I have to really slam all four doors on my 79 240D to get them to latch. There is a male on the door and a female on the door jam. Just below the female is a little insert that is badly worn. This insert is what trips the latching mechanism. MB does not sell the insert separately but as part of a $76 unit. I am not inclined to sink $304 + 6% tax on closing my doors. Does anybody know if these inserts are available somewhere or should I fashion something myself? Anybody out there ever do this?

E-mail Phil here on the forum (Fastlane). He has some great resources.

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BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

I thought that is why we buy parts cars and have them sitting around... LOL
If you do get them from a parts car you can see the pictures I posted about doing this in the archives.... usually you can't get some of the allen head screws out which hold them on.... if you pick the correct drill you can drill them out without it doing any harm to anything....

Hammer, WD40, allen socket (not the wrnch thingies). Works every time.

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1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Same thing happened to me with one door on my '79. I replaced the entire female striker plate with junk yard part, 5mm allen socket you need to do the job. The old ones have white nylon inserts, later MB went to black nylon - dont know why. But I doubt the nylon bits are even removable from the female striker plates. You can have the entire set of female door clasps that appear to be working fine from my parts car..... How does $45 for the complete set of 4 that includes shipping and handling sound?

Yeah Right... the next time an internal head bolt is rounded off when I encounter it and it needs to be gotten off I will call you guys.... otherwise I will get the drill out and do the job.

Once you buy a replacement, get the old one off and put the new one in place, make sure that you don't tighten the screws all the way, cause you need to align the two halves.

I had a devil of a time getting my passenger front door aligned, but now that it finally is, door latches great.

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1998 W202 C230 - The money pit of late.
1984 W126 300SD (356,800 miles) Gone to the wrenchapart
1984 W123 300D Gone to the wrenchapart
1972 W108 280SE 3.5 (sold but not forgotten)
1986 Buick Grand National 3.8l Turbo (86k miles)
1966 Glassic Model 'A' Replica http://www.glassicannex.org

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I had this same door slamming issue and replaced 2 of the strikers on my W123. The doors shut better but still require extra effort. I am not pleased with how the doors shut on any of our Mercedes. Even my old Mustang's door shuts easier. The doors of our '99 Suburban shut effortlessly.

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85 300D 3 pedal. Current project.
83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.

Clean and lube the latches. Make sure that the door hasn't dropped over time. The male & female alignment part of striker should match perfectly when you close the door gently. If the door has dropped, you'll be able to see it being lifted into position. The striker has to be in the correct place also.

I have started grabbing a couple of strikers when at the yard. Many are in really good shape. The plastic insert can be move to the opposite side. The entire bumper unit is side specific.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

So a couple of weeks ago I suddenly had a hard time closing my '80 240d drivers door. Pretty soon I had to slam it VERY hard to get it to close. Against my better judgement, I drenched it in WD, no change. I read here about the strikers so I bought a cheap aftermarket online - excitedly installed it, using the grime mark to position it and ... still wouldn't close. I tried moving the striker in all different ways, nothing. I stared at the latch and compared with the passenger side and another 123, it looked fine. It rotated through both positions easily by thumb, there was no rogue trim pieces hanging up the door, the hinges look brand new (the car is beatiful) and there is 0 verticcal play in the door. So out of frustration or maybe the need to complicate things I pulled the latch assy out of the door (some kind of German voodoo puzzle) studied it for a while seemed to be working - the aftrmrkt striker rubber was hanging it up a bit, but it was pretty dirty, dirt embedded in old oil gummy crap all up in it. I popped off the plastic guard (After carefully bending the metal lock tab) and went to work on it with rubbing alcohol, a tooth brush, which got gummed up right away, then paper towels then ear swabs to get into all the tight spots- let it dry real good - then hit it with some graphite. Door StiLL wouldn't close - I adjusted the striker radically up and out and Boom the door closed. It still needs a bit of a shove -but 99 times better than driveing with door half closed. I think after some fine adjustments and the latch wears a groove in the rubber it should get better. And the key now turns like butter - I don't know if all that was necessary but that was my Sat afternoon - and my door closes
And no more WD on doors!

I just changed 2 on my '82.

A quick shot of Kroil penetrating oil on each of the 4 flat head allen bolts, trip back into the house for more coffee and out they came with a previously mentioned allen socket.

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1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."