[b.christian]

Still working on my son's "new" 1999 Taurus.

Next problem is with the passenger side front door.

It catches when you open or shut it. There's a little plastic arm (not sure what it's called) that attaches to the body and goes inside the door that seems like it might be cracked. It seems to be attached to something, but it's definitely not working correctly.

The only way I can figure out how to tell what's wrong is to take the door off. I took off the door cover, including the plastic sheet and still can't really see what's going on.

I've got all the electrics disconnected. What's left are 4 bolts, top and bottom and two pins. Bolts are no problem but the pins seem to be stuck, with no way to pry them out. Is it because I already loosened the four bolts?

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm hoping by removing the door I can tell what's broken and see how to fix it.

Is this a common problem?

 

[major]

Realign the door and tighten the bolts back up. The plastic arm can be replaced without pulling the door off. Remove the torx bolts and pull off the plastic cover on the door. Remove the two 10mm bolts and pull the arm out.
I bought my son a $500 pile a couple years ago and had to replace every body panel on it. Search 'Project whitetrash'. Now his car is somewhat better than mine.

 

[b.christian]

Too Late. The door's off, along with the plastic cover and now I think I see the problem. For starters, there was only 1 10MM bolt holding it on (and that one was about half off). The other was completely missing.

I removed the plastic arm, along with what appears to be rollers inside a metal housing that the arm passes through. Should the arm move freely within this housing? Because it doesn't. I have a feeling that the missing bolt has allowed the arm to damage the internal roller mechanism, thus causing the door to bind.

Looks like a replacement part is in order. :sad:

 

[major]

The plastic arm should be tight, giving the door it's friction and control so it don't open too fast and hit the vehicle next to it before it too late.

I'd say it is brokey.

 

[b.christian]

Was having trouble coming up with a part number, so stopped by the local Ford dealer with the catch arm and roller mechanism. Discussed it with a tech and his opinion was that the mechanism was really hard to damage, and that the problem was likely that it wasn't in securely (remember the missing and loose nuts?)

His recommendation was to reinstall it, make sure it was secure and check it out then. He felt reasonably sure it would work fine, and wouldn't you know it he was right.

Bought some new nuts and washers, put everything back together and the door now works perfectly.

p.s. It's been a long time since I did this kind of work on a car, and I think I'm amusing my son. My personal definition of success is when I fix something, if it isn't any worse than it was before the fix, then it was a success. So far everything I've tried to fix has ended up better and he doesn't quite understand why I'm so excited about it. After you fix something, it's supposed to be better right? Obviously, in my case, that hasn't always been the case, but that's better left for another time.

Son get's his license in 2 weeks and it looks like the car's going to be ready.

 

[sheila]

^ Good job on the door and the turn signals!