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MG MG Y Type - Door alignment

I'm having a strange problem here. It started with a broken door latch (now I know why they are called suicide doors!) After almost falling out of the car, I got it home and found the body-mounted latch had broken in two. I finally got around to replacing it tonight but upon reassembly I noticed things didn't line up quite right. I'll do my best to describe it since I can't take a decent picture of it.

As you know, the door side of the latch is taller than the body side part, so when the door closes and the latches are centered on each other, the door side has extra material above and below the body side. Mine, however, is WAY off. The top of the door side comes up only to the middle of the body side even when the body side is adjusted all the way down. This is probably what broke the thing to begin with.

While fiddling, I also noticed the door (this is the R/H front door) is barely grazing the rubber on the running boards which I don't remember it doing before. When I get it closed and latched, the door does not line up as well as the other three. It seems to sit a bit low because when I inspect the gap between the top of the door and the rain gutter, the gap increases as I go forward on the car. THe other front door is perfectly even.

It seems to have been set up this way for a long time so I don't know if it can be improved upon or not. Is there a door adjustment other than just up and down? The rear of the door seems right, I just need to raise the front up a bit. Is shimming the lower hinge the only way? Thanks for any input. (Sorry for writing a book about it.)
Steve Simmons

One more thing... I didn't really mention that the amount of sag in the door will never make up for the amount of misalignment between the latches. Perhaps the factory messed up on this one?
Steve Simmons

Steve:

At this time I do not own a Y series, but I have in the past owned a 52 YB. I currently own a 52 TD Mark II. As to your question, shimming the hinge may remedy the situation, but I would look deeper. Shimming the hinge will change the rear door edge gap. Since the problem is relatively new, based on your note of the door grazing the running board rubbers, I would also check for deteriorated body mounts. It appears that the body alignment on the frame is off and the body is sagging. A mount pad of the incorrect thickness, or rusted out body mounts can (will) throw off door and/or bonnet alignment. Worst case: make sure the frame is not cracked and all body mounting frame flanges are intact and not bent or broken, and all rivets are in place. If this was a factory defect, I would assume that someone would have noticed and attempted repair before now.

John M.
John Masters

Steve,

If you promise not to blame the factory anymore (although the Y-bodies weren't build in Abingdon) I'll try to scan the pages of the service-manual where they describe the adjustment of the doors. It involves a lot of hamfisted bending, so be prepared.

Greetings,

Willem
Willem van der Veer

Willem, I would appreciate that! The part that has me stumped is the door latch misalignment. It's as if the plate mounting holes were drilled an inch off.

John, I will check the points you mentioned. Thank you very much for the info. I am still very new to cars this old.
Steve Simmons

Steve - Off subject, but I hope that you are well clear of all the fires down there. I know that you should be but one never knows which way they will decide to go .
Dave
David DuBois

Thank you so much for the concern. I deeply appreciate it. I am in the Western San Fernando Valley, which you may have heard of on the news. One of the large fires which I believe they are now calling the Simi fire since it transversed Simi Valley on it's way to SF Valley, has now jumped a freeway and made it's way down the hills into suberban Chatsworth in the Northwestern end of the SF Valley. I can see the flames about 6 or 7 miles from me and the air is thick with smoke and falling ash.

Earlier today I had to run outside because the wind had blown the cover off my B and ash was covering it almost like snow. I am in no real danger from this fire since there is 6 miles of city between the closest flame and my house, but I pray for those in it's path.

As of now there are over 1,100 homes burned to the ground and 15 people killed. If they find the arsonists who started these fires they should throw them in.

Here is a slide show of the horror, with a few inappropriate (imho) football pictures thrown in...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/ts/062003wildfires&tmpl=sl&e=1
Steve Simmons

We saw pictures on TV today of the fire that was approaching Chatsworth. They showed it burning around what we use to know as Stony Point where a high school buddy and I used to ride our bikes to from Granada Hills back in the dark ages BF (Before Freeways). Hang in there, and this is one time when keeping your powder dry is probably not a thing to wish for. Dave
David DuBois

Steve,

I scanned the pages but took the wrong diskette of my desk at home, I'll try again tomorrow as I still don't have e-mail at home....

Willem
Willem van der Veer

No worries Willem. I appreciate the effort.

David, I used to hike and ride around Stony point also. I don't remember the time when there was no freeway but I do remember when it ended before Topanga Canyon rather than continuing to Simi Valley. The fire didn't seem to care that an 8-lane freeway was there. It jumped it and continued on it's way.
Steve Simmons

Steve - With the Santa Annas behind it, there is not much that will stop those fires. Having gon through a couple when we lived down there (one got less than a mile from out house in Green Valley) I find them just about the most frightening thing there is. It's too bad we couldn't have sent some of our record rains and overflowing rivers from a week ago down to you, it would be of more use to you than it was to us. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

This thread was discussed between 27/10/2003 and 28/10/2003

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