Door Stop Rebuild, After R&R both doors produce loud clicks upon opening Options

[North Coast Jim]

Rebuilt both the door stops with 914 Rubber kits last year. Kits were from a purchase made in early 2017 IIRC, could be earlier. Doors open and close fine BUT both closures produce loud clicks upon closure of the door. Opening of the doors adds a loud pop to the clicks. Both are lubricated but no relief is found.

What I have noticed is the aluminum machined arms received have no vertical grooves where the wheels are to roll. The profile is smooth except for the closure stop points. I've looked at other door closures and this is the only difference I see - they have these vertical grooves.

Anybody else has experience with these closures and can provide some input.

Left an e-mail with Mikey but he must be flying or driving to Hershey.

[914Sixer]

Problem is not the kit. The holes for the rod in the door post are usually wallowed out. Play with your door and I think you will see the problem. Thinking the posts need to be drilled for next larger size pin. Got to remember these were cheap, throw away cars.

[jcd914]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)
I don't know anything about the rebuild kits but the pin and connection to the door pilar is a common source for the sharp click or snapping sounds openings and closing the doors.

Jim

[Rob-O]

Somewhat agree with above. The holes on the piece on the door can get enlarged with repeated use. But I also think the hole in the new aluminum piece is too large. Take the pin and put it in the arm before you install it it in the car to compare.

But if I remember correctly the door stops can be rebuilt incorrectly. Where to put the rollers and springs is pretty self explanatory, but I think the orientation of the body of the stop mechanism itself can be wrong when installed in the car. I’m pretty sure I did this when I rebuilt mine. I don’t have a picture handy but Google a pic and it should show how it goes. But basically if it’s not fitting correctly you’d have to pull the mechanism, flip the arm upside down and reinstall the mechanism.

By the way I also agree the arms should have the vertical lines in them. It helps the arm grab the rollers (so the rollers ‘roll’ along the arm). Without the lines the arm ‘slips’ through the rollers. Dave Sprinkle used to make these kits. I think on his kit the arms had the lines and were stainless, so less wear compared to the aluminum. Unfortunately Dave isn’t making his kits anymore.

[Mikey914]

I can add the serrations, it just adds $25 to the cist of the 2 door kit. Most people didn't want to pay the extra so we had discontined the option. It just takes more time to machine them.
Also if the pis are lubricated these have enought pressure thar the rollers do roll.
Some feedback we had recieved had also indicated others felt the rollers were being "chewed up" faster which was another reason to omit. So yes we can do the serrations, just costs more,

Factory are also aluminum and will last indefinitely if serviced and rollers changed. The problem is most dont get serviced until there is a problem.

[Rob-O]

Completely agree, Mark. It’s tough to juggle unit cost versus realistic selling price. Many times as a consumer, and 914 owners in particular, we expect our parts to be over engineered (better than what the factory provided!) while paying a low price for said part.

We’re pretty spoiled with the suppliers we have for 914 parts nowadays (a big part of that is you!). It’s kinda neat having been able to see the vacuum of availability get filled as Porsche started running out of certain items over the years.

[Bartlett 914]

I had the same problem. The pin hole on the body of the car is worn out. Go to .250" pin. Just enough larger to fit. It is a little difficult because of the room needed to turn a drill or reamer but this is what you need to do

[North Coast Jim]

I had the same problem. The pin hole on the body of the car is worn out. Go to .250" pin. Just enough larger to fit. It is a little difficult because of the room needed to turn a drill or reamer but this is what you need to do

That may be part of the fix as i see the aluminum arm being moved about the pin at the body when the door is opened/closed. I'll work on that next.

[raynekat]

I have the same problem and rebuilt mine completely with the 914 Rubber kit.
On my car the noise is NOT coming from the door pin but from within the door stop itself.
It's occurring on both sides and it's very loud.
I've taken the stops out and will look closer to see what is causing the noise in the next week or two.

[North Coast Jim]

I have the same problem and rebuilt mine completely with the 914 Rubber kit.
On my car the noise is NOT coming from the door pin but from within the door stop itself.
It's occurring on both sides and it's very loud.
I've taken the stops out and will look closer to see what is causing the noise in the next week or two.

Was still struggling with these closures until last week. Went to the local hardware store to try and find lighter duty springs to replace the originals. Found a set and rebuilt the closures. The "clicking" noise has stopped but as a result the stop force is down as well. I can live with it. Was also thinking of revising the height of the stop arm points. This is an attempt to allow a more gradual up and down ramp for the roller. The clicking occurs as the rollers falls away from the highest point on the stop arm.

[n2j2ryan]

Have the same problem with mine. Definitely the pin is worn down in the middle so that it slides within the bushing as it comes over the top of the arm. Would love to find a little bit bigger pin.

[raynekat]

I have the same problem and rebuilt mine completely with the 914 Rubber kit.
On my car the noise is NOT coming from the door pin but from within the door stop itself.
It's occurring on both sides and it's very loud.
I've taken the stops out and will look closer to see what is causing the noise in the next week or two.

Was still struggling with these closures until last week. Went to the local hardware store to try and find lighter duty springs to replace the originals. Found a set and rebuilt the closures. The "clicking" noise has stopped but as a result the stop force is down as well. I can live with it. Was also thinking of revising the height of the stop arm points. This is an attempt to allow a more gradual up and down ramp for the roller. The clicking occurs as the rollers falls away from the highest point on the stop arm.

