Sliding Door Adjustment

[printmonkey]

Evening, my sliding door needs adjusting as the door card rubs on the side of the van. I think this has been problem a problem for a while as the door card was ripped to pieces when I bought the van. The new door card fits well but still rubs the side if the van. I have a Haynes and the Bentley courtesy of OBG but just wondered if anyone has had the same issue and might have a pearl of wisdom to share.

Cheers
David

[Plasticman]

when the door is opening/sliding, is the arm at 90' to the body
mm

[printmonkey]

Seems to be at 90' to the body but doesn't look like it's sitting correctly.

[printmonkey]

Spent a bit of time on Sunday removing and refitting the door card. It's fitted correctly, adjusted the sliding door it doesn't rub the side of the van. However, the bottom left corner (viewed from outside) of the sliding door rubs the wheel arch and I just can't seem to correct it.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Plasticman]

left hooker? take a picky of the gaps when door closed and measure them for me please
mm ( might be away fro m here for a day though)

[timwatson]

having same sort of problem
the gap on the closed door are wider at the top than the bottom
front edge of sliding door
lhd
interested in finding out if i can adjust them

[Plasticman]

i need a picky of the front seam closed and the rear closed, then measure gap at top and bottom of both sides, then a picky showing the alignment of the lower swage lines and also the upper ones in relation to the rear wing/B post respectively
mm

[printmonkey]

left hooker? take a picky of the gaps when door closed and measure them for me please
mm ( might be away fro m here for a day though)

Yes it's LHD mm, pics and measurements below, this must be a long running problem as the door card was knackered when I bought it from Eastfalia and steve cut the damaged piece off.













Measurements on left side.
top 6mm, middle 6-7mm and bottom 8mm

Measurements in right side.
top 9mm, middle 8mm and bottom 6-7mm

Cheers
David

[Plasticman]

back of the door is low
im looking at the swage alignments, so .
you need to remove the doorcard.
close the door
loosen the 13mm screw in the fwd hole and then just 'nip' it back then loosen the rear 2 and leave a touch slack
now you need to lift the door a touch ,use a screwdriver or whatever to move the hinge down a bit, at the same time you want to also move the door fwd a few mm a bar.tyre lever or whatever is usefull , then nip up
try door
you want to try aim for the front gap to be a few mm less than the rear,
this adjustment should not effect the position of the striker pin but you can sit in the van and observe whats happening to confirm
it is also common for the door cards to swell and bulge out a bit, yours looks a bit like that as there is only a small clearance
mm

[printmonkey]

back of the door is low
im looking at the swage alignments, so .
you need to remove the doorcard.
close the door
loosen the 13mm screw in the fwd hole and then just 'nip' it back then loosen the rear 2 and leave a touch slack
now you need to lift the door a touch ,use a screwdriver or whatever to move the hinge down a bit, at the same time you want to also move the door fwd a few mm a bar.tyre lever or whatever is usefull , then nip up
try door
you want to try aim for the front gap to be a few mm less than the rear,
this adjustment should not effect the position of the striker pin but you can sit in the van and observe whats happening to confirm
it is also common for the door cards to swell and bulge out a bit, yours looks a bit like that as there is only a small clearance
mm

Thanks MM

I'll do it on Saturday, the door card is new from gunzl and has bulged out from new, I might take that off and try to persuade it into the correct shape.

Cheers
David

[Plasticman]

you may need to make an additional fitting or or two discretely in the centre

mm

[Aidan]

there should be a self tapping screw used to hold the card to the door in the middle at the rear, bit of a VW bodge but if you have a caravelle with the rubber flap over the rear latch pin you can't see the screw when the door is closed so customers wouldn't have seen the bodge, if the screw is missing this is normally where the card catches as it distorts over time
with the rear being too close to the arch ? is the arch in the right place ? or I'd say the front roller allignment is out or something in the track is causing it to come out towards outside of van as it closes

[Plasticman]

indeed, it is hard to tell exactly with pickies , but that card does look really bowed in the centre as well, i cant recall but is there a screw in the centre with a plaggy cover over it
mm

[lowlifedubz]

Just putting it out there but is there any chance that the van has suffered some accident damage at some point in it's life?

[printmonkey]

there should be a self tapping screw used to hold the card to the door in the middle at the rear, bit of a VW bodge but if you have a caravelle with the rubber flap over the rear latch pin you can't see the screw when the door is closed so customers wouldn't have seen the bodge, if the screw is missing this is normally where the card catches as it distorts over time
with the rear being too close to the arch ? is the arch in the right place ? or I'd say the front roller allignment is out or something in the track is causing it to come out towards outside of van as it closes

I'm sure that the self tapper was missing at some point in time, the aftermarket door card was ripped to pieces when I bought the van. The new door card does have all the
correct fixings and is only 6 months old.

You might be onto something with the roller/track though, it was imported from California a year ago and the channel the bottom roller runs in was full of sand, I've cleaned it out and greased the roller but it does kick out slightly when you open the door and makes a pretty nasty grinding sound as it runs along. Once I've adjusted the position as MM has pointed out I'll look into it.

Thanks
David