Driver side door alignment

Greetings
Having just purchased a new door striker and catch assembly for the 110, trying to align them after installation is killing me!

The bloody door just would not close fully and firmly. Thing is.... with the door seal removed it closes fully and catches. But with the seal in place it is just a repetitive frustrating exercise of trying to close, failing to do so, then repositioning the striker.

Surely there is some easier way to getting this to work.

The door position can be adjusted at the hinge end too using spacers, this sometimes is the only way to get the catch to meet the striker if striker adjustment is not working.

bluedog333 said:

The door position can be adjusted at the hinge end too using spacers, this sometimes is the only way to get the catch to meet the striker if striker adjustment is not working.

Click to expand...

This ^^ sound slike the hing end needs to be spaced out away from the bulkhead a little to allow the catch to full engage over the seal.

Totally agree with the above.
Also, you've obviously had the seal off. Have you put a new one on as it will be stiffer/less squashed than original. Or, you might not have the original pushed back home fully on to the seam or fractionally out of original alignment.

My passenger side door is a bugger to close, you can slam it as much as you like and it will not latch on, it just bounces back off the rubber seal onto the first safety latch, but a gentle push from outside or a gentle pull from inside and it latches closed every time.

I find bending the metal tab (that the seal sits on) inwards in a few places helps with this. The design is a PITA though.

Try opening the window a bit, with new rubber seals fitted it could be air pressure,

That works on my drivers side window but not my passenger side.

dag019 said:

This ^^ sound slike the hing end needs to be spaced out away from the bulkhead a little to allow the catch to full engage over the seal.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies as usual. You both were on the right track. I only started to get better results after adding shims/spacers to the door side of the hinge whilst removing some from the pillar side.
It closes and catches now but.. still way to go.