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1947 Coupe - door star adjustment?


ebruns1

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Hey Fellas,

Take a look at these pictures please.  My driver door closes tight but the passenger side does not.  When I shut the passenger door it catches about 1" from closed .  The spring on the striker is working and looks to be good with little wear.  Oddly, the driver strike spring is stuck in the up position yet that door shuts tight.  The only difference I can see is that the top star "arm" on the passenger door does not seem to be in the vertical position but is slightly angled away.  Is there any way to adjust the rotation of the star?  I searched through all the threads I could find and I do not see any mention of adjusting the rotation position of the star.  It seems like it needs to move about 20 degrees to match the driver side. 

 

If I loosen the screws on the striker plate will I be able to adjust it tighter or does it only mount in one position?  Hoping I can fix this without tearing apart all the door hardware...

 

Thanks for any advice!

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The door adjustment as far as I know is on the door pillar by loosening the striker plate screws..at least thats how the adjustment was on the 1941 Plymouth Coupe I had worked......but just be careful not to undo completely or remove the screws as I found there wasn't any "captive" nut plate and I nearly lost the plate into the pillar........andyd 

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Ditto Andydodge's reply.  The door adjustment for closing is via adjusting the striker block that's on the door pillar, not anything you can do with the mechanism in the door.  I suggest a thorough cleaning of that mechanism, it is pretty grungy, and built up crud can impede the positioning of that star.  Removing it would be the best option.  It can be cleaned while still in the door, but in my opinion not quite as well as if removed.  

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Thanks fellas! 

So you are saying there's no option to change the rotation of the star...only to loosen the strike plate and move in towards the interior?  I was thinking that maybe the star was on a spline with multi-position adjustment.  It still seems weird that one is vertical and the other is angled...

I will clean them up tonight as you suggest and try to get the screws out of the strike plate and see if it can be repositioned.  I guess there are oval mounting holes in the A-pillar to allow for side to side adjustments?  If worse comes to worse I'll pull the whole mechanism and try cleaning it...that's a good rainy-day workbench project and I have limited time on my feet before my legs give out.

 

JT

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4 hours ago, ebruns1 said:

Thanks fellas! 

So you are saying there's no option to change the rotation of the star...only to loosen the strike plate and move in towards the interior?  I was thinking that maybe the star was on a spline with multi-position adjustment.  It still seems weird that one is vertical and the other is angled...

I will clean them up tonight as you suggest and try to get the screws out of the strike plate and see if it can be repositioned.  I guess there are oval mounting holes in the A-pillar to allow for side to side adjustments?  If worse comes to worse I'll pull the whole mechanism and try cleaning it...that's a good rainy-day workbench project and I have limited time on my feet before my legs give out.

 

JT

 

I read where we should only loosen the strike plate screws, not remove them. If the screws are removed the anchor plate will fall down into the door threshold. I had to use an impact driver to loosen some of the screws on my P15, but after adjustment the latches now work as they should.

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capture plates are by their own name....CAPTURED...only if the capture housing have been destroyed by rust, compromised by prior bad acts of maintenance will they drop EVEN at that...you can still get  your hands on them...AGAIN...these mechanisms will do their best to fool you into thinking t hey are shot, wore out and beyond use when the majority of the time they only need a super good cleaning.....if and when you remove the latch to clean and lube will you see the very locking means of the star rotor...then and only then will the light come on...

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What I did with the 41 Plymouth was to use some allthread or long bolts with the same thread as the striker plate screws and cut off the bolt heads then screw the allthread into the plate which was long enough to stop the plate dropping into the abyss yet allow me to remove the striker plate and replace it..........also its worth checking but I think there is the ability to use the opposite lock assemblys as a swap, ie, drivers front and passenger rear swap and passenger front and drivers rear swap, obviously from a 4dr sedan but the rear door stuff generally gets much less use and is in better condition for swapping from a parts car or also maybe available at a better price for a NOS piece   than the front door pieces........andyd  

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