1981 240D Door striker adjustment
 

How does one adjust these things?

When I first bought this car the door strikers were in bad shape, not knowing any better I bought the cheapo ones. Three of the four work perfect, but the drivers door not so much. I hate slamming the drivers door all the time.

I'm going to buy a good one from MBZ classic center if I can't adjust this one.

I would love to know this.
Both front doors are a b@stard to close... both have new door strikers.

1st : buy the proper new striker from The Classic Center or find one in a junkyard, it'll prolly fail in a year or two but if' you're broke do what you have to do .

I adjust these by lightly setting the screws then sitting on a milk crate and peering in the gap as I *almost* close the door and then adjust so the pointed spear bit enters the round hole bit dead center ~ then you tighten up two screws diagonally and see if the door closes O.K. .

If so, tighten the other screws really well and you're good to go .

Some times it takes me three or five tries before I get it Just So so don't panic or have a spazz, just keep at it .

The proper closing doors is a delight and well worth the effort .

That’s what I’ve been doing with this one, I figured it was because it was a Cheap POS.

I will buy the good one, thanks for the info.

If that makes a difference, please let us know.
As far as I can tell, the action of the striker comes down to a small plastic nub.
The rest is a funnel... in this case, I’m skeptical oem would make any appreciable difference aside from price and longevity.

The only adjustment I can see is there is different thicknesses of shims.

When I bought cheap ones I could not use the shims that the old ones had.

The little rubber nose in the square seems to be the most important area as it pushes the hook in and that pushes the other end of the hook up into the recess on the bottom of the striker.

I tried using epoxy putty on one of the door strikers. It worked but later broke off and I replaced it again with epoxy putty and it is holding.

I had trouble with the epoxy on the bottom by the recess. If you put too much it wont work.

On the cheapie door strikers I had one of the rubber noses break off within 2 months

Try using the original striker frame with the aftermarket stiker rubber guts.
Shown here...
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/3761038-post10.html


The aftermarket frames are incorrectly shaped.
Shown in these pics.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/3761949-post12.html



.

The bitterness of low quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is gone .

Well at least in my case, over 4 years and still good on the rebuilt strikers. I feel good with the sub- $8 rubber parts.


.

Grease the latch mechanism.

Yeah, but three outta four ain’t bad!

Did that

Nate knows what he’s talking about.

I usually save original bits, if I still have the original striker I’m going to try this.

Now that I’m thinking about it, both of the right hand doors cheapo striker is working great. Both of the left side are junk, but for some reason the left rear door original striker still works fine. And the bolts won’t come out on that one, so I can switch it to the front door.

I have to pull my latch mechanisms completely out and clean all the old grease out of them, then regrease them. Driver and passenger side are okay-ish, back doors never saw much use so they're kind of sticky.

Some PO has applied a liberal amount of white lithium grease to all the latches as well. Doesn't help much with door operation, lol.