Rear door detent broken

I snapped my rear door detent piece about a month ago. This is the piece that attaches to the door and the body that is gold colored and acts as a stopping/slowing point when your door is all the way open. I am just wondering if anyone has tried to mod this over to a gas piston like those used on hatchback cars. I think it would work a lot better than the stock design which never seemed to do anything for me-except break. I have not noticed any difference whatsoever between when this thing was installed, and now that it isn't. I am just worried that it may be leading to the hinges being overstressed, eventually causing them to wear out. I saw one of the gas piston units at Autozone that seemed like it might be small enough to use. Any thoughts?

How the heck did you break that?

You'll have to show me exactly what yer talking about on Sunday.

Bart

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Originally Posted by Ascinder

I snapped my rear door detent piece about a month ago. This is the piece that attaches to the door and the body that is gold colored and acts as a stopping/slowing point when your door is all the way open. I am just wondering if anyone has tried to mod this over to a gas piston like those used on hatchback cars. I think it would work a lot better than the stock design which never seemed to do anything for me-except break. I have not noticed any difference whatsoever between when this thing was installed, and now that it isn't. I am just worried that it may be leading to the hinges being overstressed, eventually causing them to wear out. I saw one of the gas piston units at Autozone that seemed like it might be small enough to use. Any thoughts?

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You won't even believe it. about a month ago I noticed upon opening my door at random that it wasn't seeming to want to close right. I looked for whatever was preventing it from closing and sure enough, the piece had sheared completely through and cocked itself at an angle to hang up the door. It was a pretty clean break, and I have never been one to slam doors, so I think it may have been a stress crack or something of that nature, possibly done by the previous owner(s) over time. It was still pretty slick with grease too, so that wasn't the culprit. I think my idea to use the piston assembly should work out really well since it should have the added bonus of keeping the door from closing itself all time :mad: .

Yeah, my doors try to kill me all the time, all of them. And the seatbelts piss me off too.

Bart

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ascinder

You won't even believe it. about a month ago I noticed upon opening my door at random that it wasn't seeming to want to close right. I looked for whatever was preventing it from closing and sure enough, the piece had sheared completely through and cocked itself at an angle to hang up the door. It was a pretty clean break, and I have never been one to slam doors, so I think it may have been a stress crack or something of that nature, possibly done by the previous owner(s) over time. It was still pretty slick with grease too, so that wasn't the culprit. I think my idea to use the piston assembly should work out really well since it should have the added bonus of keeping the door from closing itself all time :mad: .

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Gas pistons would add resistance to closing and possibly cause the door to swing open too quickly. All you need is a strap to keep the door from opening too wide for the travel of the hinges/sheetmetal

Dammit, I think whoever was the welder on my VX must have either been a drunk guy or some kind of saboteur because now the same mount point whose spot welds broke to cause my rear door latch to fail is becoming evident on my drivers side door. One of the (crappy) spot welds broke of this morning with the other probably soon to follow. Does anyone know offhand how much access we have to the inside of there to hopefully smear on some JBweld or similar adhesive to reattach this? My door is currently making an awful snapping noise as the detent bar pushes and pulls on this failed mounting piece.