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MG TD TF 1500 - Door latch

Hi again

As I take my TD apart all kind of things seems to pile up - sometimes more than one at the time!
Last thing to find is that the LH door seems to have some slack when closed.
the problems seems to be caused by the locking pin in the doorlock which due to wear can be move sideways about 1,5mm (the RH doesn't)causin the door to have a gap of approx 4-5 millimeters.
The lock can be replaces but at a pretty naughty price, so I wonder if someone has succeeded in fixing this slack in some way?

As usual thanks in advance for your competent answers


Torben
Torben Olesen

You have a couple of options:

First you need to determine if the striker fits into the lock fully. You do this by removing the striker from its frame (or take the striker assembly off of the body upright). Then place it into the door lock and see if it fills the entire space up and locks correctly. If not you will need to replace the striker. You don't have enough material left. I think brazing on material and grinding it to shape is too much work and not sure if that would even do the job. This is assuming the lock has not been worn extensively.

If the striker fits the lock and you are happy with the doors fitting in the body opening then you have two adjustments you can make.

You can pad behind the striker frame to force the door into the body more. I have had to put as much as 3/16" of padding behind a striker to get the door to snug up against the body with the lock fully engaged.

The other adjustment you can make is to put small washers as shims between the striker head and the striker body moving the striker back into the lock. Its all about correct positioning which can help when there is some wear.

That's about all you can do short of remounting the striker bracket on the body itself which is only necessary if you cannot use the shims.
Christopher Couper

Torben,
Take a look at Moss part #401-170. It's a neat little shim if you need one.
Mort
Mort Resnicoff 50 TD (Mobius)

If I interpret what Torben is talking about, it is the pin shown in this worn door lock. The lock body is made of some very soft metal and I feel that the opening for the moving lock pin on his door lock is worn to an oval shape. That would provide the lateral movement he is talking about. However, shimming the fixed component of the lock assembly may reduce the movement he describes. Maybe one of our skilled machinists could make a bushing to fit in this hole? I can contribute a lock body for the experiment.

Jim Merz

Hi again

The problem is that the locking pin seen in Jim's picture can move back and forth (horisontally) in the hole of the casted body.
I would expect the use of shims would do the trick when the door is locked but since the slack is between the locking pin and the hole of the casted body, I beleive I need to work on this, meaning that I either need a pin with a larger diameter or a smaller hole in the casted body. I would imagine that some kind of a bushing to make the hole smaller could solve the problem?

rdgs
Torben
Torben Olesen

The shim effort would be worth a try to see if it cures your problem. If the interior part of the lock is shimmed and the door is fit close to the rubber bumpers on the body in the locked position, there should be no movement to worry about. It is certainly worth a try!
Jim Merz

This thread was discussed between 08/01/2014 and 11/01/2014

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