Pex Door Striker Mod

I do not believe that out of all of the door strikers I have that any of them have good plastic bushings on them. I had a spare moment today to play with doing the Pex tubing mod.

Here is the patient:


If you have never taken one of these off a person needs to understand they are adjustable. Chances are that yours are adjusted correctly, but the plastic being gone or compromised is making the door close funny. To avoid a lengthy adjustment process when removing simply take a pencil and trace around it so you know where it goes exactly before you remove the striker bolt:



Next select your favorite color of 1/2" Pex tubing. I pick up these scraps on residential job sites for free:



Now, I have seen where a lot of guys heat this material up to make it malleable. However, understanding how the material works will help with installing it. This material has a memory. When using it in a plumbing application there is a tool that goes inside of it . The tool resembles a miniature exhaust pipe expander. The tool stretches the tubing and the installer slips it over the fitting and the memory allows it to shrink back down tight enough to make a water tight seal under pressure.

So instead of heating it up I simply adjusted my bench vise to where the threads on the striker would easily pass through the jaws and the tubing would sit on the jaws. I then thumped it with a dead blow hammer 3 or 4 times with about light to medium force. The tubing slipped right on with no issues at all:



Now all that has to be done is to line your pencil marks up and tighten it down:



This task was so simple and so quick that it literally took me 5 minutes and that is probably a modest time duration. It was probably closer to 3 minutes.

I hope this helps someone that has been wanting to do this. It is very simple. Good luck!

Well done! Those doors can rattle like a bugger.

I grabbed a couple pairs of the newer strikers at the junkyard a while back so I could do this when the time comes. I think with the Bullnose strikers the only way to install the tubing would be to cut it.

Good job, Branden!  But two questions: First, do you know the size of the PEX you used?  Second, any chance it could be put on while the striker is still on the truck?

Pex size is 1/2". I think I mentioned that in section 2, but I will double check.

I do not believe it can be done while the striker is on the truck. The end of the striker bolt is too big to stretch the tubing over.

The Pex size was mentioned in section 3.

Ok, I see what you are saying.  

Rembrant,  I have to wonder how the sleeve was put  on at the factory? It would have to come apart similar.

Also, as far as installing while on the truck the tubing would never get by the guard on the right side of the striker pin:

The Bullnose trucks don't have that guard, although installing the later striker with the guard is a good upgrade.

Does the pin not seperate from the bracket when removed?

Bruno2 wrote

Rembrant,  I have to wonder how the sleeve was put  on at the factory? It would have to come apart similar.

Not sure how they did it at the factory but the bolt is not removable on the Bullnoses...not without destroying the threads at least.

Rembrant wrote

Not sure how they did it at the factory but the bolt is not removable on the Bullnoses...not without destroying the threads at least.

So we need to go with the later striker that comes out?

Just a little hint I use for hood hinges (which can be a REAL &$*@# to get located)

Take an 1/8" drill and go through the hinge and through the sheet metal behind.
You can then use the drill shank or a nail to positively locate the hinge plate while you tighten it down.

Some might reel in horror at the thought, but if you've fought them enough times you might come around to the dark side.  😈

Gary Lewis wrote

The Bullnose trucks don't have that guard, although installing the later striker with the guard is a good upgrade.

My old 86 cab did? They were definitely bullnose guards because the striker bolts stripped when they came out of the guards.

Gary Lewis wrote

So we need to go with the later striker that comes out?

Gary, yes, the later strikers with the guards do come apart like the ones Bruno has pictured above. I'm not sure exactly when the change took place, but I'm guessing it was 1992. I have a few of them I grabbed at the Junkyard from some later (1992-1996) F trucks.

They look exactly the same as the earlier ones, but they have a plastic washer on them, and the bolt can be threaded out with your fingers.




I checked a couple Bricknose trucks at the junkyard (both 1987's) and they had the stikers with the steel guards, but the bolts could not be removed, same as the ones from the Bullnoses without the guards.

I don't know when they changed, but I'd say 1992, although it might have been earlier.

Cory, thank you for this little nugget!

I've always thought that the striker bushing was more like cpvc than pex consistency, but had only thought of cutting it lengthwise and fusing it back together.

Off to search for repop aeronose strikers now....

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Cory, thank you for this little nugget!

I've always thought that the striker bushing was more like cpvc than pex consistency, but had only thought of cutting it lengthwise and fusing it back together.

Off to search for repop aeronose strikers now....

Yeah, I believe you can buy replacement strikers in this style...with the removable bolt, and you can also buy the bushings...I believe from Dorman? They are hard hard plastic, like PVC.

It might be this kit below, I'm not sure...

https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-15607-38424.aspx?origin=keyword

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Cory, thank you for this little nugget!

Thank Bruno!

I think guys have had pretty good success with the PEX replacements, and that was with cutting them to fit. The way Bruno has them installed, they'll last a long long time.

Our page @ Documentation/Interior/Doors/Door Locks shows an illustration that says the striker is #22008, which in the Text side of the catalog 22008 is a Plate (Door Latch Striker).  And while the info below wasn't on our page there it is now.

However, note that it says all of our trucks, from 1980 through 1989 took part # E9AZ 5422008-A, as did the E-Series vans.  (None of the other vehicles in the list use that part so I didn't include them.)  But that part was designed in 1989 given the "E9", and clearly anything earlier didn't come with it.

So there must have been several iterations of the design.  Probably one with an E0 part number, then one with an E6 part number that added the shield that Shaun's has.  But, apparently everything got replaced by the E9 part number as it was thought to be a superior design.

 FYI, there are a lot of negative things said about the Dorman striker sleeves. They are apparently a few thousandths too big. It causes the doors not to open when installed or have to be shut extremely hard.  People were grinding about .05" off of them to make them operate right.