One of my Aerostar pet peeves is to do with the sliding door alingment, or should I say slight misalignment.

Some of the alingment problems can be attributed to worn out nylon roller bearings. Make sure the roller guide ways are clean of any foreign debris. When you car wash your Aero, make sure to also clean the interior roller guide way (open the sliding door and thoroughly clean around the area where the bottom sliding door wheel travels).

After 20 years of usage, the sliding door will eventually drop down and back a few millimeters. Some of the symptoms associated with this will be a sporadic loss of electrical contact with those that are outfitted with electrical door locks. Also, the sliding door may also require some manual assistance at back edge to open the door. It can become somewhat frustrating, and perhaps a little embarrassing when parked beside a newer vehicle outfitted with automatic door opening/closing mechanisms.

I am not sure if the elevation of the sliding door can be adjusted at the rear or in the middle, but I do know that the horizontal position of the sliding door can be adjusted to a certain degree. The vertical position can be only adjusted by a very tiny amount.

1) Remove all of screws on the sliding door interior panel, and as well as the torx screw on the open/close barbaric door handle.

2) The bottom panel, other than the screws, has 2 plastic/nylon semi-resuble flat headed holder fittings.

3) Remove the two interior rubber grommets at the rear edge of the door. This will reveal 3 adjustment bolts.

4) Loosen the bolts, then push the door a bit forward while holding the middle hinge. Don't push too much! Just a little.

5) Re-tighten the middle handle bolts, and subsequently re-adjust the striker bolt. This is a PITA to align properly.

 

Aligning the sliding door is so much fun, not! It does help if you have a helper that can heave that heavy thing.

 

I've never had to align the sliding door on any of my five Aeros.

I have had to replace plenty of rollers, though.

 

I have had my door locked up, I finally got it opened and replaced the latch and for good measure the pin too.

 

Probably the rollers and bushings will wear out quicker if the door is not aligned properly. This is only noticeable if the user opens and closes the sliding door more than about 5 times a day, in the life span of the vehicle.

 

When the sliding door acts-up refusing to open (or won't close all the way), take a look at the where the front of the sliding door track is fastened to the body. I found it broken on two of my Aerostars. That allowed the track to pull away from it's forward attachment and gave me all sorts of problems till I figured it out and re-secured it. Since doing that, I've had no more problems with the slider. It really gave me a fit till if figured it out.

It's held in place by one small screw but on both of mine, I found the metal tab that was spot welded to the track had broken right at the leading edge of the track. It's hard to see. With the door open all the way, you can shine a light in there to check it out. I fixed mine with a strip of metal about 1-1/2" long and 3/4" wide bent at 45 degrees in the middle and a hole for the screw on one end. The metal was heavy enough to force the strip back into place without attaching it. I couldn't get a drill in there without taking the door loose. The metal I used was the thickness of slotted angle.

 

Wow, who would ever have thought to notice that tiny broken almost hidden part. Good post and find DFord!

While I was washing the Aero today, I thought about what you wrote here. I shined a LED light in there, and low and behold, mine is broken too! Yeah, you are right, it is hard to see that tiny part. You have to maneuver your head at a certain angle to see the tiny broken bugger.

I will have to try out your easy repair fix one of these days when I have time. I cannot imagine getting a screw driver into that small space without removing part of the door, but I will give your method a try.

It appears this repair will prevent/fix the rear part of the sliding door from sagging down a little bit.

 

At first, I was sure it was the latch or the linkage to the latch. Mine got stuck in the hold-closed safety position and I liked to never got it free. As I remember, I slid the door all the way back and managed to get at the screw that fastens the front of the track. I took it out and the broken piece came out with the screw. I made the steel piece about twice as long as the piece that broke off out of 1/16" steel about the same width and bent it sharply to about 45 degrees at the length of the broken piece (painted it black). As I put the screw back in, it pulled the track back into place. It hasn't given any problems on either van I did this to since.

 

Here is the exclusive and personal photo of the broken sliding door rail as described by DFord:



To actually see it with your own eyes, you need to pull back the rubber grommet door seal.

I do apologize for the low light level. I took several photos. The above is the best photo.

 

Yep! That looks just like what I found on two of my Aerostars.

If the sliding door latch seems to be acting up - won't unlatch or latch, maybe get stuck on the safety, this is the place to start looking.

Another note of interest while on this subject - the rear door latch is the same as the sliding door latch. The same lock mechanism can be used in either place.