Charlie,
You got the solution! I'm going to change your terms a bit to explain
the problem further. To me the strike is the thing being struck by the
plunger. The strike is the thing mounted on the body of the car in the
door jamb of the B pillar. The plunger is the thing with the beveled
end that engages with the strike and inside the mechanism inside the
door. There is a lever that both the interior and exterior handles
interact with to push the plunger toward the front of the car to unlatch
the door.
The problem as you have explained is the small tang that the lever uses
to move the plunger can break off. The reason that it breaks off is
that the wrong material was used to make the plunger. The originals
were made of steel, probably machined from a block. In the after market
ones available today which look very nice and match the look and size of
the originals perfectly, the plunger is cast and then machined. From
the gray color of it, it appears to be cast iron, which of course is
quite brittle and a horrible application for a part like this. Where it
broke one can easily see from the graininess that it is cast. The
originals are a nice silver colored steel.
Cont. on second email
Charles Ulrich wrote:
> I just went through this with my BT7. Problem was the aftermarket latch
> mechanism. The striker has a tang on the inboard end which broke off, leaving
> the striker engaged while all the rest of the mechanism seems to work. We had
> to completely remove the latch mechanism, which isn't easy with the striker
> engaged. Then we replaced the aftermarket striker with an old one.
> Hopefully, you didn't throw away your original! Good luck! Charlie Ulrich
> _________________________________________________________________
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