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Door catches when at half open

Fergie

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Flagstaff, AZ
My door catches when it is at the halfway point. In the pics below, you can see where it is rubbing on the metal piece. This is on the drivers side. It is a 2-door XJ, but the doors do not appear to be sagging. I have checked the tightness, and made sure the welds arent broken. I dont know how to fix this and was wondering if anyone here knew. Thanks and lemme know if you have any ideas on how to solve it.

The bad side....notice where it is rubbing:

f99f54e7.jpg


The good side...for reference:

f99f5443.jpg
 
Is that the only spot it is rubbing? If so it looks like you need a new check strap. The part that is inside the door may be damaged. Go to your local dealer for a new one.

Bryan
 
Bryan C. said:
Is that the only spot it is rubbing? If so it looks like you need a new check strap. The part that is inside the door may be damaged. Go to your local dealer for a new one.

Bryan


My drivers side check strap broke off in the inside of the door.....and I haven't really missed it all that much honestly....take it off and see if you really miss it before bothering to replace it
 
Door catches go bad, grease and whatever never seemed to help much. Replacement curred the problem. The newer redesigned model, really doesn´t work any better than the old ones, but may last longer.
If they get very bad, the mount for the catch stop, can fatigue the metal around the two nuts and cause cracks in the sheet metal. The sheet metal in the door will eventually tear. Best not to let it go to long.
If it really hangs, unscrewing the nuts at the door, will allow the whole unit to slide inside of the door. But it´s possible to rub some wires, inside the door, with the catch stop unit loose(been there done that).
Best not to remove the pin, as this will allow the door to open too wide, causing possible fender/door sheet metal damage.
Funny how a little piece of junk can cause such large problems.
 
yes, go to your local dealer and buy a new one for each door with the problem. First spray them with white lithium grease, I got mine at home depot in a spary paint size can, and see if that fixes the problem.

If lube does not solve the problem then replace it. I had my driver's door strap freeze up and I ended up pulling the fastener nut through the door. While it was in the body shop for an accident I paid them the extra to fix the door strap mount.

I think the strap assy was $18 or $20 at the dealer but nothing but OEM parts will do for this application. To replace it you will have to pull off the door interior trim then change it out. You will have to remove the door handle but may get away with keeping the door handle in place, you know lift up the trim. Then you will have to cut the water barrer to get to the strap. If you have a book look up door window replacement or interior door trim removal to know what to do to get the trim off.

Fix it before you tear the metal of the door, then you will need a body shop to get it back into shape.
 
A bad check strap will make quick work of the hinges on a two-door, so I recommend you fix it soon. Even when it's unbroken, the momentum of the heavy door tends to extend the door far enough to hit, not the stop of the check strap, but the stops that are built into the hinges. When this happens, the hinges flex outward, and eventually they tear away from the body. This is a real pain in the you know what, and requires welding. Four doors are less afflicted by this, simply because the doors are lighter and tend not to swing so hard when you open them.

Look at the hinges when you open the door. If you see them flexing outward, your check strap is not doing its job, either because it's broken/worn out, or because it has bulged out the frame of the door itself, or perhaps because it was designed about a quarter inch too long. There should be a shorter one for two-doors but there isn't.

One thing you can do that helps a little, especially if the door itself is a little stretched out where the strap bolts in, is to put a couple of washers on the studs that mount it to the door. They're long enough to accommodate this. This will effectively shorten the check strap and help prevent hinge stress. If you're really ambitious, you can also weld shut the hole in the strap at the body end, and redrill it further in. Grind to shape, and you've got a custom 2-door strap. I did this on my stepson's 2-door after the THIRD rewelding.
 
Thanks guys. I went to the dealer and bought the assembly today, and just finished installing it. Door works smoothly now. The hinges have come up just a little. The welds on the top and bottom are fine, but the welds on the right(if you are looking at the ds door, witht the engine on your left) have come up. I think it'll be fine, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks again.

Fergie
 
Fergie said:
Thanks guys. I went to the dealer and bought the assembly today, and just finished installing it. Door works smoothly now. The hinges have come up just a little. The welds on the top and bottom are fine, but the welds on the right(if you are looking at the ds door, witht the engine on your left) have come up. I think it'll be fine, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks again.

Fergie

If it hasn't been repaired before, there actually is no weld on the back edge of the hinge, just painted-over putty, which will look cracked after a while from the normal flexing of the body where the hinges mount. Do keep an eye on it, but if there is no pulling-out on the top and bottom, you're probably all right. Just double-check when you open the door fairly vigorously, that the hinges don't flex out every time it hits the check.

It's common to add a nice fat weld bead to that back edge when making repairs. I really don't know why Jeep didn't weld it all the way around from the start.
 
What does the door strap assembly consist of? My driver's side door (2-door also) will give a loud pop when it gets to the half way posiiton. There is a noticeble "jump" of the pin that holds the strap to the door frame when this occurs. Just wondering if a new strap assembly might cure my problem, or whether I need to look a bit deeper.
 
desertred said:
What does the door strap assembly consist of? My driver's side door (2-door also) will give a loud pop when it gets to the half way posiiton. There is a noticeble "jump" of the pin that holds the strap to the door frame when this occurs. Just wondering if a new strap assembly might cure my problem, or whether I need to look a bit deeper.

I have the same problem. It's not the strap. There is a roller assembly inside the door that the strap rides on. The pins that hold the rollers in place, and dictate the axis of rotation, shift at a certain point causing the strap to rotate slightly -- causing the pop with the pin.

In all likelyhood the strap and roller assembly should be replaced. (I think that the strap may wear unevenly as a result of a wonkie roller assembly)
 
desertred said:
What does the door strap assembly consist of? My driver's side door (2-door also) will give a loud pop when it gets to the half way posiiton. There is a noticeble "jump" of the pin that holds the strap to the door frame when this occurs. Just wondering if a new strap assembly might cure my problem, or whether I need to look a bit deeper.
It is the strap and an assembly bolted to the inside of the door. It sounds like you are having the same problem I was. Go to your dealer and get a new door catch assembly. It took me less than an hour to take the door apart and replace and reassemble.

The new assembly will make the door open like new, and put less stress on the hinges.

Send me your email address via PM or something, and I can send you pics of how mine looked.

Fergie
 
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