How to adjust door latches?

[Mr Bean]

Is it possible to adjust door latches on a box so I can close the door with one finger? Right now I have to slam it, sometimes more than once to get it fully close. What's the trick to adjusting these things?

[ZombieTown94]

I believe it's more to do with worn door hinge pins/bushings, the latch is pretty stationary.

[jaywish]

First thing is to see if the strike still has the plastic bushing in place. The strike is the part on the "b" pillar with the #50 Torx head.

[gadget73]

Yes, but if the door hinge is not properly aligned it may never close right. The striker itself has about 1/4" of movement in any direction from dead center. The nut floats on the back side inside a little box to keep it from rotating.

[Mr Bean]

My hinges are mint, no play at all. Striker has a bushing. My door does sit kinda crooked though, Front seems to sit lower than the rear. Also it sticks out a little on the bottom in the rear. I tried adjusting it but can't seem to bring front of the door up. How much play is there in the hinges?

[gadget73]

A fair amount. You can adjust the hinge to the pillar as well as the hinge to the door. Its kind of a bitch to adjust, everything moves and those bolts into the pillar have bad access. Your doors would be much worse than mine just for weight and length reasons.

The pillar side bolts will adjust the tilt of the door fore/aft, the bolts on the door side will adjust in/out on the door.

[jaywish]

What you need to start is time and patience. To make it easier you need someone else who is strong and patient as well. Perhaps a milk crate, some wood so that you can rest the door a bit while working on it. Also a couple of 5 gal buckets. This in addition to whatever tools will access the hinges. Perhaps offset wrenches as well a socket set with swivels or swivel sockets or crow feet. I can't remember what in particular is needed for this car.

Set the milk crate and wood so that the door swings just barely above this. That way if the door gets a little loose on you along the way you can avoid paint scratches.

The door may need to be adjusted in all axis. What I do first is sit on a bucket and look at the door from a few feet away so I can easily see the whole door. Observe how the door relates to the body of the car. Study the lines and the spacing.

When you are ready, lift the door handle, or better have your assistant do this, while you sit on the bucket and look at the top of the window frame. Does the door spring up or down at the back when you release the the door handle? Is the front of the window frame too high or low? These are the angles I address first. The goal is to make sure the front and back of the door window frame are aligned perfectly with the roof line just before the latch engages with the striker. The striker should not need to pull the door up or down when the door closes. You may at first set the whole thing too high or too low, wind noise might be a hint but if you look at the gasket seating you can get it right from the go. You can also see the top of the door itself matching close the the quarter line

Now remove the striker so you can check the fit without its influence. Bear in mind the door will be a slight press fit against the gasket but you should easily see if the door needs to be raised, lowered and or tilted.

The hinge bolts on the A pillar adjust this axis. When the door looks right after much cussing while working the hinges then you worry about the striker. The important thing here is to not scratch the door. The A pillar bolts also set the door front and back with respect to the body. This is probaly good already as the fender and quarter panel lines/gaps are usually decent.

After the line looks good along the roof the you have to check it for twist. Is the top of the window frame too close to the roof or too far away? Is the door bottom too close to the rocker or too far away? The hinge bolts on the door adjust this axis. The fender can confuse you on this because the fender may not be aligned properly either.

Once you think it looks good then install the striker. Not fully tight as you will need to futz with the exact placement. It is usually possible to get the door to close like it should but it really takes time and patience as well as good hinges and a straight car.

When you are at long last freakin happy with the fit do not forget to tighten the striker.

The right assistant along with a generous time budget makes this so much easier. There is a special door handling tool to increase leverage if you want to spring for that.

Like anything else some body guys can do this 1,2,3 but for the rest of us it can become tedious and tiring as the doors are heavy. Yours in particular.

Don't be surprised if the installation of the striker sends you back a step or two for small hinge adjustments. When you drive the car hopefully you have not wind noise around the gaskets. If so wash, rinse, repeat.

After you are 100% happy then you may need to adjust the fender so the body line looks good.

[Mr Bean]

Ok thanks for the info. I will play with it again tonight.

Now is it possible to make the doors quiet to shut like modern cars or are we stuck with eternal clunk?

[jaywish]

They can close reasonably well if all is straight. It can take time though.

[sly]

some sound deadener inside the door on the outer skin may help as well with the crash of the door. Some lube on the latch will help it close as well. If the original lube is gummy, it may slow down the latch as it's attempting to close. I managed to bounce a door on my beater once and the latch closed after coming off of the striker. I lubes it with some axle grease and it's been happy for the past 6 years or so. The striker is a mess though, so you may want to use a different lube.

[Mr Bean]

Messed around with the door tonight. Got the lines all nice and straight but it still closes like crap. It closes, doesn't jump up or down when it strikes but I can't really close it with 1 finger. I think I will take a trip to the junkyard on the weekend and see if I can get a latch and a striker off a modern car to play around with. I want that modern car feel where it's almost silent when it closes. Box doors sound like a jail cell door closing.

[sly]

Box doors sound like a jail cell door closing.

good analogy. The Lincoln doors seem to just click. At least the ones on the Mark VI I had. If that latch has the same physical attributes, it may be a direct bolt on and work fine for your purposes.

[gadget73]

Sound deadning inside the door and under the door panel helps a lot. A lot of that rattle is the window regulator and the door handle linkage rods shaking around in there. If you can tighten them up, it should make an improvement. Mine aren't quite modern car sounding, but its a lot better than the empty paint can rattle noises it used to make.

[87gtVIC]

Take the door weatherstripping off. If she closes easily with one finger with that removed you know where to look.

[Mr Bean]

If it's the weatherstripping there isn't much to adjust, right?