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So I have decided to replace the door striker bolts on my 77 Toronado as the nylon bushings on the driver side is missing making the door a real bear to open and close. The bushing on the passenger side is cracked and it is probably only a matter of time before if falls off. My question - is the nut that the bolt threads into a captive nut or floating plate. The 77 Fisher body manual is not really clear on whether it is captive or not. Has anyone done this change and have any advice before I launch into this.
Byron, it's a "floating cage plate," and it says this right in the manual on page 5-30, first column, under "DOOR LOCK STRIKER." Just stick a correct-size torx wrench into the end of the striker bolt and turn it to loosen it or take it right off. If the door is currently aligned correctly when it's closed, be careful not to let the cage plate move when you remove the bolt. It's slightly moveable so that you can adjust the position of the striker if needed. But if it's good, get a marking pen and trace around the bolt spacer before you loosen or remove anything so you can put the bolt back in the same position.
Also, is the bolt itself damaged? If it's ok, you just need to replace the washer and/or spacer, whichever is worn.
Jaunty, I read that in the manual and to me it implied that the "floating cage plate" would drop away when the bolt was removed as there was not something to hold it in place. The only way then to reinstall it would be to remove the rear trim panels and hope there is hole that you can get your hand into to put it back. Apparently that was a common issue on Chevy/GMC Suburbans and Blazers so I was concerned that was the case here.
On my drivers door the bolt is missing the nylon insert and as a result there is a flat spot worn on the bolt head. The door itself has dropped and I have found an old school body gut who is going to replace the hinge pins and bushings for me. On the passenger door the hinges appear fine but the nylon insert on the striker bolt is cracked and it is only a matter of time before it goes, so might as well do it as well.
Good suggestion on using a marker pen to trace around the washers on the pillar to have a reference point for the the new bolt assembly.
About time I fixed this door. I am getting a sore shoulder from having to really yank hard to get the door to close and then really lean into the door when in the vehicle to get it to open.
Thanks for the advice as always.
I've removed strike bolts as I had to reposition a door on a car once ('73 Olds wagon). The nut into which the bolt screws doesn't drop away when the bolt is removed.
Byron, I thought I could take some photos from inside the panel. But I forgot, the back seat side windows don't roll down! So there's no access there. But as I was looking at it, the vent right above the striker will give you access so you can see what's going on with the plate. I tried to take pictures of inside but they didn't come out. John
Just for information thought i would post some pictures of the condition of the current door striker bolts.
The first is the drivers door with wear spot and no no nylon/plastic insert. My body man tells me the wear is from worn bushings on the hinge pins
This photo is the passenger side and shows the split in the nylon/plastic bushing. So might as well replace it as well.
Byron, this is interesting. My Toro, a '78, doesn't have a bushing like that. (I'd been wondering from the beginning what you were talking about when you said "nylon bushing.") Below is a photo of the driver's side striker. The top of the end of it is a little worn like yours, and I'm sure that's due to what you said, worn hinge-pin bushings, but the doors work well enough that I don't want to get into trying to fix it right now.
The '77 chassis manual makes no mention of a bushing of any kind, nylon or otherwise, and there's none shown in the figure. The '78 chassis manual is identical to the '77 in regard to the striker. This figure is the same in both manuals.
What if you just removed the bushing and tried opening and closing the door?
Last edited by jaunty75; May 10th, 2020 at 11:29 AM.
Jaunty, this gets more interesting the more I research. Your drivers door does not have the bushing like mine but if you look closely at the washer on both yours and mine there is a clear sign that something was there as there is no paint on the washer. Based on the fact that my passenger side operates relatively smoothly I am of the opinion that the nylon bushing should be there.
Also my body shop guy spotted right away that it was missing and indicated that it was a contributing factor to the door not opening and closing easily, with the hinge pins an bushings being the major culprit.
I have hunted high and low for new striker bolts for the car and the most common listing is for just the bolt peg with no bushing.
It would appear that Dorman part #38420 which comes with the bushing is the closest I can find for this car. It is listed for 71 - 76 Toronado, but as far as I know the doors were the same up 1978. The body style changed in 1979 so perhaps the striker bolt changed in that year as well.
So here are some pictures of what I ordered. These listings are from Fusick and e-Bay ,but I ordered mine from the local NAPA store.
I will find out if this is the right part when the parts come in early next week. Fingers crossed.
This is interesting, but I wonder why the service manual doesn't show the bushing in the diagram? Show that to your body shop guy.
I have Fisher Body Manuals for 1967 and 1973 (as well as 1977 and 1978), and neither of those show a bushing in that spot. My '67 Delta 88, which I sold back in January, did not have any bushings on the striker bolts, and the doors on that car closed with the most satisfying "thwunk" of any car I've ever owned. I had a '73 Custom Cruiser for a few years and sold it in 2014, and I actually had to adjust the striker for the driver's door on that car at one time, and there was no bushing.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be a bushing. All I'm saying is that I've never seen a bushing on any of the cars from that era I've owned, and none of the service manuals show one. You would think they would if it were such an important, wear part.
