Do your doors latch completely?

[universeman]

My 82 SC has a pretty frustrating habit of only closing halfway (to the first click, so the door can still rattle/move) when you let the doors go. Closing from outside or inside, same issue.

I have the driver door apart right now, so seeing what's going on is relatively easy.

I've lubed everything, adjusted things, moved the striker plate, and it still doesn't close fully either with windows down or windows up. If I leave my hand on the door, it closes fine, but if I swing it and let go, it reliably stops at the first click (unless I slam the ***** out of it.)

Doors on friends' 911s' of same vintage, close like I want this one to. Heck my 72 MB closes like a refrigerator.

I was able to get it to be a little better by moving the striker plate outward away from the interior, but doing this caused the doors not to be flush to the car, which is not ideal.

I don't think it's window-related, because it happens windows down or up.

My current theory is that the wound spring in the door latch (door side, not car side) has given up a bit of its springiness through the years, so that it no longer "grabs" the striker and pulls on it hard enough to finish the close. Instead the door is 'bouncing' off the initial impact and staying half-closed. A stronger spring, once released, would finish the job.

Has anyone fixed this issue?

[DaveMcKenz]

Hi Jason,
I sounds like the door is restricted from closing easily by either misalignment or weatherstripping. Is the weatherstripping new? If so, it will need to crush a little over time. Alignment could be striker position (including up/down, in/out) or hinge wear.
On my car it was all of the above, plus window frame position, since mine is a coupe.
Good luck,
Dave

[universeman]

Thanks Dave,
Weatherstripping is old. Hinge could be worn but short of driving out hinge pins I don't know how to tell if it's that? No up-down play discernable in the door.

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by DaveMcKenz

Hi Jason,
I sounds like the door is restricted from closing easily by either misalignment or weatherstripping. Is the weatherstripping new? If so, it will need to crush a little over time. Alignment could be striker position (including up/down, in/out) or hinge wear.
On my car it was all of the above, plus window frame position, since mine is a coupe.
Good luck,
Dave

thats what i was thinking.
with the latch off, close the door and see if you feel any resistance.
all that stuff is adjustable so it may be a matter of adjusting it all.

i pulled all that off on my 914. i alingned the door to the body then adjusted all the latching.....from what i remember

[swbsam]

I'm dealing with what sound like the same problem you have, when I close my drivers door it latches but not all the way after making a couple of attempts it will eventually close, I had the same issue with my passenger door some years back and when I took the car into a local independent repair shop for a tuneup I ask him to fix the door issue, the passenger door has closed great ever since and makes that kind of ding sound like it's supposed to, I'm taking the car in this this Friday for the drivers door and the sunroof, they told me that the locking mechanism is sticking and they need to remove it and clean it and reinstall it and it should work fine, I'll let you know after Friday.

[Jose_JGC]

Hi, I agree with all and I would remove the weatherstripping and then test if the door closes OK. For years my 911T driver's door did not close easily, but it is now much better after I replaced the weatherstripping. A thing I learned about those weatherstrippings is that, for the door to close well, the lower rear most corner must be facing down and as close as possible to the door sill and lock pillar, otherwise it will get in the door's way as it closes. I hope this is of use.
Jose

[Nick Triesch]

Hi. When I bought my 911 5 years ago the driver would not latch correctly. I took the door apart as per Pelican instructions and lubed all cables with WD 40. Door has worked great since. It was just dry after 25 years. Not hard to do.

[theiceman]

hold the trigger in on the handle.. and slowly close the door. see if you can feel it restricting as it closes. I just helped a buddy with this. Mine you could close so the door would line up with the body - 1/4 or so before you felt restriction. His was more like 5/8ths and you could feel the door pushing back ( weatherstrip ) with him it was pinching down the front jamb area.

[universeman]

Ok guys there is definitely some resistance from the door jamb, hard to tell what part of the weatherstrip (w/s) is causing it but it definitely is the w/s.

I can't imagine how the w/s could be any more compact, or more squishy, or whatever, however. The resistance feels exactly like rubber stripping pushing back against the door. If I remove the w/s entirely and it closes well, it feels like if I put some new stuff in it's just going to resist again. Is this not the group's experience? (Those who have replaced their w/s, that is?)

[puddy]

I had the same thing happening on my 75 coupe, I'd hear a whistle over 140 kph. I loosened the striker plate (careful not to strip that allen head screw)and pushed it inboard then re tightened it. You can also loosen the 6 front hinge bolts, do the top 3 & bottom 3 separate from each other. You can bring the top or bottom half of the door in or out quite easily as needed. I did it all on my own in less than 1 hour. That might be all you need to do.

