W113 Pagoda SL Group > Body, interior, paint, chrome, and cosmetic items

Door Latch receiver fix?

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Tom in seattle:
The latch attached to the door jamb (not the door part) pictured here (driver side) is the source of my quandary.  The chromed (female) component is swedged onto the mounting plate.  After 50 years of use the chrome section just wabbles and won't stay properly aligned.  I've taken it off and tried to peen it into alignment with a center punch but it soon loosens up and fails at its intended use.  Is this thing repairable?  I haven't tried taking a torch to it.  Is it replaceable?  The passenger side is not useable on the driver side. 

Thanks for your help.

114015:

Tom...,

The locking eye or door catch, yes ???
A very typical failure, indeed. ???
Happens very often, especially on the more frequently used driver's side.... :P
These are LH and RH; so you can't switch from right to left and vice versa.

It looks as if you have got a 230 SL or an early 250 SL with the three (Philips) screw mounting plate, not four.
Correct?

Also, it looks as if you have  still the early version of this part: A110 720 0504 (and ~0604 for the right hand side). ;)
Those were later replaced by A110 720 1104 and ~1204 which have a stiffer mounting plate
and more important - the chromed 'female' part is more rigidly fixed to the mounting plate on the later version. :D

The later ones are still available new - but unfortunately at a price... :-X

The parts numbers already indicate to you it is a fintail part.
So what you can do is find a good/decent used part from a fintail donor car. ;)

I myself had the plan to get the old one somehow fixed but I think this is only of very short success.
You can try to laser weld the mounting bolt of the chromed female component into the mounting plate ... but certainly this won't be cheap (my experience with laser welding so far).  Welding with a torch is certainly not such a good idea because you will most likely burn the rubber inlet of the chromed component which makes the whole part useless ...
Better look for a good/decent used one.
And ... unfortunately, the proper function of the part (i.e. not loose) is by far more important than the condition of the chrome  ...

Here you can find some info on the plenty of differences of these locking eyes:
https://www.sls-hh-shop.de/main/en/mercedes-230-280sl-w113/72-tuer/72-b-info-schliessoese


Good luck !


Achim
(formerly with loose locking eye too)

Tom in seattle:
Thanks for the reference, I am following up with SLS.

TheEngineer:
This failure is typical of high mileage cars. This is one of the reasons why it is much better to buy a low mileage Pagoda

wwheeler:
So are we saying that the later versions with the improved mounting did not suffer failures as often?

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