How I got the boing noise out of my drivers door.

[John Buchtenkirch]

How I got the boing sound out of my driver's door.

Members with a better memory than myself will remember me asking about a vibrating or boing nose when I closed my driver’s door, this was some 16 months ago when my coupe was new to me. At first I thought it might be the horizontal rod that opens the door latch so I slit & glued on some vacuum hose to cover it --- no improvement. I could replicate the noise somewhat by hammering the inside of the door frame with my palm so I carefully bent flanges on all the access openings in the backside of the door to stiffen things up --- still no improvement. At that point I had a few hours into chasing this noise, my right palm was sore and I was getting a little boingy or frustrated myself. I was sitting there facing the backside of the open door with door panel removed and for whatever reason I closed the door catch with my left hand, the offensive noise rang out louder than ever --- gotcha. I knew right there, that the noise was in the door lock springs. The solution was beyond simple, I covered the springs with very thick grease (WWII tank track grease, seriously), the grease acted as a damper, my door thunks now, end of story. ~ John Buchtenkirch

 

[HB Chris]

The rattle is usually the three small white bushings that connect the long door lock rods to the lock mechanism.

 

[John Buchtenkirch]

The rattle is usually the three small white bushings that connect the long door lock rods to the lock mechanism.

Thanks Chris. My hearing isn’t the greatest anymore (been banging on fenders for 40+ years) which is probably why I had trouble finding the noise but believe me this wasn’t a rattle, it was like I had a little tuning fork inside the door that you only hear when closing it. I had already done the 3 bushings but the noise didn’t go away till I forced grease into the springs with an acid brush. The passenger door didn’t have the problem, for some reason only the driver’s door. I only mention it because I find problems tend to repeat themselves in certain car models, maybe some other coupe owner may be chasing the same annoying noise. I’ve been meaning to write this and some other stuff for months now but I’ve been flat out busy on a movie production flatbed truck, that job is finally leaving so I felt I should return something to the coupe community, you guys certainly bailed me out a several times. I’ve noticed several beautifully repainted coupes where the wipers are landing too high so I figured I should write what I found out about that. It’s my turn to give a little back. ~ John Buchtenkirch

 

[HB Chris]

John,

Your write-ups are always very much appreciated.

Chris

 

[sfdon]

Ditto Mr. John

 

[mosearch]

I will revive this threead rather than start a new one.
I need to replace the three small white bushings that connect the long door lock rods to the lock mechanism....because I have "The rattle" in spades.
I obtained a dozen of the small white bushings (e3 thus 4-door). Easy enough to replace the one at the inner door handle J...but I an not sure how to replace the two at the outer door handle/door lock location?

Do I really need to remove the whole door catch assembly? And if so, do I also need to remove (or lift) the window frame? Does the outer door hanbdle also have to be removed?
Or is there a clever way to install the grommet-bushings without all that removal?

 

[HB Chris]

Open up the rods a bit with a needle nose plier, put bushing in the lever, push rod thru bushing.