Door Striker Pin Alignment

[ramblinmike]

Hey Everyone-

I done some searching on the new dmctalk.org and can't find any procedures for adjusting the door striker pins. The workshop manual has sections for aligning the door and the lock mechanism but nothing on aligning the pins. My passenger door bounces around as I'm going down the road. It acts as though it isn't quite closed.

Before I start moving things I'd like to ask you guys - where should I begin?

Thanks!

[content22207]

1) Remove bulb weatherstripping
2) Lightly snug down the striker bolts
3) While lifting up on the exterior release handle, close the door and let it position the pins where it wants them (do not let go of the exterior handle -- continue to hold it up until the door is reopened).

Note that the bolts may need to be adjusted fore/aft. You can tell from wear marks on the latch mechanisms and the bolt heads if they are too far fore/aft. Washers can be added or removed to adjust the bolts fore/aft. Thinner washers can also be substituted. Later VIN cars have a big recesses cut into the underbody to allow even more adjustment.

Both of my cars have three thick washers on the front bolts and one thin washer on the rear bolts.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[David T]

Bill's approach is certainly one way to do it. My way is a lot more complicated and time consuming. First if the door seals are "dead" they should be replaced. Next determine if the door guides and latches are rubbing the "top" of the anchor pins. Set the height by adding or removing washers so the latches can grab the shank and the head does not rub. Now with trial-and-error you move the pins so the sides of the pins do not rub anywhere till the latch can capture the shank. This is not as easy as it sounds because the door moves in an arc as it goes over the pins. This needs to be done on a flat and level spot so the car is not tweaked and you push on the doors in the middle by the rub rail so you don't tweak the doors as you close them. You may have to remove fiberglass around the holes where the pins bolt to the body so you can move the pins to the exact spot you need them to be. On some cars removing all of the washers is not enough and I have filed the heads of the striker pins just to get enough clearance. In some instances the screws holding the latches rub the fiberglass and they need a little filing too. I find it makes adjusting the anchor pins easier if the latches work smoothly. That means taking the latches out of the doors, cleaning all of the old, stiff grease off, relubricating them, reinstalling them and doing the whole door adjustment procedure. Time consuming and complicated but using short-cuts and not doing the "whole job" is not always going to get you the results you want.
David Teitelbaum

[ramblinmike]

I went outside to tackle this yesterday since my wife and daughter were attending a baby shower. Yay free time!

I took the advice of both previous posts and am very happy with the results. I started out analyzing what my passenger door was actually doing. The front latch was not holding the front of the door down so it would bounce around as a was driving. The rear latch seemed to be working well. However, I did notice a significant wear mark on the rear striker pin. I started by marking the original positions of both pins. I removed the rear pin completely. The front latch was now isolated and I could tell exactly what it was doing. The latch caught the pin but the door wasn't closed all the way. I could 'jiggle' the door around at the front holding the door with my left hand through the window and my right holding the base of the mirror. I tried loosening the pin like Bill suggested and allowing the door to line it up for me. It lined up the pin in the center of the latch but it still wasn't holding the door down all the way. I wrapped the door with one layer of masking tape so I could see where it was rubbing and started movoid the pin down, keeping track via the tape layer when it started rubbing the latch. I got the door to catch beautifully in the front. The door was always noisy when it closed before. It would 'bang'. Now there is a very nice 'click' when it closes.

I moved back to the rear pin and made a slight adjustment to alleviate the obvious wear on the pin. I closed the door and it closed beautifully. When I went to open the door I noticed that the rear of the door 'popped' up before the front of the door moved at all. Upon further inspection it is obvious that my door is misaligned! The front of the door hits bottom while the rear of the door has a good 3/8 of an inch to go before it lines up with the rear quarter. The door latches against the body in the front and torques as it catches in the rear. I'm guessing it's always done this and since I never open the passenger door myself I've never noticed. Oops.

If you just close the door like normal you'd never notice. If you close the door slowly and deliberately you can hear click...........click. FYI I always close the door with my hand at the rear of the toll window at the top of the stainless.

Is this something I should worry about? Thanks for the help.

[content22207]

Push the door all the way closed in the rear when you're setting the striker bolts. You can use the bolts to pull the rear in. You will need to close the door with enough force to engage both bolts -- not just a light push with one finger.

The problem is the underbody, not the doors. It is a very imprecise and flexible platform on which to mount precise and relatively inflexible doors -- especially with two striker bolts.

Speaking of which: watch your roof cage as you open and close the door. If it is coming unglued from the fiberglass, the underbody will sag under the weight of the door.

Remember also that the weight of a person will change the shape of the car even in the best of circumstances. You can adjust a door to work perfectly from outside, only to have it bind when you're sitting inside. The best thing is to adjust the doors halfway between perfect operation with no one in the car and perfect operation with people in the car.

Making the underbodies from fiberglass probably looked like a good idea on paper, but in actual production it turned out disasterous. The entire assembly sequence had to be changed because of door fitment problems. Lotus can get away with fiberglass because they hand build their cars one at a time (each door can be laboriously fitted). If major assembly line manufacturers tried it, they would go bankrupt just like DMC.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[DMC1983]

Now, apart from actually buncing (like it used to), what would cause the door to randmly pop open from body flexing, hitting bumps in the road, etc...? The issues ramblinmike describes were what was causing me trouble. I had Dave Bauerle fix that for me while I helped DeloreanJoshQ with his valves.

[content22207]

I've had problems with exterior handle cables hanging up in their sheaths (they make a wicked sharp U turn inside the door) and keeping the latches partially disengaged. I corrected that with return springs that push against the bellcrank (I install those springs a preventative measure on all my doors now).
1037

Bill Robertson
#5939

[outatym2001]

Please see the pictures I took below of my door striker pins after I successfully shimmed them with some new washers. Notice how I had to cut away the plastic on the right rear to prevent the tip of the pin from hitting the door latch mechanism.
The cupped washers came from www.delorean.com and the flat washers were on my D when I bought it in 2001.
Many times it takes very minor adjustments to get everything just right.
Stainless Steel Door Striker with longer threads came from
http://www.pjgrady.co.uk/
Item SSLSP4

[content22207]

That cutout became standard issue from the factory on later VIN's.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[outatym2001]

These next four pictures show what your door striker pin attaches to.
Also found on page 8/4/1 of the DeLorean Part Manual.

[Marigolo]

These next four pictures show what your door striker pin attaches to.
Also found on page 8/4/1 of the DeLorean Part Manual.

Hi, I know it's been a couple of years since this post, but I need to replace the striker mounting bracket and just wanted to check on the process involved. Hopefully someone can lend their advice. Once the front stainless steel panel is removed, is the bracket easily accessible? Or do I need to be prepared for something else once in there?
Thanks for your help!
M

[outatym2001]

Once the front stainless steel panel is removed, is the bracket easily accessible? Or do I need to be prepared for something else once in there?
Thanks for your help!
M

Yes, once the front stainless steel panel is removed there are only four bolts holding the Door Striker Mounting Bracket in place and the four bolts are relatively easy to remove. Two of the four are hidden by the stainless steel quarter panel. The other two are located recessed in the wall in the passenger and driver side foot well area.
Please review the pictures in this other thread regarding adding water proof sealant to the two bolt heads to prevent rain water from entering the inside of the foot well area.
The two bolt heads are recessed in the vertical wall of the foot well area.

DeLorean water leaks
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?1394-DeLorean-water-leaks