Had this issue for quite a while now... knew I should have done it sooner as it was eventually going to bite me in the arse. And that day is today my friends! When I first got the bus, every time I opened the door it came off in my hand and sat at a precarious 45* angle.. Played with it a bit so it doesnt do that any more, but I have always had a bit of an issue closing it. It will very rarely latch properly at the back, panel lines are well out and if it does shut properly then the lowest say 30% is touching the arch panel (so much so its taken the paint off both). I know this is where a pic would say more than a thousand words, but unfortunately Im still out of luck on that one. I know that pretty much the whole bus has had the repair panels just boshed over the top without cutting out any of the old crap (you can see through the filler most of it and they havent even tried to hide it on the inside of the slider, so I was wondering if this is the most likely cause of my issue? Now it wont latch at all at the back and im left with about a cm between seal and door.. I cant put the cover on it cus the crazy wind just takes it off again within 5 minutes and its quite clearly about to p*ss it down. I was wondering if any of you guys might be able to chuck a pic up of what your slider looks like at the back, how its latched to the runner/hinge bit so I can compare with mine? I dont want to go ripping apart my hinge if there is nothing wrong with it and the actual panelwork is the problem... or if anyone has any ideas? once again, can only apologise for lack of pic, have tried to describe it best I can.
Here's a pic of mine. The angle makes the gaps look crap but they're actually pretty good. It sounds like the bushes on your hinge have worn. Lift the back of the door up, any movement between the U shaped part and the bits it connects to means there's wear. Earlier vans had removable bushes, later ones don't
Thats a great help! Thank you very much!! that sounds like the cause, as the back of my door does move up and down. Will go and check if that bits moving, but certainly sounds like it makes sense.. Not liking the last sentence though, does that mean I'll have to buy the whole lot again to fix it?
Possibly. The earlier bushes can be bought. around '77 I think, they changed the design so that the steel U bit sits directly in the alloy bits of the hinge, so any wear will be in the softer alloy parts(I know steel is technically an alloy, but you know what I mean) The alloy bits are available but v expensive, what you might be able to do if you've got the later hinge is buy a set of the bushes and get the hinge parts machined to fit the bushes?
Thanks for the help numberone. There is very very slight play where the U bit joins the back part of the hinge, but the whole lot goes up and down quite a lot in the runner.. That plastic block bit (thing furthest right of your pic) seems a lot closer to the top runner bit than on mine. Also, a little fiddling leaves me with the belief that there has been a new rear arch panel bodged over the original, and then one of those little front of rear arch repair sections boshed over that one, as my panel gap seems to lessen in steps, and at the bottom the seal wont actually go into the smaller space for it and has been folded over so its not sitting right. So couple that with the fact the repair panels on the sliding door have only been riveted over the originals and folded over the original edges, leaves me with less than no panel gap, and add that to the wear in the hinge and it all makes sense on why its such a utter colon to shut. Didnt help that its almost too windy to stand still up here.. I need an indoor workspace
