What is the proper way to adjust the door striker/latch on my '92 Ford F150 truck? I looked at the FSM and it's not clear to me. I let my boy start driving my F150 about a month ago. I drove it the other day for the first time since giving it to him. Both doors now rattle against the strikers something fierce which they didn't when I gave it to him. He claims innocence.

You could grab the outside handle and rattle the latch by pushing in/pulling out rapidly. Drive it down the road and the doors rattled something terrible. The weather stripping is still in very good shape and all there. The door hinge pins appear to be still tight. So I am thinking it just needed a simple latch adjustment. So I scribed a pencil line around the current position of the "latch striker", loosened the torx "striker pin" and moved it in just a fraction on an inch. Problem is, while the rattling is gone, I have to slam the door VERY-VERY hard/multiple times to get it to latch. I tried various incremental movements back/forth of the torx "striker pin" and I either get a rattling latch or I have to slam the door very hard. In the first picture, how is the part labled "latch striker" supposed to be adjusted? If you loosen the "striker pin", it allows the "latch striker" to rotate. Obviously, I think it is supposed to fit into the wedge section of the "door latch" pictured in the second picture. Is this supposed to be an even fitment? Do you snug down on the torx striker pin, gently close the door to position the "latch striker" properly then tighten down on the torx "striker pin"? Do you line the "latch striker" perfectly level? Is the "latch striker" used to move the door up/down incrementally by cheating it a few degrees up/down to position the door in the door frame? I would appreciate the experts to tell me how you guys adjust the door latch properly so I can get rid of the rattles and not have to slam the door so hard to get it closed. Thanks, Charles.

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Im still playing around with mine.. I finally got it right. I just kept messing with them until I was happy.

 

is the plastic bushing that goes around the stricker still there??? if and when they fall off it will cause a hell of a lot of noise.... you can get the replacement strikers at a parts store in the "HELP" kind of stuff, just get a torx bit that fits yours OR use my pethod of vice grips and spin them out, spin the new ones in in the same exact spot with bushings

 

Wicked, thanks for the reply.
I bought the truck with 80K miles on it and I can honestly say that I don't remember there being a plastic bushing on either the drivers or pass side striker pins. But if '92 F150's should have them then that explains why it may be rattling. Here's a couple of pictures my boy took for me this afternoon. It's dark out now so I can't look closer but in the pictures below, it looks like there's no plastic sleeve over the striker pin. If there's supposed to be plastic over the metal striker pin on a '92 then I will buy a couple of new pins this coming Monday. Here's the pictures of the pin my son took today, looks like no plastic sleeve right?

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yeah i would definately say no plastic on them left, heres a pic i stole from autozones website for a 92 f150 at 8.99 each


edit. judging by the second pitcure it looks like it just recently lost the plastic, you can see a nice clean circe right around the pin

 

Dang, looks like both sides are missing the plastic! I'll be getting a couple of new pins this Monday. Wicked, thanks for the solution.

 

not a proble,. just glad to help instead of always being the helped lol

 

I need to replace both of mine on my 94 Bronco, can the nut inside the B pillar fall down inside when you remove the striker or is it held in place?

 

It did not fall down when I did mine. The new strikers solved my problem.

 

thanks Red, where did you buy yours? I found them on LMC for $12.95 each plus shipping

 

Autozone Help section for $8.99

Part Number:
38448

 

thanks Red, rep points to ya

 

thanks 86, points to you as well

 

Back at ya bud

 

It's funny how the driver's side gets a lot more strikes yet they tend to fail almost at the same time, i think that speaks very well of the quality of the materials used on them.