Door Alignment/Adjustment

[Silkie]

Hey Guys,

First of all let me say, All of you have been great to me here!
Being a new owner and all.
You have helped me with my seat and door light problems and i got those fixed.
Some things i have fixed on my own, Alternator and Oil sending unit.

Now i come to you with another question/help.
My passenger door closes flush with a hard shut, But it seems to not be aligned right or something?
My driver door however is not flush at all, Now matter how hard i shut it.
I included a few pictures.

Any suggestions??

Thanks in advance!

2175421755

[Josh]

Interested in the progression of this thread. I am in the process of installing new doors on my car and it is a major pain in the ass.

From what I have gathered in the past, a good starting point before door adjustment is to lubricate the latches (wd-40) and replace the inner door seals if they are worn out.

Alot of issues can be fixed by loosening and adjusting the striker position. All you need to do this is a 17mm wrench and alot of patience. They are adjusted by sliding around the nut and adding or removing shims (washers).
Then there is several adjustments that can be done in the hinges. This is what I will have to do. Not looking forward to this...

[Silkie]

Interested in the progression of this thread. I am in the process of installing new doors on my car and it is a major pain in the ass.


Thank you for the advice.
Why are you installing new doors?
I hope not because of the way my driver door looks closed. Lol.
Is there a video tutorial anywhere that shows a good door alignment procedure?

[Josh]

Thank you for the advice.
Why are you installing new doors?
I hope not because of the way my driver door looks closed. Lol.
Is there a video tutorial anywhere that shows a good door alignment procedure?

My car was painted and I am returning it back to SS. The drivers door had extensive damage and the car came with a natural passenger door.

[DeLorean03]

Josh is dead-on about the striker pins and patience. It has taken me about 3 days (1-2 hours at a time) to get my doors nearly 100% perfect.

Do your doors lock and unlock 100% perfectly? There's a service bulletin that indicates exactly how to get all the internals of the doors set to optimum settings; I strongly suggest you look it up and follow it. The internals of the doors being set properly is the "foundation" of your door's "home" so to speak. If that stuff is not set right, you will be chasing your tail.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13720563/DeLorean%20and%20Volvo%20Manuals/DMC-Bulletins-Hybrid.pdf

Page 57 is where it starts.

Once you have the internals of the door set as stated in that bulletin, at that point, I would be good with adjusting the striker pins. Just takes time and patience, and sometimes very, very miniscule changes. A 1/16 of an inch in any direction with my striker pins went a long ways.

Hope my post didn't scare you; this is just one of those areas where accuracy and precision are crucial - especially if you want to install WingsALoft down the road. To install WingsALoft, your doors have to be solid, 100% perfect. Like on my car, my W.A.L. will fire my doors into the air 29/30 times - where the one defect is the driver's door and is prolly an old strut as I can take my pinkie finger and bring the door up and out into the air.

[WelmoedJ]

Josh is dead-on about the striker pins and patience. It has taken me about 3 days (1-2 hours at a time) to get my doors nearly 100% perfect.

Do your doors lock and unlock 100% perfectly? There's a service bulletin that indicates exactly how to get all the internals of the doors set to optimum settings; I strongly suggest you look it up and follow it. The internals of the doors being set properly is the "foundation" of your door's "home" so to speak. If that stuff is not set right, you will be chasing your tail.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13720563/DeLorean%20and%20Volvo%20Manuals/DMC-Bulletins-Hybrid.pdf

Page 57 is where it starts.

Once you have the internals of the door set as stated in that bulletin, at that point, I would be good with adjusting the striker pins. Just takes time and patience, and sometimes very, very miniscule changes. A 1/16 of an inch in any direction with my striker pins went a long ways.

Hope my post didn't scare you; this is just one of those areas where accuracy and precision are crucial - especially if you want to install WingsALoft down the road. To install WingsALoft, your doors have to be solid, 100% perfect. Like on my car, my W.A.L. will fire my doors into the air 29/30 times - where the one defect is the driver's door and is prolly an old strut as I can take my pinkie finger and bring the door up and out into the air.

Pinpointing the exact location of the striker pins isn't easy.
I used two methods to mark the most likely position.

Firstly you will have to remove the striker pin you want to align.

1. Measure the horizontal distance between the outside skin of the door and the center of the latch.
The value of this distance can be used to mark the vertical heartline of the striker pin.

2. I made a small tool out of rubber that fits in the closed latch.
The tip of this tool must not protrude too far out of the latch, but also not be too short.
It has to touch the body panel at the striker pin position.
Put some marker stuff (ink, grease or alike that leaves a marked line on the body.

