sliding door driving me crazy!!

[shortbloke]

Our nearside sliding door has always been a bit of a bugger to shut, needs a good slam and when shut is clearly not hanging right as the bottom right corner doesnt sit right and sticks out a mile. So I decide to have a play around and try and get it hanging better but to no avail. It looks and feels like the whole door should be 2-3cm further to the left but I can't see anyway of shifting it over.

I've taken the cover off the back where the runner is and cleared out the muck and greased it all up, but still no joy. However I noticed that there is a hook type catch in the rear mechanism that doesnt stay hooked round anything when its shut and there is a clear gap of a couple of cm.

Anyone got any idea if this should stay hooked round the metal and if there should or shouldnt be a gap - as it looks like this gap is whats creating the gap on the left!?! Any help much appreciated. Ive take some pics to show what I mean.

-If anyone has a pic of their door shut showing the rear mechanism that would be useful to compare.

[shortbloke]

On the assumption that no one can help then, can I ask what is the BEST way to get the sliding door hung flush so when it shuts, its all good and tight and looks flush with the rest of the body (with or without a big slam!).

[andisnewsyncro]

Can't quite make it out, but I think that's the latch for holding the door open. Can you adjust the bolts on the bottom slider bracket to bring the corner in at all, or is it as far in as it will go already?

[shortbloke]

Can't quite make it out, but I think that's the latch for holding the door open. Can you adjust the bolts on the bottom slider bracket to bring the corner in at all, or is it as far in as it will go already?

The pics are of the hinge arm (just about) and latch mechanism on the runner (toward the rear) which is normally hidden under the cover/panel thats screwed on.

Tried adusting bottom arm/runner in and out and up and down, but cant see any way to make it move along (or left as you look at it), which is why it makes me think the gap thats shown in the pic is the missing 2-3cm I need to get it to fit snug?

[ghost123uk]

I read your request on eucalyptus marley's post (you hijacker you ) and thought I would try to help. I am sure lots of folks have read this, but it's hard to make out what is what from the close ups and trying to describe mechanical stuff like this is not easy is it !

I've taken the cover off the back where the runner is and cleared out the muck and greased it all up, but still no joy. However I noticed that there is a hook type catch in the rear mechanism that doesnt stay hooked round anything when its shut and there is a clear gap of a couple of cm.

This is the latch that clicks together to hold the door open.

If anyone has a pic of their door shut showing the rear mechanism that would be useful to compare.

My door is the later type that has the big pin that holds it shut on the REAR door pillar.
I suspect yours is the earlier type with the catch at the front.

In the absence of pics (which are hard to interpret anyway) how about finding another early type van, possibly a member on here, near to you and going and having a look in person. You might get a cup of tea into the bargain

Sorry I cannot be of more help.

[ghost123uk]

See https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67065" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[shortbloke]

Cheers ghost!

I might try and take a couple of zoomed out pics and get on photoshop and add a few arrows to point out what I mean, it all makes sense to me in my head (a lot of things do ) but as you say trying to describe it or point out what I mean isnt as simple!

Im concerned Im barking up the wrong tree, banging on about this rear catch thing on the hinge/runner, so just seeing the mechanism under the sliding door cover (on the rear body) in person or pics will make such a difference, as I could be wasting my time, thinking its that part thats not working right.

Lets hope there is someone out there that has managed to unscrew them 2 rusty screws on the cover and has a door on an early van that shuts nicely and fancies taking a couple of pics for... maybe Im asking too much here!

Cheers for your help.

[thissy]

May be a silly/obvious question, but have you checked the seal hasn't popped out? Just renewed my seal and it was a right bugger getting it in behind the door (had to resort to taking the door off at the bottom) but eventually, it all went back in.

[shortbloke]

May be a silly/obvious question, but have you checked the seal hasn't popped out? Just renewed my seal and it was a right bugger getting it in behind the door (had to resort to taking the door off at the bottom) but eventually, it all went back in.

Yeah good shout, I was wondering this the other day so we took all the surrounding seals off to make sure they werent getting trapped and so we could get a better look at the catches to make sure it was lined up ok.

[thissy]

I had a similar problem with mine, and after much fettling/headscratching and swearing, I eventually bought another hinge unit of e-pay for a tenner which fixed the problem. I figured that the hinge bar attaching the door to the sliding mechanism was bent, although it looked ok...

[shortbloke]

I had a similar problem with mine, and after much fettling/headscratching and swearing, I eventually bought another hinge unit of e-pay for a tenner which fixed the problem. I figured that the hinge bar attaching the door to the sliding mechanism was bent, although it looked ok...

Yeah I keep thinking thats what I need to do TBH. As you say it "looks" ok, apart from a bit of rust and a ton of much etc, but Im convinced thats where the problem is. Cheapest I have found so far is £75 from partsemporium! Didnt want to waste that sort of money to find out its nothing to do with it.

Will keep playing around, and also hope someone can answer my question about the little latch bit in the pics... In the meantime, think I'll put an ad in the wanted section.

[shortbloke]

This pic shows the gap on the left hand side of the door - looks lot worse without the rubber seals but its about 2-3cm.


A zoomed out pic showing where the close up pic are from.



Arrow A is pointing to the latch that when closing the door the hook grabs hold of the metal next to it - but then just when it fully shuts the latching bit releases and the whole runner/hinge mechanism sits a few cm away from the rubber stopper at the end.
Arrow B is pointing to the gap thats left when the door is fully shut (some of the other pics show the gap clearer but you can still see it).


Should the latch (arrow A) stay hooked onto the metal sticking out when the door is fully closed and sitting neat and flush???
Hope this makes it a bit clearer.