Front Door Adjustment

As luck will have it, during one of our cross country travels I had to stop on the side of the road within a construction zone so that one of my sons could take a leak!

It was a spur of the moment with no time to think, much less react, so I had to stop the van, jump out of the driver's seat, run around to the side door, and help my son out.

The side of the van was maybe 5 feet from the oncoming vehicles on the right lane. In a construction zone, there weren't many (safe) areas to stop. The good thing is my son made it. The unfortunate thing is my door didn't, like in this thread...

https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5348

I knew about this, yet the draft from the moving vehicles was so strong it whipped the door handle out of my hand. I had enough grip to prevent it from opening hard, but not enough to stop this from happening...

You can barely see from the bottom door hinge how the outer skin flares out. Not real noticeable if you're not looking, but...

...it was enough to cause the door latch to sag.


The sag caused some rubbing and a very noticeable "clunk" when closing the door.

To alleviate this, I would pull up on the door handle before closing the door. After a year of this, I finally got tired.
With a floor jack and some wood to support the weight of the door...

...I used a T45 torx socket to loosen the door hinges.

After loosening 1, 2, 3, and 4, and some trial and error adjustments, I finally figured out to...


1. Adjust the jack to the right height; +/-
2. Use only bolts 1 and 4 (snug tight) during the adjustment process.
3. Once I found the correct door placement, tighten up all the bolts.

Latch finally adjusted correctly.


Of course, no job of mine is perfect without some damage.

I'll touch up the paint that rubbed off during the adjustment.

Now, my door closes with the right T1N door "clang!"

thats a lovely colour"color" seek i also like the little red handsvery nice.

Adjusting the passenger door was the very first thing I did when I got my van home. It never occurred to me to write it up because I take it for granted (years of owning and doing bodywork on vintage cars). Good job!

Now if someone could figure out a way to "damp" the T1N doors swing (outward travel only), that would be a wonderful thing!

maxextz said:

thats a lovely colour"color" seek i also like the little red handsvery nice.

Click to expand...

I was at another computer and it didn't have the arrows that I'm use to using. Thanks Max.

hulagun said:

Now if someone could figure out a way to "damp" the T1N doors swing (outward travel only), that would be a wonderful thing!

Click to expand...

I wonder if one of these foam tubes can be slipped over the door stop behind the door panel ...

...just enough to do the job.

I'm not a licensed plumber, but in Seattle, homeowners are allowed to drill holes in their own walls, cut out galvanized pipe, cut new copper pipe and put it in the walls, sand, flux and solder joints with the same tools licensed plumbers use.... and we can do it w/o a permit or an inspection.



Sometimes I wrap pipe with split insulation that might hug a door and compress harmlessly against fragile paint.

.... not that I'd be smart enough to use residential pipe insulation for anything automotive.



-Jon

Second try doing this. Door now clicks closed with light push or tug. A before after pic, note the door is open further in the lh before pic. To reiterate the two "silver" bolts at the top hinge are for the mirror not the door?



Anyone ever try an R&R of the hinge pins?

So you adjusted the lock not the door centering? I was wondering how to hold the whole door, and feared it closing and NEVER opening again.

-Randy

Just like the OP I used boards and a jack to support the door, loosened the hinge bolts, added a bit of lift to the jack so the bolts were at the limits of the holes in the door and retightened. The latch then closed easily, but later that evening in 0 degree temps the latch wasn't catching again. I then noticed the inner handle was not returning COMPLETELY to the recessed position. I pushed the handle in that last 1/2" and the latch again clicked shut. This was repeatable, if the handle doesn't return completely the latch doesn't "catch". An R&R of the interior door trim and lube of the internal door lock mechanisms is next up.

My door handle is hard to pull open on the drivers door. As a result the retainer clip on the control cable that connects the inner door handle to the cable broke. Does anyone know where I can get one - part number?
I will be doing this door adjustment.
Thanks

Did the R&R found a broken chunk of plastic from the mechanism wedged in the pin receiver at the back of the door. Removed the broken chunk the latch works fine yet. I also dropped the pin on the B pillar a bit and the door closes easy every time for 2 months now. No more slamming or other shenanigans.

Before and after the pin adjustment.



Second pic is the broken off chunk that had been wedged in the slot.

When I had the door apart I found the rivet that pins the bottom rear window channel in place was rotted off, that window had been slow for quite a while, a fat sheet metal screw seems to be working fine as a replacement.

