sikwan
06 Tin Can
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.
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.
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