[MommaDuck]

I took my van in due to jerking in door & it jumped off track & broke cable. So it needs new roller parts & the RAIL it slides on. Has anyone replaced the RAIL. We get hoe to do the roller part/hinge. But the rail has internal nuts or something. So we took a part inside & cant find where the rail is connected to the body to get the old one off!
Help please! Pictures are a bonus or video!

 

[John Clark]

Yes, there are internal nuts. You have to pull the entire interior rear panel to get to them. If you're working on the passenger side then you have to remove the rear blower unit, or at least get behind it. It's going to be quite a bit of work to get that rail off. I don't mean any disrespect but if you have to ask how to find the nuts on the back side, you probably shouldn't be attempting this.

 

[MommaDuck]

I didnt need your opinion but thanks, everyone starts somewhere! The problem is they aren't visable. We already have the back panel off. I was asking for pictures since we cant find them is all. This is the drivers side not passanger as well, its the left.

 

[John Clark]

No need for a snarky remark. Again, I wasn't meaning any disrespect. This is a fairly complicated procedure. The service manual calls for sliding door removal...not sure why when they don't call for it when changing the roller. It seems to me you could get the rail off with the back of the door sitting on a floor jack just like when replacing the roller but there may be a reason I'm missing...you're the first here I've seen ever ask about rail replacement and I've not done it myself.

Below are the pages from the service manual. As you can see the bolts are not really hidden and are right there when you remove the rear quarter panel trim and the covers that are behind it. If you need any of the instruction pages that are listed in step 1 let me know.

 

[Karl05]

John is trying to help.

I really appreciate his patience in answering my questions when I had a door issue--I wasn't as detailed as I needed to be but he had the patience to help me get through it.

Have to give a big Thanks to John--his help to myself and others is invaluable!

 

[John Clark]

Thanks Karl. I try!

 

[MommaDuck]

Just saw this & I found it today in better lighting. Hubby was looking to high haha. Got her fixed new rail & slider today. Apparently we had no rollers & it (van) was sold to us broken. (Cuz its done the jerk since day one & they said it needed greased lol)
Ugg but ty for the diagram i will save them. Check out what we were "rolling" on ... ugh. Left is the new part right the old. The "nibs" that hold the rollers were worn flat from what looks like years of metal grinding on metal. The track was damaged bent, rusted, & bumpy from it grinding.

 

[MommaDuck]

Oh & yes it was a pain lol. Bolts were hidden. 1 behind motor. One behind seat belt roller. One behind speaker & one behind same speaker all the way in the corner of hell! If u dropped the nut u could kiss it good bye! There was 1 visible when taking off the panel & that was it lol. Took us 2hrs to remove panels, replace the parts & put it all back. Not to terribly bad.

 

[KayDub]

Question for you John, since I see you post here quite often and have quite a bit of knowledge. What is the best preventative maintenance that can be done on these doors to extend the life of the rollers? With kids constantly in and out and living in state that has lots of sandy soil, I find that I get a lot of dirt in the lower tracks especially. I figure I would try some white lithium grease in all the tracks to give them some lube. Just looking for any other ideas or better ways to extend the useful life of my vehicle. Thanks!!

 

[John Clark]

The best thing you can do is replace the roller assembly every 50K and clean the track at the same time. There shouldn't be any lube used on the track with exception of the front corner where the door cable rubs on it

The picture posted above is pretty typical for these door rollers. I recently saw where someone posted pictures of a modified door roller where stainless bearings were used in place of the plastic but it's just as easy to inspect and replace them where necessary. It's not a hard job to do.

 

[KayDub]

Ok, Thanks