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!
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!