This was my thought as well.....that combined with "heavy" spring and the height of the stop arm, that the door stop was slamming within itself.
Looks like you've made a good attempt to revise the door stop itself.
I'll be doing the same in the coming week and will post my results.

[Mikey914]

We actually went through painstaking detail to reproduce these in the same tension as the OEM when new.
Popping from our experience has been two different issues that are related

The 1st is the pin at the frame has some play, the springs at full force will actually pop the arm as the rollers move across the humps. The popping is slow allowing the pin to shift.

Perhaps we should make some new pins too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
I’ll add them to the list.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[n2j2ryan]

I'll take two pins!

[raynekat]

What I've found in my case is that the very loud popping is coming from the 914Rubber aluminum arm.
The holes that are drilled for the door pin are just too large.
You can see it easily as you open and close the door.
The aluminum arm is moving in and out quite a bit.
This was happening on both doors for me....both were popping loudly.
So unfortunately in my case the holes in the arm are the issue.



Like I said on my car the pin fits quite tightly into the bracket on the body so that's not the issue.

My fix (at least what I will attempt to do) is to install a very small bushing into the 914Rubber aluminum arm that will take all the slack out.
If I get this ironed out correctly, I'll post my procedure and results later this week.
I've had to order a 6mm drill bit to accomplish this.

Another source of the door popping can be that the shafts that hold the rollers can be worn excessively.
One of mine was such the case.
I needed to source a better 2nd hand assembly that had good shafts.
It's a pity 914Rubber doesn't supply these as well with their rebuild kit.

[DRPHIL914]

What I've found in my case is that the very loud popping is coming from the 914Rubber aluminum arm.
The holes that are drilled for the door pin are just too large.
You can see it easily as you open and close the door.
The aluminum arm is moving in and out quite a bit.
This was happening on both doors for me....both were popping loudly.
So unfortunately in my case the holes in the arm are the issue.



Like I said on my car the pin fits quite tightly into the bracket on the body so that's not the issue.

My fix (at least what I will attempt to do) is to install a very small bushing into the 914Rubber aluminum arm that will take all the slack out.
If I get this ironed out correctly, I'll post my procedure and results later this week.
I've had to order a 6mm drill bit to accomplish this.

Another source of the door popping can be that the shafts that hold the rollers can be worn excessively.
One of mine was such the case.
I needed to source a better 2nd hand assembly that had good shafts.
It's a pity 914Rubber doesn't supply these as well with their rebuild kit.

interesting, i just did mine this weekend and is nice and smooth but i will have to watch for wear. I kept the original arms, really they are fine and i could have reused them , just need to clean them up - LOTS of gunk on them but the hole seems to be fine on those.
A bushing is a good idea.

[raynekat]

If any of your pins in the door stop assembly look like this.....you'll never get rid of the popping.
Repeated opening and closing of the door over many years with likely zero lubrication has worn a big channel in one end of the pin.
Best to get a better set of 2nd hand assemblies if you can and rebuild those.

So a tip:
Best to lube these door stop assemblies every couple years at the very least if you want them to last.
Pull them completely out, clean them thoroughly, lube and reinstall.
This should get you many, many years of service from these much used assemblies.

[mepstein]

If any of your pins in the door stop assembly look like this.....you'll never get rid of the popping.
Repeated opening and closing of the door over many years with likely zero lubrication has worn a big channel in one end of the pin.
Best to get a better set of 2nd hand assemblies if you can and rebuild those.

So a tip:
Best to lube these door stop assemblies every couple years at the very least if you want them to last.
Pull them completely out, clean them thoroughly, lube and reinstall.
This should get you many, many years of service from these much used assemblies.

Thanks for the heads up.

[raynekat]

Attacked my door stops today to rid them of the loud snapping when they are opening or closed.

Again in my case, the door pin fits snuggly into pin receivers in the door jams on both sides.
My issue was that the hole in the end of the arm was too large.
See pic above.

Found some Oilite bronze bushings on-line that were 3/16" ID by 5/16" OD by 1/4" long.
Seemed like this was the size I needed to start with.

I found that the bushings w/o the collar worked better or easier.

First I enlarged the hole in the end of the arm with my 5/16" drill bit.
Then took the arm and bushing over to my vise and beat the bushing into the hole, and continued to beat on it with the hammer to try and flatten out the bushing a bit to really snug it up into that hole that was enlarged.
Seemed to be in there very tightly.

The pin's OD is right at 6mm.
A 15/64" drill bit is right at 5.95mm, a hair smaller than the pin, so perfect.
I used progressively larger drill bits starting just small enough to go into the ID of the bushing.
Slow and patient here as you don't want to dislodge the bushing from the end of the arm.
After working my way up to the 15/64" drill bit, I used that to barely open up the hole enough for the pin to snuggly fit inside.

After this I dressed up both sides of the bushing so that it was flush with the arm.
You don't want any of the bushing sticking out on either side of the arm or it won't fit into the receiver in the door jam.
I used my dremel with a sanding drum to take care of this and followed it up with some very fine sandpaper.

The bushing still looked quite seated in the arm.
The bronze bushing was quite tough to drill, so I think it will be very durable and last many more miles.

The end result is no more snapping noise when opening and closing the door.
Job done!

I dressed up the end of the arm to look much better than what you see in the pic.

[Rob-O]

Awesome!