I went and checked the service manual for my old 72 Cadillac Eldorado and it shows the very same sketch that you posted earlier. Obviously they were sparing no expense in updating the details/diagrams on this part.
I then checked the parts listing manual for the 72 Caddy and found a reference part number GM 9601750 forth striker bolt for 71+. Then did a google search for that old GM part number and found this NOS striker part for sale. So it appears that despite what the sketch shows in any of these manuals the striker does have some sort of nylon/plastic bushing. But who really knows for sure.
That Dorman part number is available at Autozone for $9.99, If I put for the vehicle a '77 or '78 Toronado, the site says that it does NOT fit. If I put in '76 Toronado, it says it does fit. What could have changed between 1976 and 1977, or is this a case of a parts vendor not having a good parts cross-reference? As you said, 1979 and later was a different body style, but I would have thought the second-gen Toros would have been similar in something like this.
I checked O'Reilly and NAPA, and they're the same as Autozone. The Dorman part is shown as applicable to the '76 and earlier Toros but not the '77 or '78.
Of course, Byron, all you need is the bushing. Are you planning to take that from the new one and put it on your existing striker? Or are you planning to put the whole new thing in?
I did a bit more digging around, and I'm thinking now that maybe the '77 and later strikers aren't supposed to have the bushing, and that's why the parts vendors show that Dorman part as applicable only up to 1976.
I like to "collect" '77 and '78 Toronados by downloading all the photos any time I see one for sale anywhere, and I have a bit of a collection now. I went through the photos to see if I could find any that gave a reasonable view of the striker, and I found a few. I had to enlarge them because most sellers don't focus on the striker, but often open-door photos showing the front seat or the back seat, if taken from far enough away, will show the striker. Here's three I found.
In all of these, the striker looks to be about the same diameter as the one on my car. Of course, there is no guarantee that these cars hadn't lost their bushings, but it seems unlikely that all three would necessarily have done so. Also, they all appear to have some wear on the top side on the wide end of the bolt.
They all look like the striker bolt that you can see quite clearly in John's photo of the white car. I put mine just below it for comparison. They look pretty much identical.
Byron, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that your car should NOT have a bushing and that one that's on your car is something someone stuck on the car at some point in the past, for whatever reason, perhaps to try to get the door to open and close better. That's why the Dorman parts shows as not being correct.
You say your driver's side striker does not have a bushing but the passenger side does. I think your driver's side is correct, and if you have difficulty opening the door, the solution is to adjust the position of the striker (and replace the hinge pin bushings).
Last edited by jaunty75; May 10th, 2020 at 08:13 PM.
Jaunty, it really is difficult to get a definitive answer to this question about the nylon bushing. What I did notice is all the sites that list the Dorman assembly only quote up to 1976 Toronado and that would appear to be because that is what Dorman publishes. I event went to the Dorman web site and typed in 77 & 78 Toronado and got a no fit answer. Logically this does not make sense because the doors from 71-78 are all the same. They only changed - got smaller - in 79 when then car changed and got smaller. So to me all the sites listing this part rely on Dorman for vehicle fitment and if Dorman hasn't updated their listing then the others won't either.
There is another listing for a striker bolt for GM vehicles, Dorman #38428, but according to Autozone it does not fit any Olds Toronado between 71 - 78. It does fit Toronado's before and after those dates. Interestingly enough it is slightly smaller in diameter and the head of the bolt is much smaller than original equipment, so I really don't think this is a candidate.
The Autozone price on the 38420 part looks good but after exchange, shipping and handling and taxes on imports it is more expensive than buying it locally from the local NAPA store where I purchased it in Cdn$ and I got it in 2 days. As soon as the weather starts to co-operate I will try it out, probably on the passenger door which basically works fine and little wear on the top of the bolt head but just has a cracked bushing. No sense installing the new one on the drivers door until the hinge pins and bushings are fixed otherwise I will just screw up the new one.
You may well be correct in that originally these cars did not come with a bushing, but this Dorman part seems to be the closest match I can find based on bolt diameter and head size. My passenger door with the bushing operates just fine. I also notice on my passenger door that the head of the bolt and washers are painted and as the inside of the doors have never been repainted I can only assume that is the way it came from the factory. But who knows. All I can do is give it a try and see what happens,
The bushing is part of the striker bolt and not a separate piece. I have seen this type of bolt before and it is not unusual for GM.
So what are you saying here? That the Dorman part with the separate bushing is not correct? That the split bushing on Byron's car shouldn't be there at all? I'm leaning yes on all of these.
