New Gap in Door?

[MartinTheHuman]

I'm not a body guy, but the strangest thing happened. After we had the Charger up on a lift working on the suspension, after dropping it and doing a test drive the passenger door no longer closes all the way. The gap is sufficient to not close the interior light switch so we had to unhook the battery. The gaps still look fine, and I'm fairly certain that lifting the car (always resting the pads on frame) wouldn't bend the car and that's backed up by the door gaps still looking good. All I've done to inspect it is take off the interior side upper door trim to look for adjusters. I'm poking around at adjustments but I'm not sure how mopar does it. Has anyone ever ran into this issue, or has any idea what happened and how to fix it?

[70 sublime]

Do you have to push the door handle button to get it to unlatch to open ?
It almost looks like the latch has shut before the door is closed and keeping it open

Did you have the door open when the car was up in the air on the lift ??

[MartinTheHuman]

No, the door hasn't been opened in probably 6 months, only used the driver side for bleeding brakes, installing master cylinder, etc so it had always been closed. It's not apparent in the pic but it's a two-post lift so we'd have the doors shut regardless.

Have to push the button to open after closing, compared the closing mechanism to the driver side. Best way I can describe it is a rotating spur style latch part that hits the striker, rotating one way like a revolver cylinder. So it mechanically closes which means having to open the door with the handle but the space is new for sure and sufficient to leave the interior lights on. I really can't see something like frame flex from lifting/dropping while we were aligning the front and I'm hoping I don't have to drop the front right fender to get to the door adjustments. It's a head scratcher for me for sure, but I'm also not a body or metal guy whatsoever.

[70 sublime]

It just looks like it has not shut all the way
Did you try pushing it shut so it clicks twice not just once ?
You might just have to lower ( or raise ) the part the door latches onto on the door frame to make it happy

[green69rt]

You shouldn't have to take the fender off to get at the door hinge bolts.  The ones on the door are accessible with the door open.  The hinge to post bolts have one bolt on the outside of the car, you can see it with the door open, they are a pain to get at but it's possible.  The other two, per hinge, are accessible behind the kick panel and dash, again the top one is the bugger, hidden behind the dash.

You say the gaps still look good?  It may be something as simple as the latch has moved.  Can you see if it looks like anything has moved, paint line different around the latch, dirt marks different?

[green69rt]

After looking at the pics again, I would try lifting the door as you try to close it or push down on the door to close it.  If either of those work then you know which way to adjust the latch receiver (on the door post, not the door.) If that doesn't work, get some clay or silly putty (or something similar.)  Put it on the receiver to see where the latch is hitting. 

To adjust the receiver, loosen the three Philips screws and tap it around.  It will move a little.  Mark the current location with a felt tip pen or something so you can always put it back to original if you need.

[HANDM]

If it's not clicking twice when you push it closed, it's the black plastic slider on the upper portion of the door latch and not the striker wheel.

I had the same issue with mine. I spent hours getting the doors, windows and locks to work properly the and the one thing I didn't do was lube that little slider which resulted in it getting hung up on the old grease.

[Charger-Bodie]

Did a pin come part way out of a hinge?

[hemi-hampton]

I've seen a lot of body flex in these old Mopar's when jacked up. LEON.