Use method 1 for marking the vertical position of the striker pin.
Use method 2 by closing the door to mark the heartline of the latches position.
At the junction of both lines you will most likely have the correct position of the striker pin.

This of course only is true if your door is properly aligned to the body panels and centered within the door opening.

[Silkie]

I wanted to post the results of using some WD-40 on the latches.
As you can see with my Driver Door the results is outstanding!
I still need to adjust the striker pins.
But this is a great improvement as you can see from the first post pictures.

2177221773

[DeLorean03]

Snag yourself some white lithium grease. It is used to lube up these kinds of mechanical moving parts and metal-on-metal contact areas.

WD40 is a band-aid. WLG is a fix.

[Silkie]

Snag yourself some white lithium grease. It is used to lube up these kinds of mechanical moving parts and metal-on-metal contact areas.

WD40 is a band-aid. WLG is a fix.

Yes, I had a can of it and was looking for it.
But i could not find it!
I will be picking up a can.
Thanks!

In other happenings,
I was driving my Delorean today and the Alternator loosened up on the bracket.
And chewed the belt, plus broke it.
Which in turn, Made the car overheat and busted some sort of Plumbing/Vacuum valve.
Smoke and Steam everywhere!
People probably thought i was going BACK TO THE FUTURE!

I quickly pulled into a Suzuki dealership in town.
The owner was very cool about me leaving it there until i came back with parts to fix it.
Luckily NAPA had the Alternator belt and a suitable replacement plumbing part.

Now she is back in the driveway.
Needless to say i will be checking the alternator more often.

BTW the plumbing part that had to be replaced
http://store.delorean.com/p-7669-hot-water-valve.aspx

[DeLorean03]

Scary as heck when stuff like that happens D: ... last happened to me in 2006. Thankfully, I lost coolant but saw it early enough that a coolant dump was all that occurred. Scared the heck out of me. Culprit: bad alternator belt.

[David T]

Scary as heck when stuff like that happens D: ... last happened to me in 2006. Thankfully, I lost coolant but saw it early enough that a coolant dump was all that occurred. Scared the heck out of me. Culprit: bad alternator belt.

If you got it hot enough to blow out the coolant you may have overheated the motor enough to damage the cylinder head gaskets. I would keep a close eye on the coolant level and how the motor is running after such an event.
David Teitelbaum

[DeLorean03]

That was in 2006. I think we're good. Thank you for your concern though :D!

[Silkie]

That was in 2006. I think we're good. Thank you for your concern though :D!

I went outside this morning and put another 7/16 bolt with lock washers, washers and nut,
right next to the alternator.
So God forbid if the alternator bolt does loosen up again?
That will help keep it in place.

[David T]

I went outside this morning and put another 7/16 bolt with lock washers, washers and nut,
right next to the alternator.
So God forbid if the alternator bolt does loosen up again?
That will help keep it in place.

You should make sure all of the hardware is correct and properly installed and tightened up. That long bolt that the alternator pivots on must also be tight. Make sure everything is lined up and the belt is running straight. Do not overtighten or the belt can jump off and/or you will damage the bearings in the water pump. Make sure the blades of the fan are not bent and hitting the belt. The proper size belt is also very important. Not only the length but the shape and thickness. A Vee belt should NEVER ride on it's bottom, ONLY the sides of the vee. The bottom of the vee in the pulleys should not be clean and shiny. If the belt slips after properly installing it, it may be the cords have broken inside and the belt must be replaced. Same if it keeps jumping off, that means either the pulleys are not lined up or some of the cords in the belt are broken. Not a common problem having the alternator loosen up by itself.
David Teitelbaum

[Silkie]

You should make sure all of the hardware is correct and properly installed and tightened up. That long bolt that the alternator pivots on must also be tight. Make sure everything is lined up and the belt is running straight. Do not overtighten or the belt can jump off and/or you will damage the bearings in the water pump. Make sure the blades of the fan are not bent and hitting the belt. The proper size belt is also very important. Not only the length but the shape and thickness. A Vee belt should NEVER ride on it's bottom, ONLY the sides of the vee. The bottom of the vee in the pulleys should not be clean and shiny. If the belt slips after properly installing it, it may be the cords have broken inside and the belt must be replaced. Same if it keeps jumping off, that means either the pulleys are not lined up or some of the cords in the belt are broken. Not a common problem having the alternator loosen up by itself.
David Teitelbaum

Thank you for all the info!
I will double check everything ASAP.
I did drive it this morning with no problems what so ever.