OK I'm now moving onto the sliding door which seems to have major problems. The door doesn't sit right and doesn't open properly (unless you push the bottom in as you slide it back) nor close at all. To even get close to closing you need to lift the front and push it in, but the back will not push in. There seems to be a combination of issues and I'm not sure what the problem is. Hopefully someone will have some pointers for me. Firstly the lower roller wheel doesn't seem to even run on the bottom (but if it does the door is too low to shut): The guide roller is also missing as you can see in the first picture. Any thoughts I what I should be looking at doing first/next?
Shims between the bottom roller assembly and the bottom of the door raise the door height. New support roller bearing at bottom. Not cheap but my old roller lost about 5 mm diameter. Then you need to adjust the height and position of the two lock strikers at each end of the door and the length of the pull bar from the front to the back of the door. Procedure in Bentley manual is correct but confusing.
there's plenty of adjustment to get the slider to fit more or less....remember it's an old vehicle and may have had panel work, sills etc in the past. The bottom roller can be adjust fore and aft and up and down relative to the track it runs in (allen bolts below the bracket, shims between the bracket and the door itself) Same for the top roller bracket striker plates and catches can all be moved up/down/sideways/angled relative to the locking mechanism at the rear Same for the catch plate at the front... Every door will be slightly different, so there's no hard and fast rules. Finally, there is a nylon guide block that runs in the middle track...this, together with the bushes that are provided for the mechanism (rear of the door at waist rail ) are prone to wear/sag after countless openings/shuttings...nowt you can do but refurb/replace Start by getting a bottom roller...good luck...it's a two man job really
the shim on my slider is simply a small rectangular metal plate about 1.5mm thick, that fits between the roller bracket and the bottom edge of the door, with a couple of elongated holes so it can be positioned where needed....you could make something up out of any material which won't rust/compress that's thick enough to raise the door to the desired height...even a couple of stainless flat washers will do the trick...can't post a pic 'cos my bus isn't here!!! Google vw sliding door shim images
Washers are ok for finding out what thickness of shims you need, but cause too much stress to use permanently, so make some proper load spreading shims. Get your rollers sorted first though, you might find shims aren't needed.
But in the end, if you want a new one, unless you can find a ball bearing race of the correct diameter with a semicircular profile to the outer part of the race you have little choice. I held off for a while but in the end the £39.75 dropped into the noise and general costs of running a bus for 9000 miles a year. It stopped mine grinding on the track even with shims fitted.
If it's just the bearing, measure the inner dia, outer dia and thickness - you'll get one on the internet for a fiver.
Try Forbes Automotive - £25; http://forbesautomotive.co.uk.temp-www3.com/index_files/Page368.htm JK now sold out.
Sorry to threadjack, I had to raise my door as it was rubbing the cab floor/door entry bit. Anyway i used a shim to raise it but it threw the back out (made it go down and the lines were not straight). What can you do to stop that? The door still rubs a bit, ive got a stainless steel edging bit now so i can just rub away any sign of rubbing but im worried about exposing the metal on the underside of the door.