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Tailgate 200

Good morning everyone. I posted for the first time last Wednesday and received a warm welcome from pauls, walrus3, shep, and others. Thank you for the responses.

I have a problem with my tailgate. In my post last week, I mentioned that I had replaced the hinges and harnesses. Everything back there still functions fine but in the past couple of days, the door started popping about halfway through it's upward travel. Upon closer inspection, the door sits approx. 3mm lower than the rear edge of the roof in the closed position. When it rotates up upon opening, this mismatch results in the door hooking the roof edge. There is also a witness mark on the roof where the door edge touches the roof at the full open position.

The door obviously needs to be adjusted so that it's flush with roof but there doesn't appear to be much adjustment in the hinges. Has anyone run into this before? I changed my hinges as described in the archives here at the BrickBoard. I did one at a time, gas struts removed, door supported on step ladder, towels layered along edge of roof to protect and support, etc.
Any advice or ideas would be appreciated.








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Tailgate

It seems no one has run in to this. Or more likely, no one reading the BB between this morning and now is willing to admit it. I don't know.

After having suffered misaligned doors in the past I take extra time to examine or in some cases mark the area 'round hinge bolts before loosening. I'm body-work challenged. This pic doesn't show the up-down play you'd expect from the hinge-to-tailgate bolts, but it looks like there's plenty more than 3mm available in the hinge-to-roof bolts.


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore








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Tailgate

Thanks for the responses. The picture helps me understand the fore and aft adjustment but I still don't think I can alter the height of the gate. There's a bolt through the top of the gate that determines where the door will ride in relation to the hinge. The door is either snug against the bottom of the hinge or it's not. Shimming doesn't appear to be a wise move. Should I just adjust the door aft until it clears the roof upon opening and not worry with the height difference?

Thanks again and sorry for the delay in response. I was out of pocket the past two days. Flu.








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Tailgate

Sorry to hear about the flu. My wife takes her shot every year, I never had one. She gets it, I don't. It is not fun.

I wish I could advise you on the adjustment from experience. Nothing in my manual gives any hints either.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore








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Tailgate

Nice photo Art,
I just did this job over the weekend and it all went back together just like
it came apart. I didn't have to do any adjustments. We replaced both harnesses
and both hinges. We just put everything back the way it was. The only thing
different was on the gaskets for the hinge on the tailgate I had to trim away some rubber underneath so the harness would fit better. This is the second time
I've done this and I've never had alignment problems like described above. I'm sure the problem is just loosening the hinge mountings and adjusting like you
advise. Hope that helps.

Dave 82 242ti 278k mi.








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Tailgate

Dave, did you find the job went so much smoother for the new harnesses? Do they come with the pins already loose from the connector? Splicing the old ones and reusing them took a lot of time, especially that mine were once before spliced by someone else. I definitely spent way too much time replacing the ground straps inside the old hinges.

Thank you for the compliment on the photo. I wish it went to the point of answering the up-down play question. I noodled the top bolt out of the tailgate past the door seal on the first side, then elected to take the time to remove part of the tailgate door seal on the final side, but still the alignment didn't present a problem, or maybe I'd better go out and take another look, when its warmer.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore







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