Sliding door adjustment

After trying unsuccessfully several times I finally found a method for adjusting the sliding door. The problem I was having was the sheet metal above the latch on the rear part of the door was dragging/scraping on the bolt/rod that the latch itself grabs onto. In other words the rear of the door was sagging. There is a very funky adjustment for the bogey ( the little cluster of wheels ) that supports the rear part of the door. The adjustment consists of a #47 Torx bolt and a conical washer. What worked for me was to:

1) Close the sliding door most of the way but not latch it closed.

2) Hook up a ratcheting tie down strap with one end hooked someplace above the door and the other end hooked to the sheet metal of the door itself. I pulled one corner ( upper right hand ) of the panel away from the door sheet metal and found a place behind there. Then cranked down on the ratchet as hard as I could to lift/support the door.

3) Loosen the #47 Torx bolt almost as far as it will go and crank down on the ratchet some more - the goal is to lift the door up and support it with the tie down strap.

4) Wiggle the #47 Torx bolt and the bogey until it settles into what feels like a natural and unrestricted position - subjective I know, but it did seem to settle into a comfortable configuration without much second guessing...

5) Tighten the #47 Torx bolt gradually while confirming the bogey alignment remains in a 'comfortable' position of alignment. Again, for me this seemed to proceed without a whole lot of second guessing.

Reviving an old thread here, but this sounds a bit different than just jacking up the sliding door and adjusting the rear roller. A couple of questions for you fine folks.

1) The conical washer, should the 'gap' run horizontally or vertically? Both seem to make sense, but it seems like the lip on the forward part of the roller assembly would fit into the groove and control forward and aft setting. Thus, if the washer ran vertically you could (in theory) use that to adjust height. However, in practice, no matter how high you jack the door it still likes to settle. Also, no matter how high you want to adjust the rear roller, the LIMFAC is the bottom wheel of the roller in the track and its contact with the rail.

2) The rear roller assembly appears to have an additional fitting once inside the door panel. Like there are two little recesses (built into the door) for the vertical brace to rest into. However, it seems that the vertical brace/pivot point of the roller assembly is just a touch too big to seat into this recess. Is that the intent of the design? To have one cussing profusely? hah

3) I hate the adjustments on this door. Eight places to make adjustments.. For the yet uninitiated, those would be:

a) Rear roller, horizontal and vertical
b) Bottom roller, height (bolted to door) and depth
c) Top roller, height (bolted to door) and depth
d) Two wedges and wedge receivers... all to make that glorious .254 inch clearance and 1mm flushness. Oh, and the striker bar, so make that 9!

I went OEM after a latch busted and decided the time was right to just replace all the hardware. Man, I'm kicking myself now! But, it's down to the fine tuning because I can get it to close to the first detent with ease. It's that second final 'shut' that is racking my brain. Any other tips on getting this thing square and happy? It feels like if I make one adjustment, it affects all the other variables. I've better luck hitting the fantasy 5 lottery with those probabilities. I have scoured this and the T1N forum. Multiple points of advice, the DIY UK page with the actual manual (it's about enough guidance to let you royally get pissed.. but hey, at least it has the torque settings), it's a game of 32nds, and buy OEM!

Good info on this from HK, Mr. T, OMV, Nautamaran, Grozier and the likes.

This just shouldn't be this perplexing... Can I get an Amen!?!

Some interesting tips I have used and a few others:

1) Imagine the top roller and the bottom roller to be one and the same as far as the track and door travel path.
2) You do NOT need to remove the step to replace the lower arm. However, you will need to remove the five bolts and lift up juuuust enough to slide the lower roller out and the new one in. Copious amount of compressed air helps clean out the area, but filthafitizes the inside of the cab.
3) I used two bottle jacks for the job. One for the rear and one for the front. If I made an adjustment, I wanted to ensure the door could 'pivot' unimpeded. Meaning, if I raised or lowered the front, I made sure the rear was loose too so it could rotate about the axis. The top roller carries the brunt of the weight IMHO, and should be a factor in the rear adjustments... to a point.
4) I have not tried the rotating the conical washer outward as suggested in some posts, seems counter-intuitive but I'll try anything at this point.

Stay thirsty whilst doing this job! Oh, and this was the best explanation that got me to a reasonable point of sanity: https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2781&page=3

No experience adjusting door but found this video. Tried to use Google translater.

https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showpost.php?p=791145&postcount=1

I gave up and had the Freightliner body shop do it. Slides fine, but a bit loose and it rattles on bumps.

MrTomacco said:

I gave up and had the Freightliner body shop do it. Slides fine, but a bit loose and it rattles on bumps.

Click to expand...

I still haven't intersected Marginal cost vs. Marginal Pride on this one. I hear ya tho...

I horsed around with our door for months , including replacing the rear roller with a non OEM part which turned out to be total junk. in the end I shimed out the latch strike 1/4'' and using wood blocks and shims raised the back of the door up extra high to allow for sagging I removed the star bolt holding the roller and removed some metal along bottom of slot so I could raise the door up . then putting the roller back in I positioned the slotted washer at an angle to raise the door. also look at how the other doors strike lines up with the latch assembly and adjust the strike for the sliding door accordingly

tarpondale said:

I horsed around with our door for months , including replacing the rear roller with a non OEM part which turned out to be total junk. in the end I shimed out the latch strike 1/4'' and using wood blocks and shims raised the back of the door up extra high to allow for sagging I removed the star bolt holding the roller and removed some metal along bottom of slot so I could raise the door up . then putting the roller back in I positioned the slotted washer at an angle to raise the door. also look at how the other doors strike lines up with the latch assembly and adjust the strike for the sliding door accordingly

Click to expand...

Interesting technique, I'll try that. Definitely pot committed when removing metal, but I'll see if that's something that would make sense on my van. Good point on looking at the other doors, it seems like the striker is a touch higher on the both driver and pax.

Perhaps already said somewhere, but be sure the door opening is straight and planar. On our van, a leak at the top was the result of a doorframe that was ever-so-slightly out of true. I pulled off the weatherstripping and used leather-wrapped vice grips to bring it back in line. Work slowly!

Ted

Mine rattles when shut. I thought I had a fix but I guess not. Anyone?

Great success, finally got that pig working smooth as butter. Not for the faint of heart! In addition to the diatribe of questions above, I finally worked it into place. A quick note for adjusting the door for those who have to face it:

1) Use two jacks when adjusting, one fore and aft
2) When you adjust one, it will affect all the others (at least as a shade tree mechanic perspective)
3) Buy OEM... just skip amazon
4) When adjusting the rear roller, don't wait until the door is closed to do it. Adjust it when open, right about the point it aligns along the rear guide rail. Do not adjust it when it is anywhere on the curve. YMMV, but this was key for me in getting it correct
5) You don't need to remove the bottom step to get the bottom roller out, but you do need to take the bolts out and lift ever so slightly
6) When you get close, to where you can shut it on it's own, but it is not perfect, it's time to really dial in the front wedges and the the top roller. Once the rear roller is set, leave that thing alone!


Vanzer: For the rattles, I had them too when I first started and the plastic covering was off for access. When I put it all back together, I re-taped all the running wires inside the door. they made just enough rattle to be annoying. If its loud noises from the door itself, the wedges may not be seating the door enough, or, the striker needs to be a touch closer towards the inside to move the entire door further into compression. I'm no pro, but I made about 100 adjustments to this thing... and I stayed in a holiday inn last night so take it with a grain of salt.

Reading these is causing flashbacks! I remember spending what seemed like WAY too much time before on this project. 'Bout the only thing I took away was "the enemy of good is better"!