My driver side door on my 1986 F250 wont latch right. IT does latch securely but i have a little play in it. Like I can pull and push it just a bit. its not snug. Every once in a blue moon it latches snug but not often. Nothing like the passanger door. anything i can adjust ot what might be bad.

 

The door latch has two latching positions. Slowly close the door until you feel the latch start to engage. Then push it shut. Does it click once or twice? If it clicks once, you will probably find that it will rattle. If it clicks twice, does it still rattle?

It could be in need of adjustment. The striker post on the door jam can be moved as needed.

On my truck, both doors rattle all the time even when fully latched. That is because the rubber seals around both doors are completely rotted and no longer have any compression left. If your seals are bad, the door will rattle no matter how you adjust it.

 

There is a plastic bushing on the door striker. when my pass one broke and fell off the door started to rattle. I got a new bushing from the HELP section at autozone, but I couldnt get the washer separated from the striker to install it. I saw the complete striker with bushing and washer at NAPA.

 

Okay, open your door. Now lift the bottom of it up. Does it seem solid or does it tend to have some play in it?

When you unlatch the door and it seems to sag down some thats from bad bushings in the door hinges. They can be replaced for about 6 dollars but can take awhile to do and be a hassle.

This is a common reason for peoples doors not shutting correctly.

 

That's exactly what my passenger door did last Friday. I was able to move the striker "in" toward the interior to pull the door closer into the gasket but without the plastic bushing, it's metal on metal at the latch and still rattles. I looked at the drivers door and found that the plastic was ready to go on that one too. I ordered two new strikers from JBG, waiting on them now... The funny thing is that my '85 parts truck must be sick of me stealing parts off him because my key no longer unlocks the drivers door! I was unable to check the condition of them on it!

 

I think these all eventually break up. I put a split down one side of a piece of nylon tubing the right size & slipped it over the latch post to replace the original bush - Silence once more

 

Try this for separating the washer from the striker bolt, it's what I had to do when the bushings went bad on the '90 Crown Vic.

I haven't looked real close at the '84 150 yet, as the doors close pretty good on it.

Hold that washer in a vise, or with a pair of vise-grips, and the striker bolt will unscrew out of it. At least it did on the CV. Try it on one you can afford to trash first.....just in case. I bought the bushings out of the Help! section at Autozone. It said they were for the lift gate on a Bronco II or something like that, but they worked perfectly.