MayerMR

Good morning Cherokeeforum!

I'm hoping someone can help me get to the bottom of my door check woes. When I purchased my fun little money pit Wagoneer, the driver's side door check was non-functional. I didn't think much of it because of all the other issues at the time. But after awhile, that swinging door got to me. That said, I did some investigating and noticed that not only was the original door check mechanism broken, but the actual mount itself had torn itself free. Rather than pull the whole door off and weld it up, I elected to just hammer the piece back into alignment and then sandwich the mounting bolts of the new Dorman door check with a couple of pieces of drilled aluminum flat bar stock on either side of the door panel for added strength and stress distribution (top and bottom to maintain alignment of the check arm, see the orange in the picture to better describe). Anyway, long story short, this solution provided me with a working door check for about three months until last night when the door got stuck and the door check mechanism broken again. I'm reaching out to Dorman for a warranty replacement, but I just can't understand why I'm having such a rough go of it with the door checks in this truck. The door swings fine, isn't loose on the hinges, and is properly aligned with the body/frame. Can anyone offer some advice? Do I need to grease or oil the door check before installation? I'm really quite perplexed by what I thought was a pretty easy to fix issue.

cruiser54

Yep. Quite common when door check issues are ignored.

I cut the metal section out of an old rear door and make it so it fits in the door from the outside. Install the door check sandwiching the damaged part of the door between the new reinforcement plate and the door check.

MayerMR

As always, thank you for your response Cruiser. And though I do understand why the original check broken (due to ignoring the issue until it shattered), but what I don't understand is why my new one broke as well. I have done basically the same thing you did with the rear door and added a new check. But still it broke. I'm basically wondering what I'm doing wrong and how to avoid it.

cruiser54

Not installing it upside down?

Did you lube it up good?

MayerMR

Well definitely didn't install upside down, but I also definitely *didn't* lube it up good...oooooorrrr lube it up at all for that matter.

I looked at the old one and saw no grease residue and just assumed that it wasn't meant to have any.

I shall rectify it on my next go 'round...ugh

Thanks Cruiser!

S/F,

-Matt

cruiser54

LOL.