Hi guys, my '75 911S Targa had an awful feeling passenger door latch mechanism for a while.
Recently I shimmed the door hinge up so the panel lined up better on the car, lubricated the heck out of the latch, and replaced the broken (cast aluminium) door handle lever with a billet aftermarket job.
Now the door latch action is incredibly easy... devoid of much pre-load or friction, the door just falls open from a light touch on the lever. In many ways, it's hugely improved over how it was before. But
on a road with small bumps (not speed bumps... more like cat eyes or a generally uneven surface)
the door will "pop" open to the secondary position, where it starts rattling about. Fortunately, it shows no inclination to go further than the secondary position, so it's not currently anything more than highly irritating.
The part of the latch that engages with the striker looks normal:
I had this problem and asked a self-appointed expert at an event who said that my cracked nylon inserts in the striker plates were the problem.
The logic of replacing the nylon inserts in the striker plate to fix a latch that doesn't seem to be staying engaged with the pawl didn't make much sense to me. I bought new inserts for the striker plates and installed these anyway, and it made zero difference:
If anyone has encountered this before, what is my next step?
Do the pawls wear out and need welding up & re-shaping? I've heard someone say that but I have not seen any reference photos of this.
If I do this, does the Targa/Cab door glass have to be removed to get the window rail out? The rail is very much in the way of getting the latch out.