Dropped door

[Fez887]

Hi

Just noticed that my drivers side door isn’t opening freely when the wing mirror button is pressed. On closer inspection the D bar on the door is catching the bottom on the slot in the body. Seems clear that the door has dropped.

Question - is there an easy adjustment to lift the door slightly to sort the issue?

Thanks in advance

[pmc_3]

The top hinge bolt inside the door sometimes comes loose which causes the door to drop. It's worth checking that first as it's an easy one to sort. You should be able to get to it with just removing the speaker from the door and reaching through with a 17mm socket or spanner.

[Andy70]

Cool, I've been waiting for a reply with this thread, my doors seem to have dropped too, easy fix by the sound of it

[phillpot]

The door hinges consist of two bolts turning in a nylon bush.
These bushes wear over time, you may be able to adjust to compensate if it's not too bad.
Replacing hhe bushes is a bit of a flaff but not rocket science!

[Andy70]

phillpot said:

The door hinges consist of two bolts turning in a nylon bush.
These bushes wear over time, you may be able to adjust to compensate if it's not too bad.
Replacing hhe bushes is a bit of a flaff but not rocket science!

Do you know the dimensions of those bushes by any chance? looks like I could machine those at work

[phillpot]

Andy70 said:

Do you know the dimensions of those bushes by any chance? looks like I could machine those at work

Yes but only if you make me a set

There are two per door

The bore is 10mm, to take an M10 bolt

OD of the main body is 15mm

Total length is 35mm

The flange is 3mm x 19mm diameter

[Andy70]

phillpot said:

Yes but only if you make me a set

There are two per door

The bore is 10mm, to take an M10 bolt

OD of the main body is 15mm

Total length is 35mm

The flange is 3mm x 19mm diameter

wow sounds simple, we make bushes similar to that for our hot air balloon components, I'll make one tomorrow if i can

[pmc_3]

phillpot said:

Yes but only if you make me a set

There are two per door

The bore is 10mm, to take an M10 bolt

OD of the main body is 15mm

Total length is 35mm

The flange is 3mm x 19mm diameter

They are shorter on a Chimaera, I had to cut down the ones I bought from you Mike. The tube in the door that they slide into was 25mm deep. So the total length with the flange probably wants to be 28mm, I can measure one of the old ones tomorrow.

[phillpot]

pmc_3 said:

They are shorter on a Chimaera, I had to cut down the ones I bought from you Mike.

That's strange, the big TVR parts suppliers sell the same part number for both S Series and Chimaera/Griffith ?

Looks like the later T cars use a shorter version . . . . . . .

https://motaclan.com/product/door-hinge-top-hat-bu...

Edited by phillpot on Thursday 10th April 08:59

[pmc_3]

phillpot said:

That's strange, the big TVR parts suppliers sell the same part number for both S Series and Chimaera/Griffith ?

Looks like the later cars use a shorter version . . . . . . .

https://motaclan.com/product/door-hinge-top-hat-bu...

Mines a mk1 1994. Here’s 3 of the originals with 1 of the ones I had from you.

[Andy70]

And that's the bushes we make at work for our frames, very similar, I might remove mine out of my door when I get the chance, if it's not to difficult that is and take some measurements as there seems to be some discrepancy here

[Andy70]

pmc_3 said:

The top hinge bolt inside the door sometimes comes loose which causes the door to drop. It's worth checking that first as it's an easy one to sort. You should be able to get to it with just removing the speaker from the door and reaching through with a 17mm socket or spanner.

Easier said than done, if you can manage to get a socket on the nut, the window runner is in the way and won't turn, or at least that's the problem I'm having, I tried to locate the nuts to remove the door card and can only find 2, 1 to the right of the speaker and I think another literally the other side of with I think is the window motor maybe? can't find any more, I was led to believe there are three, somewhere??

