Here's my two bits on sliding doors: The sliding door mechanism was not working well in my '81, so I tried to oil it. The owners manual points to one spot on the link pin that should be periodically lubricated. That helped some, but the real problem was with a broken hinge link spring. This is a big sucker about 4-5 inches long that pushes the back end of the door out so it clears rear quarter panel and then can slide backwards. When it was broken I needed to push the rear part of the door out after releasing the front latch. This was easier from the inside than the outside. To fix it I had to take the door off (heavy for one person, but possible) and remove the interior panel. Mine was broken at a cast metal connector that connected the spring to the hinge link. The cast metal peice must have just cracked in half and the spring was totally disconnected. I got the part number from the fiche (thanks Joel), and the dealer had this small piece (actually two matching pieces) for about $5 each. It was pretty simple to put back together. By the way, the local junkyark wanted about $75 for the whole assembly! I noticed at the Pfeiffer picnic that the Copleys' bus had the same problem. Some DPO had attached an extra handle to the outside of the door at the rear to make it easy to open. Their rear hinge assembly was also broken, but in a different spot. Another cast metal piece, the one threaded inside the spring was snapped. I guess these metal pieces are a little brittle, eh? Is this a common problem with these doors? John
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