Door Stay repair - now can't close door

[Rubatoguy]

Hello, I installed the door stay reinforcement kit along with new stay arms (the old ones had the square plastic by the pin all worn away.)

Anyway, after installing and testing I noticed that I could not close the door the last 1/2" and it seemed that something was resiting. Not wanting to force the door closed, I looked at the plates and found that the plate on the outermost part of the door had marks on it, like the clevis that the pin goes into (on the body) was hitting it. I tried adjusting the plate up and down - but no difference.

Should I just grind out the inside hole of the plate so there will be enough clearance?

Note - I had not mashed down the pin before testing - only hammered it in 3/4 of the way - but it does not look like that would make much difference...

help!

Todd
'88 Carrerra

[Jerome Ryals]

Take it back out and rotate it 180 degrees, the curve should be toward the front of the car. Same thing happened to me last weekend while swapping out doors, well it happened on the first door at least.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

You very well may have something in backward, as Jerome opines, but I will say that when I did the same procedure a couple of months ago, with everything in place correctly, I had to force the door closed the first couple of times. Not like with hundreds of pounds of force, mind you, but I did think at first that I'd installed something wrong because the door resisted pertty firmly.

Stephan

[Rubatoguy]

Okay - This is on the driver's door, and the stay curves IN toward the interior of the car - from 6pm to 3pm if you were looking straight down from the top of the door facing forward.

Is that not correct?

07-16-2004, 08:16 AM

[Rubatoguy]

2nd try, here is what the stop looks like

[}{arlequin]

I sure hope those pics come through. I have yet to do this procedure on both of my doors. That "click" just doesn't sound healthy.

[Rubatoguy]

Here is what the stop looked like after trying to close the door.

[Rot 911]

Originally posted by Rubatoguy
2nd try, here is what the stop looks like

Looks like you are trying to post directly from your computer's hard drive. Look at the bottom of the reply box and you will see a link that says "attach multiple" click on that to upload a picture.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

My door continues to click after the repair, and I know fer shure the sound is not being produced by the classic "ripped sheetmetal.

stephan

[alan911]

Had the same problem. but it's fixable. Of course, what Jerome said, make sure you have it oriented correctly. Look at the passenger door.

1. take the door stop apart and take the curved part out and hammer or flatten out the ridge slightly. That ridge is what acutally forces two spring loded ball bearings to spread apart in the other half of the stay to hold the door open in 2 positions.

The force required to spread those balls is what causes the tear out in the first place. It overwhelms the sheet metal over time.

2. While the stay is apart, clean and lube the spring and ball bearing section of the stay mount. It gets gunked up over time and doesn't spread apart as it should. Again causeing the sheet metal to take all the stress.

The reason your getting interferance is an alignment issue. If the door sheet metal was severely torn the new kit will not seat in the correct postion. No matter, you need to just get close to the oringinal postion.

Now if you grind (fileing) anything, grind the kit plates ( make the slots slightly wider. Do not grind the pin attachment bracket on the chasis. That will weaken it and it will pull the pin through it and you will have real problems.

By the marks on you picture, The pin is causing part of the problem (it has to be in the correct postion) not just 3/4 of the way, but the curved section is also part of the problem.

[Westy]

I'm a little lost here, but I got 2 cents. Is it possible the latch in the door closed partially, or even all the way, and wont roll over the pin?

[fintstone]

Just a guess, but it sounds like you have installed the repair/reinforcement pieces incorrectly on the outside of the recess and not the inside. This is a completed repair. The 2nd pix is from inside the door, the 1st is from the outside.

[john70t]

The clicking may be the roll pin knocking around because the bushings on the body-side tabs have opened. They may be able to be drilled round and have a sleeve put in.
I agree that the door stays were designed to work a little too well.

[Rubatoguy]

I have everything installed per the instructions and the example, I had not hammered the pin all the way in before testing. However it looks to me like the U shaped bracked that the stay arm fits into is what is hitting the outer reinforcement plate.

I tried readjusting the plate up, and it still hit. So I guess the thing to do is grind open the hole a bit in the plate.

Note: thanks for the tip on grinding the bumps on the arm down a bit - I did notice that the stops in the middle portion of the travel seemed uncomfortably stiff - particulalry in comparison with the originals which offered no resistance at all.

[fintstone]

The new ones should be a lot stiffer and have 2 noticable stopping points when the door is opened. Try closing the door as far as possible so that the arm is pushed back into the door and then remove the pin. Then gently try to close the door. That should show you if the arm is causing the problem or the outer reinforcement.

[alan911]

The first pic below the shows the little stops (bumps) that need to be slightly squished on the outer edges. That's where the balls actually ride. Flattening out or grinding the center ridge does nothing.



The second pic shows the spring loaded balls that should be cleaned if your using the old stay. My problem started with the balls being so gunked up they wouldn't retract back to allow the door stay to slide through the opening. I suspect this is what contributes to the tear out over time.

[Rubatoguy]

Thanks for the great photos.
I was able to get the fix to work, the trick was that the plate that is nearest the body had to be adjusted WAY up, and I also had to make sure the pin that holds the stay to the body was hammered way down.

I also ground down the bumps on the new stays a bit.
Here is a photo that shows the difference between the old and new.

[Rubatoguy]

and the final result - except the pin is not all the way in yet..

[dolliff]

We are installing a door stay modification on our 1974 911S. The instructions say to tie a string to the Automotion flat washer plate C and slip it over the door stop arm. We can't find a place to get it in even after taking the door panels and speaker out. Is it somewhere near the top of the door inside that you can't see? I have attached a photos of our door before we removed the old part one showing the plate next to the opening. Thanks, Don

[Nine9six]

I just installed a new door stop on an 85 Carrera and had the same problems. (Clicking) rather loudly on each of the humps. I am going back in, to file the humps a little. I actually replaced the door stop because of this clicking noise, but the new one makes the same noise! I inspected the sheetmetal on the inside of the door, and all appears to be in good shape. Gawd, I hate banging that f'ing pin in and out! Thanks to all for the photos and discussion.
Cheers