Dart door striker removal and replacement

[Dorris Owner]

I am currently having problems with the door catch and striker. The striker is clearly worn such that it is not able to fully rotate the door mechanisim and therefore only closes on the first catch. There is no more adjustment in either the door mechainism or striker plate hence the replacement.

My question is upon undoing the fixing screws on the the B post that hold the striker plate does anyone know if the nuts or plate inside is retained or do I have to gain access to the inside of the B post?

[silverdart]

Yes the plate inside the B post is loosely fixed.
The holes in the fibreglass are oversize to allow some adjustment.

Dave.

[Dorris Owner]

Dave, Is it possible to replace the striker by lossening the screws, taking two out, rotating the old striker plate and then mount the new one with one screw, then release the remaining one in the old striker plate? Dave B.

[timmartin]

The fibreglass bodies were at least largely hand made and assembled.
I believe that separate people worked on each side of the car.
Over about five years of production, there will have been quite a lot of variation in the working practices used.
So I am no longer surprised that the left and right hand sides of my car are noticeably different from each other; I suspect that almost all cars are unique if one looks closely enough.

I understand that the idea was that, as has been said above, the holes in the fibreglass were supposed to be oversized so that by slackening the screws, the fitting and the mobile back-plate behind the fibreglass could be slid around (up-down, left-right) until its position was optimised.

On my car all four back-plates were fibreglassed in from new. Really not helpful.

I ground out the steel back-plates for my anti-rattle fittings some years ago, then smoothed the fibreglass where they had been and substituted nice new stainless steel ones.

So then I could adjust the fittings, and the fixings could not rust. BUT, it was not very bright of me, because if you take out all the screws then the back-plate falls down into the hollow sill...where it can't be fished out with a magnet because it is stainless and not ferromagnetic...

So if you have to work on the back-plate, the first thing to do is stuff a rag in the hole underneath it. Some people also make up a little cassette, an oversize metal box that holds the back-plate sufficiently in place when the screws are out, and allows enough movement when the screws are loosely in. I'll get round to it myself one day.

Good luck.

[silverdart]

In answer to your question, yes, that is exactly how you do it.

Dave.

[Dorris Owner]

Thanks for all your responses and help. I will let you know how it goes. Dave.