How do I adjust my doors?

[jagee]

I have a real bad alignment on my passenger door. The back of the door lines up great but the front is sunk in past the fender almost half an inch.

I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to get it lined up but I was wondering if I needed to relieve the torsion bar because I think most of the adjustment has to be done on the front hinge. Does anybody have any tips on aligning the doors or relieving the torsion bar?

[mluder]

My doors do the same thing although not as severe and I have yet to be able to completely solve it.

Ruling out a misalignment of the surrounding panels, i.e. the doors are actuall fine and the rest of the panels are off, there can be a number of causes.
The simplest is an adjustment to the striker pin. I say simple but it can still be a trick because the door closes in an arc gushing alignment is a trial and error process. If you get it too far off the door can bind and get stuck. Stoker pin is as far as I've gone.

Next up is a hinge alignment. I have no advice here as I have not tried it.

Finally is a loose ceiling pan. This is a pan below the t panel which the hinges attach to. On DeLoreans it is simply glued in place. Over time the glue fails and the panel is floating. This allows the whole thing to move around with the motion of the door. You cam often hear and some times see it if you move the door around slightly in the open position. The fix is either remove the t panel and add mechanical fasteners through it into the frame. This also requires removing the headliner. I also have not tried this yet.

Having my doors not align is a constant nag to me. However I am going to leave it up to the pros at DMCNW if I can ever get around to making the trek. Right now I have engine issues that are more of a concern.

Good luck.

[dn010]

Start by adjusting the anchor pins, if that doesn't do it then you can try the hinges but, adjusting the door via hinge is a real PITA. You'll need to remove the torsion bar for this. Then, you adjust and re-adjust and re-adjust [hinges/door] until you have the proper setting. When I did mine, I emptied out the doors to make them lighter (removed all door-interior components) and then adjusted them, it took me hours of closing, opening, adjusting, closing, opening on and on. Be careful as poor adjustment will cause the door to rub on the weather stripping ultimately wearing them out.

[David T]

Unless you can determine for sure that one of the hinges was disturbed and not in it's original spot, you NEVER move the hinges. Adjust the panels and the anchor pins to get everything to line up as best as you can.
David Teitelbaum

[DeLorean]

the striker pins can "slip" if the door is closed too hard, I would agree with everyone here, check that first. You may find a very simply adjustment is all you need.

[jagee]

Is the door adjustable on the hinge? If so, can it be adjusted without loosening the torsion bar?

[Jonathan]

Both my doors have some clunky closing. The striker pin adjustment seems like more of an art form than a science (and trust me, I've tried the science angle and it didn't work worth a sh....) I figure if I ignore it long enough, one of those little magic Leprechauns will come into my garage in the middle of the night and make everything perfect for me by the morning. Failing that, it'll be up to the good DeLorean doctor over at Midwest when I send them my car one of these winters ;) Heads up Chewie!! LOL

[David T]

The clunking is usually because the anchor pin is sticking out too far and the top of the head is hitting the door. If there are any washers under the pin you can remove all but one skinny one. When you close the door slowly, if it moves forward or back as it hits the head of the anchor pin, the pin is sticking out too far. You can also file or grind the top of the pin if you have to. If the "scientific" method doesn't work you can try the "trial and error" method. It goes like this. You move the pin a little in one direction. Try the door. If it is better keep adjusting in the same direction and it should get better and better till it starts to get worse. Go back and that should be the "sweet spot". If, when you start, it gets worse try the other way. This is a variation of the "experience" method where you know from experience which way to go and how much to move it. Same method just faster because of experience. Before adjusting the anchor pins there are some things that should be done first:

The car should be on flat, level ground on it's tires and properly inflated
The weatherstripping should be in good shape, not torn, missing, or "dead"
The struts should be fairly new and the torsion bars properly adjusted
The door latches should be working smoothly. This may require removing both latches (in one door) and cleaning and relubricating the mechanisms and doing all of the internal door adjustments.

Remember, the door closes in an arc so move the pin accordingly, in an arc, not just straight up, down or in or out.

Close the door slowly and listen for the clicks. BOTH latches MUST click twice so you know you are in "second locking position". The latches should also both click at the same time or very close. You push the door closed by pushing on the rub rail at about the center of the door so you don't tweak (twist) it. You NEVER slam the doors shut. Once adjusted correctly you should be able to close it with one finger!
David Teitelbaum

[Jonathan]

That's good advice David. Thanks a lot for that. I made some significant improvements to how well the doors close tonight. And your comment about not needing to slam the doors was important. I can gently push down on my doors to latch them now.

Now as for the washers on the pins, I first tested the door closing with neither pin in place. I made sure my weather striping was all in there tight and closed the door. On both doors in one direction, my door latch on one side is actually slightly gouging the black Fiberglas sill with one of the screw heads on the latch. Seems like without the pin in there to "push" the door over a bit it rubs. What would cause the doors to be sitting cock eyed like that?

Now once both pins are in, it closes okay but there is still a slight clunk as the pin "straightens" out the door position. Any advice?

[dn010]

As stated, start with the pins. The door is adjustable at the hinges but it is impossible to do it with the torsion bar installed - once you loosen the hinge bolts the tension will kick the hinge up as far as the bolts allow and then you won't be able to move it at all because there's too much tension on it. I learned this the hard way. Both doors were terrible - ripping up my seals, bad alignment and seemed that no matter where my pins were the door [passenger side especially] was never closing properly. I figured what do I have to lose - I adjusted the door at the hinges and it is perfect now. I'm not sure how or why they needed adjustment at the hinges but now I have no issues whatsoever. Keep in mind, you adjust the door at the hinge, not the hinge to the car-I'm not sure that is even possible. It's a task that takes much patience, but don't be scared to try it if you run out of other options.

ADVICE - spray some paint over the hinge and bolts or mark them so that if you ever need to put it back to where it was originally there is an outline...

My writeup:
http://dmcnews.com/Techsection/torsionbar.html

----Dani B.


Is the door adjustable on the hinge? If so, can it be adjusted without loosening the torsion bar?

[David T]

File the screw head. Doing one anchor pin at a time is a good strategy so you are not dealing with 2 problems at the same time. Get one right and then go for the other. It is possible you tweaked the door and now it is rubbing. Grab it at both bottom corners while open and try twisting the door. If it feels floppy, it is not stiff anymore and that may be part of the problem. Try twisting the door in the other direction. Slamming the door is not good!
David Teitelbaum

[mluder]

I have been told that the door construction can cause this...

Essentially it's an outside skin and an inside skin joined by a crimped seam that can work loose over time allowing the panels to shift relative to each other and disforming the door.

The fix is realignment and welding.

Annother possibility is if the torsion bars are too tight or have been too tight in the past, this can put stress on the door causing it to taco shell. Essentially bending in the middle.

Steve


File the screw head. Doing one anchor pin at a time is a good strategy so you are not dealing with 2 problems at the same time. Get one right and then go for the other. It is possible you tweaked the door and now it is rubbing. Grab it at both bottom corners while open and try twisting the door. If it feels floppy, it is not stiff anymore and that may be part of the problem. Try twisting the door in the other direction. Slamming the door is not good!
David Teitelbaum