Door Striker Plate Question

[Namerow]

I happened to be looking at my '70 Z's door striker plates (aka 'door catch') the other day and noticed, for the first time, that they're not as simple in design as I thought.  It had always been my impression that they're just one-piece metal stampings.  When I turned one of them over, I discovered that this isn't the case at all.  They're actually pretty complicated in design and construction, consisting of:

 

• Main stamping
• Cushion Block (rubber molding with a metal insert)
• Mounting Pin & Spring for Cushion Block
• Mounting Boss (metal stamping) for Cushion block

 

I'm not really sure how the cushioning block arrangement is supposed to work.  Any efforts to make it pivot on its mounting pin have been unsuccessful, so I'm not even sure if it's supposed to move in the first place (but then, why is there a spring?  and why does it appear that there's a metal tab on the mounting boss to set a 'rest' position?).

 

Note: In the third picture, I levered the 'leg' of the cushion block away from the striker plate surface to show the amount of flexibility it has (i.e. the leg's displaced position wasn't generated by the cushion block pivoting on its pin).  Normally, the 'leg' rests on the inner surface of the striker plate, as shown in picture #2.

 

In addition, I'm not sure whether either of my striker plates has a fully-intact cushion block.  As you'll see from the last picture, the cushion block for my left-door striker plate has broken off up near the pivot pin.  I'm not even certain that the cushion block on my right-side unit is still its original length.  Notice how the rubber has worn off on the 'intact' cushion block to expose the metal underneath.  This would be the place where the latching lobe impacts and sits when the door is latched closed.

 

So, two questions:

 

1.  Does anybody have a picture of a NOS striker plate that shows what the cushion block looks like when it's new?

 

2. Can anyone explain how the cushion block is supposed to work?  (i.e. Is it supposed to pivot and, if so, how much?  If not, why is there a spring?)

Edited December 9, 2015 by Namerow

[zKars]

No big mysterys here. with the large strike load this part recieves, these components don't move much, they absorb energy via compression. That spring is very short and tight, I wouldn't expect you could move it by hand.

Of the several old usd examples I have, not one has the dangly rubber bit still attached. All are broken off like your left one.

240zrubberparts has the replacement rubber bits for the latch side, which are also almost always gone. The rubber we are talking about wouldn't be replaceable without disassembling that spring pin and that doesn't seem practical.

[Patcon]

I would think the large rivet would be a problem...

[Namerow]

Thanks, zCars.  Interesting, but worrisome, to learn that the missing 'dangly rubber bit' is typical.  If that's the case, then I would guess that most of the Z's on the road are missing this piece on at least the drivers-side door (MFS... Most Frequently Slammed).  It would appear that the dangly rubber bit is the part that takes most of the impact when latch meets striker (as testified by the fact that it breaks off on the drivers side, but not on the passenger side). So wouldn't the loss of the main impact-absorbing piece be a bad thing?  I guess the only way to tell would be a 'door slam comparison test', using striker plates that do and do not have an intact rubber cushioning block.  Not likely to happen, I suppose.

 

BTW, I still don't understand why there's a spring.  Are you telling me that you think the rubber block is supposed to pivot on the mounting pin?  If that's the case, is the block supposed to pivot out away from the plate frame in the door-open condition and then get pushed back flush against the frame when the lobe on the door latch hits it?

 

Any door latch experts in the audience?