[pmc_3]

Andy70 said:

Easier said than done, if you can manage to get a socket on the nut, the window runner is in the way and won't turn, or at least that's the problem I'm having, I tried to locate the nuts to remove the door card and can only find 2, 1 to the right of the speaker and I think another literally the other side of with I think is the window motor maybe? can't find any more, I was led to believe there are three, somewhere??

I nipped mine up the other week without removing the door card. I used my Halfords stubby ratchet with a 17mm socket on it.

If you do want to take the door card off this post might help as it has a photo of the nut locations https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... FYI my drivers side has 3 but passenger side one has 4 fixings.

[Andy70]

pmc_3 said:

Andy70 said:

Easier said than done, if you can manage to get a socket on the nut, the window runner is in the way and won't turn, or at least that's the problem I'm having, I tried to locate the nuts to remove the door card and can only find 2, 1 to the right of the speaker and I think another literally the other side of with I think is the window motor maybe? can't find any more, I was led to believe there are three, somewhere??

I nipped mine up the other week without removing the door card. I used my Halfords stubby ratchet with a 17mm socket on it.

If you do want to take the door card off this post might help as it has a photo of the nut locations https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... FYI my drivers side has 3 but passenger side one has 4 fixings.

Yeah thanks for that, sort of helped but I have read other bits of info that says something different, maybe it changed year on year? mine is a 2000 with no ashtray, 1 tread i read suggested there was one nut near the ashtray, any way, I wont hack Fez887's thread any more, I'll try a short spanner, although I did try one that wasn't exactly long and there was no room to turn it. I could do with knowing how to take the card off any way to service my window runners

[pmc_3]

Andy70 said:

Yeah thanks for that, sort of helped but I have read other bits of info that says something different, maybe it changed year on year? mine is a 2000 with no ashtray, 1 tread i read suggested there was one nut near the ashtray, any way, I wont hack Fez887's thread any more, I'll try a short spanner, although I did try one that wasn't exactly long and there was no room to turn it. I could do with knowing how to take the card off any way to service my window runners

The ones with ashtrays, it was just a self tapper behind that. All the nuts are along the bottom accessed through the speaker hole. One towards the front of the door not far from the speaker hole and then the other two are normally either side of the window motor.

[Andy70]

pmc_3 said:

Andy70 said:

Yeah thanks for that, sort of helped but I have read other bits of info that says something different, maybe it changed year on year? mine is a 2000 with no ashtray, 1 tread i read suggested there was one nut near the ashtray, any way, I wont hack Fez887's thread any more, I'll try a short spanner, although I did try one that wasn't exactly long and there was no room to turn it. I could do with knowing how to take the card off any way to service my window runners

The ones with ashtrays, it was just a self tapper behind that. All the nuts are along the bottom accessed through the speaker hole. One towards the front of the door not far from the speaker hole and then the other two are normally either side of the window motor.

So the one literally the other side of the window motor is the furthest one away? if that's the case I can only feel 2, 1 like you said just to the right of the speaker and the one right next to the window motor on the other side of it

[pmc_3]

Maybe this will help. The holes circled in red are the normal door card locating holes that the bolts go through, the one in blue is the additional one that some cars have on the passenger side.

[Andy70]

pmc_3 said:

Maybe this will help. The holes circled in red are the normal door card locating holes that the bolts go through, the one in blue is the additional one that some cars have on the passenger side.

Brilliant, I'm sure I've felt around those areas with no luck, but I'll have another go this weekend

[Andy70]

drawn a blank again, can still only find 2 of the nuts on the door card and the 17mm nut on the hinge, will not budge, so back to square 1, anything else? lol

[sixor8]

I've had 3 Chimaeras and a Griff. They all had the bolts in approximately those positions. Some cars had 3, some had 4, I can't remember which way round but it was an age thing.

You need to sit on the floor facing the rear of the car with the door open and your arm in almost up to the armpit to reach the one (or 2?) at the rear of the door. I suggest replacing with wing nuts; and tie the 10mm spanner to your wrist with string. If you drop it inside the door you'll have a hell of a time getting it out.