Regarding "springing out" upon opening, you've got a wound spring in the
back that jacks a steel arm out when the back is released, which carries
the back of the door out away from the body on both early and late models.
If it doesn't spring out readily, you have to do more work yourself to get
the back free. More tugging. Yes, the "long handle" early doors take more
effort to open, but if the front release and back release work
together--the timing is of course done through adjusting the cable that
connects the two--and the front and back springs and catches are in good
shape, it should pop right open with either the early or late setup.

If your cable is slack, the front may unlatch but the back release will
take extended effort to free. After more wear, it won't open at all. Time
to take a look at it.

Jim

On Fri, Jun 1, 2018 at 2:38 PM Jack R <jack007@comcast.net> wrote:

> What year... my 84 has a different mechanism than the later models, and is
> harder to open than our friends 90.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
> Of Steve Williams
> Sent: Friday, June 1, 2018 2:19 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Sliding door question
>
> Dan, good advice.
>
> Related: My slider works well, but the handle requires quite a lot of
> force.  Is that normal?  Is there an adjustment?
>