What bothers me most of all in all of this is that, if this separate bushing is such an important thing, why doesn't the Fisher Body manual, the most authoritative source we have, mention the bushing or show in the diagram?
JAll I can do is give it a try and see what happens,
Exactly. Please keep us posted.
Another thing that bugs me is that your driver's side bolt basically looks just like mine, just like the one on John's white car, and just like the ones I showed above in those other three cars I found photos of.
The only real issue I see is that the top of the wide part at the end is worn more than the bolts in the other photos which suggests that you might have a seriously sagging door, and that could certainly cause difficulty in opening the door. I think if you service the hinge pins with new bushings so the door does not sag, you'll find that it will open and close as it should, and that you don't need to replace the striker bolt at all. In short, I don't think the striker bolt is the problem.
But, heck, it's a lot easier to replace the striker bolt than it is to get at and service the hinges, so, since you've got a new striker bolt on the way, anyway, install it and see what happens.
What I have learned on another site "Jurassic Classic Auto Parts" is that GM had 2 door striker bolts over the years.
A larger steel door latch striker bolt. 1/2"-13 (.50") Thread size which comes with a bushing and a smaller size 7/16"-24 (.4375") thread size with no bushing.
Based on my estimate of the sizing what we need is the larger bolt and it would appear that current replacements will have the bushing. I am wondering if that the bushing is there to get the latching part of the bolt up to the required diameter without having to go to the expense of machining a special bolt with a wider mounting post.
What is pictured in the manual troubles me as well but without the bushing there is no striker bolt available with the right diameter. Combined with the the reference in the Cadillac parts book which leads to a NOS part with a bushing has me leaning in that direction.
Clearly the hinge pins and bushings are the major cause of the door sag and the wear on the head of the striker bolt. But I figure if i am going ahead with the hinge pins and bushings I "might as well" do the striker bolts that way everything will be refreshed.
Last edited by ByronF; May 11th, 2020 at 08:33 PM.
Dang! wouldn't you know it, I finally get a decent weather day - the first in a week- and I don't have the right size Torx driver to get the striker bolt off. So now I have to call in the order to the local parts place and wait a few days for them to get it and then go line up outside the store to pick it up. Any other time I would enjoy this curb side service but this time not so much.
Just to muddy the water a bit more. I bought Jauntys 73 CC and when I got it back from the trim shop, the doors closed extremely easy and tight. I asked the guy what he did and he said it was missing the striker bushings even though it too didnt show in the manual. He used pcv pipe cut to length and slid it over the shaft. Huge difference. So I started to look at some of my original cars especially the Toros as those doors are heavy as ****. Only one had a remnant of the plastic bushing by chance on a 77. Instead of plastic which I figured would just bust again over time, I went to Rural King and in the nut and bolt bins they have metal bushings. If I remember correctly its a 1/2" bushing with a slit. Its a real tight fit over the striker shaft and I used a rubber mallet to tap it on. I put the slit side at the 9 oclock position so nobody will see its not a complete circle. Doors close like new. I ended up putting these on all my Toros and every 70s and 80s cars it fit and none have that slight rattle in the doors anymore. I think I had to cut the length slightly for the 60s Toros as the striker shaft was shorter. Also, for whatever reason on some models GM used a different diameter striker and I couldnt get a tight fit on all the cars so I didnt use it. Has to fit tight or the bearclaw wont latch. Dont shut the door hard when in place the first time to make sure its not interfering with the catch. It either clears or it doesnt. Yours should clear and it will be a smile moment when you feel how easy the door catches. BTW I ended up replacing the ones on the 73 CC as the metal bushing can be painted easy and looks better than gray PCV. I had seen the plastic ones on ebay and was going to order some but the metal ones are like .50.
This is really interesting. Now you've got me looking for some bushings for my Toro. I went out and measured the diameter of the narrow part of the striker bolt, and it's 0.55", so, as you say, a 1/2" ID bushing should fit if cut lengthwise as you did and then tap on with hammer. I measured the length of the narrow part, and it's exactly 3/4".
It doesn’t get out much unfortunately. I leave the tailgate half open when folks visit as anyone under 40 has no idea what a clamshell is. Here are some photos of it and closeups of the metal bushings. This is on a 73 Toro. This is a 75 88. Didn’t get the split hidden very well.
One certainly does learn something new every day. I never in a million years would have thought that there should be a bushing on the door striker. But I took deaddds's advice. I couldn't find anything sort-of pre-made, so I went to Home Depot this morning (with mask firmly in place as our governor is now requiring mask-wearing in all public places, at least through the end of May) and bought a length of 1/2-inch copper pipe. I cut two pieces of 3/4" length each, cut a slit the long way on both, and installed them on the striker bolts. The driver's side bolt loosened very easily, but the passenger side wouldn't budge with a torx wrench, so I got a pipe wrench and used it on the wider, end-part of the bolt, and it loosened very easily.
