John:
The spring is indeed held in place by two rivets, and the two
caps you are speaking of are the heads of the rivets. You will need to
remove the kick panel (five screws) to access the back of the check
strap hardware. You will also need to remove the rivet that fastens the
check strap to the door so that the check strap can be removed (also
from the kick panel side).
I replaced the rivet for the check strap with a with a special
screw from the hardware store. I have forgotten the name, but it comes
as a pair. One is simply an ordinary short screw, the other is a
"female" screw. It has a head, but the threaded portion of the screw is
HOLLOW, with the threads on the INSIDE. When they are assembled, it
looks like a 1/4" long screw with a head on both ends and no threads, if
that makes any sense.
I used a little loctite to make sure it never comes apart. That
way should I ever need to replace the check strap again, it all comes
apart with a screw driver. As it is, you must use a Dremel to cut the
heads off the rivets for disassembly. Some one may know an easier way,
but that is what I used.
As far as the non-original rivets used to attach the spring, I
suspect they are pop rivets, which will be different in appearance but
are much easier to install. They will also be much easier to remove
should the need arise, since you can drill them out instead of using a
Dremel. Once again, you can replace the rivets with suitable screws. I
would not use rivets that are aluminum, as they would probably be too
soft but if the rivets are steel then you would probably be fine. I
would use a steel backing washer for the rivets so that if they pull
out, they will not enlarge the holes in the sills. If you use screws
instead of rivets, I would recommend hardened screws as it seems to me
that they would be highly stressed and may well fail at some point. This
may well be why the TR engineers specified rivets in the first place.
Cheers,
Vance
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@Autox.Team.Net [mailto:owner-6pack@Autox.Team.Net] On
Behalf Of John VanNorman
Sent: May 29, 2007 9:30 AM
To: 6-Pack
Subject: [6pack] Door catch strap question
I hope I can explain this clearly, but can someone tell me how to
install the spring on the door check strap? I'm talking about the
elongated flattened "O" shaped piece of metal that the tongue of the
door check strap passes through. The spring on driver's side broke of
my car broke and I have a replacement with new rivets, but I didn't
want to go tearing the interior panel off before knowing how to
replace it. Are the two caps on either side of the strap which hold
it in place part of the rivets? The two replacement rivets don't look
like those caps.
John V.
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