Steve P Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 Anyone got any top tips for getting my Vitesse drivers door to shut and latch properly,i`ve been farting around with it today and the only way it will shut is with a run up and slam so that the door card comes off its poppers.The gaps are ok if a little tight at the top when i`m in it.(body flex or FB)CheersSteve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cureton Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 You need to tell us a bit more about the problem, is it shuuting all the way to the dorr rubber or is it catching metal on metal in which case it could be a variety of things, some of them serious! If it's not metal on metal then it's most likely a faulty catch or striker plate, you might get away with oiling the mechanism or adjusting the striker plate. Try slackeing the striker plate and moving it forward (towards the outside o the car if you know what I mean) and see if latches, if it does then it's likely to be a simple matter of adjustment. Have you changed or messed with the door seal rubber recently, if so are you sure you've replaced it with the correct profile? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted User Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 Using ANY bubble profile door seal will lead to having to throw the door at the car. It's unfortunate that many seals supplied for Heralds/Vitesses are the wrong bubble section, you need a curved lip section instead. If it is the bubble section you may be able to cut it to make a curved lip and the door shut may improve. Having to slam it isn't ideal (as I'm sure you're aware) especially as these cars can have a habit of opening in use due to poor door shut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve P Posted September 2, 2007 Author Share Posted September 2, 2007 The door seals are new recently from some firm called Rarebits ;)The door touches the body at the very top of the door when closed,i`m sure its adjustment that needs sorting but i am not sure what the position of the moving lever should be when it hits the catch plate to make it latch properly.sometimes it locks but you cant release it from inside the car.CheersSteve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted User Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 Try a light spray of WD40 on the catch & plate. My Vitesse was a bugger to close properly, needing a real slam and the door occassionally popped open on left handers (interesting if something was coming the other way). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger.england Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 SteveDo we have mirrored cars - first the clutch release bearing, now the door? Mine was doing the same thing. It turned out to be caused by the little sliding plate at the bottom of the plate on the door jamb. I applied some WD40 to clean it and then a little liquid grease - eh voila - fixed.RegardsRoger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heraldcoupe Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 redoxideVit wrote:The door seals are new recently from some firm called Rarebits ;)They'll be alright then! ;DQuote:The door touches the body at the very top of the door when closed,i`m sure its adjustment that needs sorting but i am not sure what the position of the moving lever should be when it hits the catch plate to make it latch properly.sometimes it locks but you cant release it from inside the car.The sliding plate on the B-post catch is a likely culprit, as already suggested. The lack of release from the inside may be unrelated. The internal lever mechanism has elongated mounting holes, if the mechanism sits too far forward it will fail to release properly. You can test this with the door panel off and the handle loosely refitted. I've just been through this with a Coupe I'm working on, it's an often neglected adjustment,Cheers,Bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted User Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 a common cause of needing to slam the door is the three screws holding the catch block onto the body coming loose.It's quite hard to get them really tight if the screw heads are burred. I now use an impact driver (gently :-) ) to tighten them and haven't had any more problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bxbodger Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 It took a good weekend to get my doors working properly...I had dodgy seals, which I fixed, which made it easier to close them, but that was only part of the problem.Apart from what's been mentioned above, I found it a great help to remove the internals from the door and clean and lube them- part of my problem was that the latch wasn't dropping properly into the striker plate, so I had to have the door adjusted so it needed a slam to close, just so it'd latch properly. When the latch hits the striker plate it's supposed to be flicked into the closed position, but it wasn't.The passenger door also wouldn't open from inside, which would have meant an MOT fail.A strip of the mechanism revealed the latch springs and pivots all gummed up with 40 years worth of dirt, and a good clean'n'lube meant I could adjust the doors properly so they'd latch and also undo from inside.....it was all so easy to sort once I'd cleaned the internals up...the merest touch now sends the latches into the closed position, whereas before a hefty slam was neede, and then i was never quite sure the doors were latched properly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted User Posted September 3, 2007 Share Posted September 3, 2007 The best thing I found for lubing door mechanisms and stuff is a light grease with a solvent. It goes in as thin as petrol but as the solvent evaporates, the grease stays. Great for accelerator cables too. [edit] Torco is a brand that I like but there are several others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve P Posted September 3, 2007 Author Share Posted September 3, 2007 Thanks for the tips,i know the anti burst catch thingy does slide but not as free as it could be,i`ll strip out all the mechanisms and clean and grease everything and go for the adjustment.CheersSteveOh and Roger,let me know what goes wrong next and i`ll check mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger.england Posted September 3, 2007 Share Posted September 3, 2007 SteveI would take a very close look at the flexible pipe that connects the fuel pipe from the tank to the pipe to the from of the car - mines just had to be replaced!Oh, and if you get anything serious happen - keep it to yourself!RegardsRoger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted September 3, 2007 Share Posted September 3, 2007 if the door is tight to the b post waist and tends to be proud at the bottom its most likley rear body tub spread, do a search on the site theres a number of posts about it, you need to tournquet the tub ,ive used the seat belt holes and also made a plate to fit using the striker plate screws,(best) and on post in feb we used the b post extn holes as the lid was off... had to overpull ours in some 2 inches to gain a 1/2" to make the seal gap parallel. peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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