How Do You Adjust Van Doors?

[dextours]

In a few threads people have replied that the van doors likely need adjustments. This brings two questions to mind. 

First how can you tell the doors are out of alignment? My van lets in a lot of dust on dirt roads. The seals look okay and have been treated with Aerospace 303. Could part of the problem be the doors are misaligned?

If the doors need adjustments exactly how do you do that?

 

[highdesertranger]

first to test the seals place a bill between the gasket and the door. close the door normally, watch your fingers. can you pull the bill out? if you can't you have an excellent seal. if you can pull it out with no resistance, you have a poor seal. of course you will run into everything between. do this all around the door, this will give you a picture of what needs to happen. now loosen your hinges and move the door in where you have a poor seal. this may take several tries and you must keep checking for the door closing and sealing, it can be quite the job. you might have to adjust the strikers too. also on some vehicles the hinges are non adjustable on these if you can't do it with the striker you must actually bend the doors, be careful of your windows when bending doors. highdesertranger

 

[closeanuf]

What van do you have?  Ford Chevy Dodge, what year? Which doors?

 

[Minivanmotoman]

Dex, you have lots of glass on your class B. My first hunch would be to check the windows and seals first. Vents possibly as well. Go to a carwash, and spray directly onto and around every seal, crack and gasket. Look for water penetrating, and thus dust as well. More likely a window weatherstrip or vent seal somewhere. Do they all close fully?
Going down dirtroads, back draft sucks the dirt back into the van. Check your back doors and windows, vents for seals and on the roof.

If it were your doors, they would not close properly.
it's a bit of a trial and error skill. There isn't usually much if any adjustment at the hinges, the mounting alignment spot. Bodymen might take a 2*4 and place it in a key position to bend against as a fulcrum to slightly twist the door into a better positional alignment. If you don't know what you are doing, could end up worse. Lol.
Check your hinge bolts for tightness. And the seals for tightness as others have said.
If the doors are out or sag, often there are bushings and pins in the hinges that come in kits that can properly align the door again. Lift up the doors when open and see if there is any play up or down. Can be tricky to undo and reinstall to hold and balance door.

 

[dextours]

It's a 1994 Pleasure-way built on a 1994 Dodge B350..

Looked at the hinges, don't appear to be adjustable. The bar striker the barn side door latches on to looks to be adjustable. 

I'll do the dollar bill test first to see how tight the seals actually are. That will at least identify where the leaks are, which is an excellent start.

Funny with all the windows it didn't occur to me that they could be leaking air. I know they are closed, but need to check how weather tight they are.

Thanks for the tips.  Hope they help someone else much as myself.

 

[breeze]

Yeah, I'm all in on the tweaking doors. A body shop mechanic showed it to me. It freaked me out at first, but any kid jumping in or out of your van can do it: especially if it's a tall van. My  brand new van needs a driver door tweak, but I'll probably get an expert to do it. When it gets older, it's not a big deal: steel bends, not easily but it bends with the leverage of the doors length (and a man hanging on to it with short legs afraid to fall.) I'm 6' tall and about 1" from the ground when sliding off the seat. (Look out for heavy set short mechanics!)

I got running boards for my 87 year old Mom to get in and out of the van, but they will also help my big butt (and short heavy set mechanics) too!

 

[closeanuf]

The lower hinges on the front doors are known to be a weak spot and are replaceable.  I did it without a lot of trouble and you can buy the lower hinge at a parts store.  I got mine from Oreileys.

 

[highdesertranger]

if the hinges are replaceable, they are adjustable. highdesertranger

 

[SilverVoyager]

I'm wondering if there is a way to keep the rubber gasket sealing stuff clean and flexible would help. Simple Green maybe? Just a thought.

 

[highdesertranger]

Simple Green is excellent for rubber. you saw my other post, didn't you. it will clean rubber and make it soft and pliable again. if the rubber is real bad I will remove it and soak it in Simple Green for a couple of days. you will be amazed with how new it seems. this is an old car restorers trick. highdesertranger