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MG MGA - Door catch adjustment

Good morning. I am new to MGA ownership but not MGs (B owner for many years).

I have a question about the door catch/lock mechanism on my Mk II Coupe. The driver’s door closes fine but there is some lateral play in the catch mechanism in the open/close direction. A small amount of lateral pressure will move it outwards (and back) about 5mm. The door will not open under more pressure, so no chance of it flying open on a fast left turn.

The catch/latch mechanism in the door comprises an oblong, horizontal solid block below which is a wheel with teeth. This wheel rotates freely in the clockwise direction but not in the anti-clockwise direction, that is, until the door handle is used and then it can rotate one tooth width. The frame part of the catch has a toothed lower section (to engage with the toothed wheel) and an upper section to engage with the solid block in the door part. Also in this section is a spring loaded (horizontal direction) block. I have no idea what its function is.

I would like to understand how the mechanism works so that I can either adjust the catch correctly or work out which part is worn so I can buy a replacement. I have browsed the archive and the tech articles on mgaguru but not been able to find anything. Any help most welcome.
Thanks
Richard Atkinson

Richard

Welcome on board. I hope you enjoy the 'A' and get all your questions answered here. I am not a Coupe owner, so I will let others answer your specific query. In the meantime, if you have not already found it, there is a very good MGA technical website run by our resident Guru, Barney Gaylord. Worth browsing his data to see if your answer also lies there: http://www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/

Steve
Steve Gyles

Welcome Richard. Always good to hear of another new MGA owner.

So I'm sitting here in the wee small hours of the morning with nothing much important on my mind when I see, "I have browsed the archive and the tech articles on mgaguru but not been able to find anything". If that's true, then I take that as a personal challenge. So now, Richard, there is a new web page in your honor. See here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/coupe/cp115.htm

All of you Coupe owners are welcome to chime in and let me know if I got it right (or not).

Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://MGAguru.com
Barney Gaylord

Good and quick response Barney. I should have completed the reading of Richard's post. I see now that he had already found your site!

Steve
Steve Gyles

Thanks Steve, thanks Barney. Barney, I am indeed honored. I got the car just last Tuesday and my first real outing was to Silverstone on Saturday (MG Live). Your name came up in many conversations.

You mention two clicks (last para of cp115) – the first the safety position and the second the full-latch position. Do these clicks correspond to the wheel clicking over twice to engage in the two different sections of the striker plate (numbered 17 in diagram)?

I attach a (hastily drawn) schematic illustrating the relative positions (if I have understood the mechanics correctly).
Regards
Richard


Richard Atkinson

Hi Richard

I also have a MkII coupe - 1961, which I've owned for 18 months. I had some trouble shutting the LH door last year and looked carefully into the door latches. What I found was that there was a lot of wear on the striker plate which meant that the second click didn't always occur. I managed to improve mine with some adjustment, but at some point it will fail again. The answer then will be to find a way of building up the lost metal. I seem to recall a thread on here somewhere that I read last year that gives some thoughts on possible remedies.

As an aside, I've spent about a year fettling, tuning, repairing, and now at last my car is feeling good! Thanks to this forum and Barney's mine of information.

Regds
Martin
M Hooper

There is a pair of striker plates on fleabay at the moment.

I have no connection with the seller.

Regards...John
J Bray

Richard, I've got a coupe and struggled with the '2 click' door closing mechanism until I realised that the problem was with my striker plates where the two teeth were worn away and not long enough to properly engage with the cogged wheel. I took the plates to a machine shop and had extra aluminum TIG welded on. I then filed it back to a reasonable profile and the doors closed easily. This may not be your problem but its worth checking the profile of the teeth with a new plate to see how much wear you have.
J H Cole

John, JH, I think you are right. This evening I compared the striker plates on the passenger door (which closes easily and well) with the plate on the drivers door. There is wear on the teeth on the drivers side plate - you can feel the change in profile. Thanks for the tip off about fleabay. Thanks for all the help. Richard
Richard Atkinson

Just missed them!
Richard Atkinson

For info - Derek Edwards sells new striker plates - he has the original tooling. Derek is the chairman of the MGCC South East Centre hear in the UK and was featured in the most recent edition of MG Enthusiast.
Richard
Richard Atkinson

This thread was discussed between 25/06/2012 and 04/07/2012

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