Good luck!

[wrxnofx]

I have the exact same problem, and it was exacerbated when I replaced the weatherstripping and felt on my driver's door 2 years ago. Two years later, it's better but I still have to slam the piss out of it, or keep my hand on the door as I slam it.

My door, when fully shut, already sits proud of the rear quarter panel by maybe 1/8" or 3/16". So if anything, I need to move the door strike plate INWARD, which would make closing the door even MORE difficult.

If I slowly close the door with the trigger pressed, I can feel the door latch contacting the striker plate pin on the leading edge of the latch. Here is what I mean. First, here is the door striker plate pin:


When I shut the door, I can tell that the pin contacts the leading underside edge of the latch, like this:


Is the pin supposed to pass UNDER that front portion, and only contact the latch at the back of the concave area? Kind of like this:


If so, then perhaps that could be my problem. Thoughts?

[universeman]

I do not think the pin is supposed to contact the upper portion. This would definitely cause resistance and maybe even a violent close! If that's happening, either your striker plate is too high or your door is sagging.

Before I ever feel it touch, I feel the weatherstrip start pushing back, are you feeling that?

[wrxnofx]

I think you're probably right about the pin contacting the upper portion. I think I need to adjust the striker plate, as I'm confident the door isn't sagging. I feel/hear the metal to metal contact before I feel the weatherstripping pushing back.

Now to get that triple square socket...

[93nav]

I have a similar problem after replacing the weather stripping. Old weather stripping was tore up on the drivers side, passenger side was ok expect for one spot. Prior to replacing the weather stripping, driver side door closed great, passenger needed a little more push.

Check to make sure all the weather stripping is fully seated and glued in tight. Also, on my passenger door, the bottom of the door pocket has dropped down and rubs on the doorjam/weatherstripping and causes it to close harder. May have the same problem with drivers side now. Hopefully it will 'breakin'.

Also, take a close look at your existing seals I saw a reference someplace that you want to use the 'hollow' weatherstripping. This I believe refers to piece that actually seals as being hollow. Apparently not all aftermarket seals are hollow which allows them to compress easier/further. I used the seals from Pelican, and they are hollow.

Hope this makes sense.

[wrxnofx]

Okay, I took another look at mine. First, the door latch is making proper contact with the pin, so that eliminates that as an issue.

HOWEVER, I realized that I can turn the door shut mechanism clockwise (on the driver's door) by hand, which is the direction it turns when you close the door.

There are 3 positions of the door shut mechanism, and to rotate to full shut position I can BARELY rotate it by hand, whereas rotating from position 1 to 2 is easy. On the passenger side it's very easy to turn 1-2 and 2-3.

For reference, mechanism position when door is open (Position 1):


Position 2 (easy to rotate from 1-2):


Position 3 (full shut position, really hard to rotate from 2-3):


So I think my problem is one of lubrication for the door lock mechanism.

[RSTarga]

You need to clean and lube the latch mechanism inside the door. Until the latch rotates freely

[universeman]

Update on my situation. I removed the driver latch mechanism, soaked and scrubbed the entire thing in degreaser, used steel wool on the cable and sprayed WD-40 inside the sheath, so that it slid oh-so-smoothly, and then reassembled everything.

First try to close it - still bad. Half-latch.

After I was finished cursing, I went and got my triple-square bit and went back at the striker again. Previously I had adjusted the striker to the extent that the door closed properly, but it caused the door to stand out from the rear fender. So this time, I loosened the top screw of the striker, and then really loosened the bottom, and "swung" the striker outward from the bottom (counterclockwise) before re-tightening. Voila! Closes perfectly now. Went to the passenger side, adjusted striker same way, perfect!

So all the cleaning and lubing and scouring was probably a good exercise in terms of maintenance, and in learning how the door latch works, but was not the difference-maker in terms of getting the door to close. Moving the striker plate a bit outward, from the bottom only, was the difference-maker in my case. Both doors close perfectly now, and while they stand off further than before, it's not really noticeable and I think actually looks great. Aaaaaahhh, that makes closing the doors way less frustrating!

[wrxnofx]

Congrats, Universeman. That's great news. I am still working through mine. My mechanism was very tight. So I pulled the whole door apart and lubed the mechanism. Now it works great, but the door still does not close right.

I think I need to adjust the striker plate now, so it's off to get the triple square tool.

[swbsam]

Well they cleaned the mechanism and it's 100%, now on to other issues.

[pmax]

My 80 targa had a similar issue.

Turns out the door latch was loose.