I also bought a (rear, middle) sliding door roller assembly from Germany off ebay looks to be a quality part. About 3 weeks for delivery But I had repaired the busted (roller) bearing with a metal sleeve and some grease and it works so well I haven't swapped in the replacement yet

I had to remove the Pass door from the hinge for reasons I shall add here later, but I found that the top hinge bolt holes had almost no movement because the 2 panels that had been spot welded together to make the strength for the hinge mount did not have holes that lined up. I had to drill them out to get a 10mm hole to adjust the door. Others may be able to detect the same issue. The hinge bolts had virtually threaded the door panel to get to the hinge plate, so there was no adjustment possible.
Due to excessive stiffness in the hinge pin the door panel had deformed so that both setscrews that hold the hinge pins were coming in contact with the door part of the hinge (the head was mauled by the hinge). This was also causing additional flexing of the door panel leading to splitting of the door panels at the leading edge at the lower hinge similar to some pics on here. My drivers door had the hinge pin setscrew removed for possibly the same reason & I had to re-thread the hinge to install a replacement setscrew. Instead of 24$ for a fine thread Metric tap I bought a 1" hardened Allen head tool bolt & cut tap style slots in its end & screwed it in, worked a treat.
I also shortened the setscrews to prevent a repeat of the bindup of the head. I consider there is a design problem in that the setscrew is too long & the friction bush on the pin is designed to be too tight. I suspect many hinges are turning at the bottom steel on steel instead of at the top. Despite the fact that it is a polly bush I decided to lubricate them with DW40 to reduce the torsion forces.
John

Photos of the hinges referred to above.
Top hinge shows mauled setscrew & shift in the hinge bolts after drilling the holes out to 10MM. Bottom hinge shows head cut off the setscrew.

My passenger door lower hinge completely broke out the 2 ply door panel it was attached to. The probable cause was several door wide open events & multiple flexing of the panel because of very stiff hinge bushes. The vehicle had been a wide/oversize escort vehicle & I expect the jockey/passenger had got in & out so many times to direct the driver, his actions had fatigued the door panel to break out. My problem was how to fix without having to buy a replacement door. I could not envisage welding 2 ply panel in such an awkward location & without burning the skin so I decided to give a replacement back plate a go.

I measured the amount of room to be able to slide in a wide-as-possible length of steel thick enough to tap for the hinge to remount. I used a piece of 1" wide 6mm steel X 21cm (8 1/4") long.
I then cut an access slot at the bottom of the flat section of the hinge mount & prized open enough width by knocking out & inwards the inside door 2ply panel. See Photo attached.
The bottom 30mm being the hardest as the thicker inner panel bracing cuts diagonally across the slot & is too hard to deform enough without damaging the outer skin of the door.
I cut 30% width off 30mm of the plate bottom outer edge to bypass the inner bracing. While trying to fit the plate I dropped it into the door & I then had to recover it from the door bottom. Thus I found that the fitting can be done from the inside with the door panel removed & the window up. There may not be a need to cut a hole to get it in as I did?

I mapped the hinge holes to the plate & drilled & tapped the plate. The hinge was then bolted to the plate with washers to hold on to the remaining door inner panel (the door was also supported). Having previously marked the door where I considered was the best places to drill & tap 6mm bolt positions I pilot drilled the panel & plate in place. Then I removed the plate & finished the drilling & tapping, also drilling out the Panel holes to take the 6mm bolts that would hold the steel rigidly in place. 5 off 6mm X20mm Allen head bolts with 1" solid washers were used. The inserted steel was cold galled & the assembled hinge sprayed to coat the new bolts & washers. The result is good door again at little cost.

2 Photos attached. One is the finished result showing the bolt pattern, the other a view from below where I cut the slot & straightened the inner panel to take the steel insert (may not be necessary if working from inside the door panel). FYI
John

Rexabbot,
Did you get a new retainer clip on the control cable? Did anyone give you a response? I need the exact same part. Let me know where you found one if you did. Thanks

This thread is very helpfull. My 05 T1N has saggy front doors that I've been meaning to fix. Has any one lubed the hinges to ensure a smoother swing? If so what do you use?

bandontherun said:

... If so what do you use?

Click to expand...

I just periodically lightly apply motor oil with a squirt can. I like that it penetrates well. Sometimes I need to wipe up excess. Has worked on my vans and vehicles since the 1960's. I also always lube the back check straps.

Some recommend lithium grease or other fancier methods.

vic