bottom and I accomplished...nothing. The doors latch nicely, the hinges are lubed but the gaps top and bottom persist no matter what I tried.

The doors don't rattle which is a big plus and they don't leak water. They are tight in the center.

The next step is an oak tree, a porta-power, a saws-all, 40 feet of chain and rope, a ratchet strap, a come along and a hi-jack plus two 4''X4"X8' posts and a bad attitude.

Like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVRPz6-Tkww

bill
 
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