Date:         Fri, 18 Jun 2004 15:00:04 -0700
Reply-To:     James V <tornadored@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         James V <tornadored@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Sliding Door Gets Stuck
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

The sliding door on my '90 is having problems...

When I pull the handle, the door only partially releases. So the door just
barely cracks open, but can't be opened further. However, if I wait a few
seconds/minutes, it eventually releases (???).

The lower latch seems to work fine - When the handle is pulled, the latch
pulls down out of the way of the upper latch.  The upper latch (spring
loaded) releases and begins to swing up but seems to get hung up, so it
doesn't release from the pin.  Yet, with the door open, the upper latch
freely snaps open by its spring.

Once the door does release, I can open/close it immediately after, over and
over, and it works fine. But if I leave the door closed for a few minutes,
it will stick again.  It doesn't appear that the door is binding anywhere
else.  I lubed the latch w/ out luck.  And if it were just a sticky latch,
I'd think that pushing/pulling on the door from the outside would free it,
but it doesn't.  Only waiting frees it up.

Don't know if these photos help any:
http://home.earthlink.net/~tornadored/vanagon/sliding_door/


Advice appreciated.

Thanks,

James V
90 Carat