I took the door panel off inside and adjusted the linkage.
Eckie
-----Original Message-----
From: kW <kokopellis@ATT.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Thursday, June 24, 1999 2:29 AM
Subject: Re: Sliding doors

>Ian Cameron wrote:
>The sliding door on my '82 won't open.  Well, it will if I hold the
>handle in the 'open' position and belt the rear of the door from the
>inside with the heel of my hand.  But that's not very convenient.  When
>I pull the handle the rear of the door clicks and opens a cm or two, but
>that's it. I've sprayed WD 40 on every point I can see.
>------------------------=
>
>My neighbor has a 1983 westy that has the same problem.  We tracked it
>down to the round brass part of the lock mechanism that protrudes from
>the rear edge of the sliding door.  On my 82 this "piece" rotates freely
>by hand.   On his, it was stuck quite tight and could not be rotated by
>hand.  Further analysis indicated that this "piece" needs to rotate in
>order for it to clear the peg that it latches to the vehicle to hold the
>door closed.
>
>The "piece" on the sliding door needs to rotate after opening the the
>door using the handle, if it doesn't then the door won't move away from
>the vehicle.
>
>I thought we should remove the door panel to access the entire mechanism
>and to work it free.  We never did resolve it as he did not want to do
>surgery on his door.  Anyone know a source for the door panel
>fasteners.  He was afraid he would break while removing the panel and
>not be able to re-install his panel.  That's the problem we found but no
>solution yet.  Anyone else have an idea for adjusting or lubricating
>this mechanism?
>
>Ken Wyatt
>82 westy, heading to the Tetons this weekend.
>