Door Striker bolts / striker stripped?

[BadDog]

Well after putting on a new VB driver's side door weatherstrip last spring, all the slamming of the door and adjusting and readjusting the striker plate on the door jamb has resulted in there only being 1 bolt left that will actually tighten :-( Since that's not enough to hold the striker in place when closing the door, pretty soon I won't be able to use that door at all :-(

I don't have a chassis manual and I've been afraid to remove the striker plate completely to have a look as I'm afraid I won't be able to re-attach it :-( Does anybody have an idea of how I can fix this? I'd like to figure out what to do before Spring :-)

[2ManyZs]

They have a captured nut built into the door jamb for the mounting bolts. If you are stripping out the threads in the mounts, you'll have to re-tap them. If you are just stripping the threads on the bolts, get new bolts and run a tap through the mounting nuts to make sure the threads are OK.

You can get a new striker assembly with new bolts and all the parts from Andy Russell, at z@datsundude.com

for 69 bucks, this includes the shims and the the the spring loaded receivers.......

[BadDog]

Once again, 2ManyZs saves the day :-)

Am I right in interpreting "captured nut built into the door jamb" as that they are not replaceable? And should I try to tap it with the correct size tap or go 1mm larger and a larger bolt? The metal on those bolts is so soft... oh yes now I remember how I lost the first one: it broke off in the nut I'll have to drill that one out, then tap it :-\

[2ManyZs]

You can replace them if you want to cut out the door jamb....

Best to try running a tap through them in the correct size first, and if they still don't look good, then drill and tap the next size larger.....If you drill the broken one out right, you may not have to drill it and re-tap in a larger size. Try to stay the same size if possible. Running a tap through to clean the threads and new bolts might do the trick.

[BadDog]

Well when I looked at the problem in Nov. and took 1/2 the interior apart to see if I could get to the inside of the door jamb, I was able to shove 1/2 my arm in and *touch* the back/inside of the striker, but realized there was no way in heck to put those nuts back on if they were the non-adhered variety (short of cutting open the door jamb that is ) Again, that's why I wasn't brave enough to entirely remove the bolts: I didn't want to possible loose the nuts down in the body somewhere and not be able to reach in there and put new ones on

I just want to be able to enjoy my Z this year before I do any major work to it... you couldn't tell at the big Syracuse show when I met you, but her clearcoat is non-existent (was probably a Maaco re-paint)... and I think I want/need a hotter-than-stock cam ;-)

[2ManyZs]

I can't remember if the nuts are welded to the backside of the door jamb, or if they are captured in a plate that is then welded to the jamb.....

Either way, if the nuts are loose and/or turning, you've got a bit of a problem...:tapemouth :disappoin

[BadDog]

Yeah, and now I can't remember if they were loose/turning when I stuck my arm waaaaaaay down in there... guess I'll have to wait until Spring to find out

[BadDog]

Well I took a stab at this issue yesterday, so I thought I'd post a folow-up:

I was able to drill a hole through the broken top bolt and remove it with one of those special screw-removal tools ($3.00) ... I was able to determine that the striker plate is 2 plates, with the door jamb "sandwiched" between the 2 plates. There are *no* nuts welded or otherwise attached to the plate inside the door jamb (at least not on my 4/73) , so there is only about 1/8th inch of cheap steel through which the bolts are threaded, so too much torque and you will strip the threads in the plate. I ended up re-tapping all 3 bolts holes (one at a time, so as not to loose the internal plate) with a 6(?) mm tap and using new bolts from the hardware store. They may not look that great, but they're functional :-) IMHO a better solution would be to weld some nuts to the back of the internal plate to reduce the risk of repeatedly stripping the plate threads and having to re-tap the plate, probably 1mm larger Its tricky to get to the plate if you're not Plastic Man though, and getting it back in place would probably be even trickier