At 01:17 AM 8/18/00 -0400, kathy jacobs wrote:

Please reply to opawalt@my-deja.com
This was posted on the aircooled newsgroup.
Help!! My 1981 VW Vanagon has a new problem. The
sliding door will NOT open. I have taken apart
everything I can to try and understand the
problem, but the final disassembly requires the
door to be open and that is the problem!

Has anyone out there ever heard of this problem
or what I can do about it? I really hate to use a
torch. Any ideas would be welcome.

This just happened to my '82, wow small world! The front catch was not opening but the rear was. The solution was strange, the cable that goes from the forward latch to the rear latch was not seated properly in it's holder at the front latch. To fix it I adjusted the little adjuster to lengthen the cable a little touch. Then I placed it back in it's holder (through the notch) and gave the door a try. Voila, it worked. Why the cable going to the back was keeping the front from working is a new one to me.

The hard part was getting the old door panel clips out without trashing the panel. I was not successful with that. But i figure a nice sheet of melamite would be a decent replacement.

I hope this helps

Chris Smith
'82 Westy, T.U.R.D.
'74 Thing. Thingy
Some cars that really run

-- Lowering property values since 1982! --