One thing I found that was interesting is each bolt (driver's and passenger side) has THREE washers, the decorative, beveled one and two flat ones behind all. It all looks original. I really don't know why there are three when the book shows only two. Apparently three were needed for the door to close properly.
Anyway, it was a simple matter to slide my new bushings over the bolts and reinstall them. The doors open and close just fine, and I will say that there is more of a tighter sound and feel to the closure. Very pleased. Photos of the new bushings are below.
Thanks, Byron, for bringing this issue up at all, and thanks dds for your suggestion. I hope Byron is successful in his repair.
This thread is full of great info! I haven't gotten a chance to go look at my striker bolts, but I suspect I will be doing this metal bushing trick very soon.
Here's my $0.02 on the lack of parts matching for the '77 and '78 Toronados vs '76 and earlier. GM changed their fullsize cars in '77 to the style that took us through the 80's. However, the Toronado soldiered on pretty much the same car for '77 and '78. Who, but we that have/had them remember this? I ran into this with weatherstripping for the trunk. Not to pick on Steele, but they show the later push-on style for '77 and up, while the '76 shows the proper still glued into the channel version that I know my '77 has. Metro doesn't make this same mistake .... they just don't list a trunk weatherstrip at all for the '77, but they have it for the '76.
It is! Droldsmobilemuseum.com. I’m open usually the first Saturday of the month but of course this year has been mostly crap as our governor in IL thinks we are sheep and can’t possible figure out how to keep the randomly picked 6’ apart. I need to move to a Walmart because hundreds of people somehow can converge and apparently stay apart enough to stay open but my average of 10 folks a day is irresponsible. I’m such a jerk.
It was a ball breaker to do the 73 Toro pass side. Driver side easy peasy but it took cheater bar, kroil, heat and my left nut to break it free. Put the bushing in, snugged it up and GTG.
Thank you deaddds for the information and photos on the bushing. And Jaunty glad to see it worked for you as well. I did not get mine done today (passenger side) and I damn near got a hernia trying to break it loose. So loaded it up with penetrating oil and will let it sit overnight and have a go at it again tomorrow weather permitting.
Will let you all know how I make out whenever I get the dang bolt loose.
While sitting there frustrated over the bolt not budging and waiting for the pain to subside, decide to muck with something easier like replacing the passenger side mirror. Should be a piece of cake right. Well that is turning into another major exercise.
Think I will start a whole new thread on that issue.
I did not get mine done today (passenger side) and I damn near got a hernia trying to break it loose.
Try a pipe wrench. The beauty of using a wrench like this is that you're putting the torque right on the bolt itself, not on an extension of the bolt. I tried using the torx bit, and the ratchet wrench kept wanting to twist in my hand. I tried using a breaker bar, and the torx bit kept twisting out of the end of the bolt. The pipe wrench, on the other hand, worked perfectly and had the bolt loose in two seconds.
While sitting there frustrated over the bolt not budging and waiting for the pain to subside, decide to muck with something easier like replacing the passenger side mirror. Should be a piece of cake right. Well that is turning into another major exercise.
You have to remove the inside door panel, right? At least the top part of it? That's not too bad, actually. You remove some screws (make sure you find them all), unscrew the door-lock ****, and then lift the panel up off the door. You'll have to remove the two trim pieces on either side of the leather door pull to get at two of the larger screws that hold the panel in place. The front one is trapezoidal while the rear one is rectangular. They have to be pried off with a flat-blade screwdriver. Like everything else that you pry on on an old car, be careful so you don't crack or break anything.
Will you be replacing the remote control cable as well, or can you reuse the old one? Hopefully the latter as pulling out the old one and fitting the new one in probably isn't anywhere near as much fun as replacing just the mirror..
Well I can now confirm that the Dorman door striker with the bushing shown above is a perfect fit to replace existing units. After nearly hospitalizing my self trying to get the passenger side bolt off, I went the easy route and did the drivers door. The bolt came out fairly easy and the floating cage plate stayed in place. As a precaution I removed the vent plate above the bolt so I could reach inside to hold the cage plate just in case, but it was not necessary. I installed the new bolt with bushing and carefully closed the door and it worked like a charm. The next test was to open the door while inside the car and for the first time since I have owned the car I did NOT have to put my shoulder into it to get it to open. Just pull the handle and give a little push and the door opens. So just for the heck of it, I borrowed the bushing from the new part and installed it on my old striker bolt and installed that so it looks like original equipment. Again the door worked like a charm. In fact it works so well I am starting to think I don't need to spend the money on new hinge pins and bushings at the moment. Was a good day today, the weather was nice and something worked right. I will take a photo and upload it tomorrow because thread need photos.
May 7th, 2020, 05:12 PM
