I repaired my door striker yesterday with the help of my brother-in-law. He had a set of new hinge pins and bushings, so we started there. Once the hinge pins we in place, we turned our attention to the broken jamb behind the striker. We were fortunate to fins a 3/16" steel plate which turned out to be the same thickness of the pair of existing shims. After cutting it to fit, we laid out and drilled a pair of holes for the latch, then fitted in place and stitch welded it.

My brother-in-law said to make sure that the pins are always well lubed as they will quickly wear out if they are dry (something obviously ignored by the previous owner of my Blazer).

 

BB3439: It does not appear the latches are the same, but I am usually wrong,it seems the angle is slightly different.Yeah I would be hesitant to put in a used latch until you got the hinge pins right on the drivers door.Recently witnessed a swap:remove the stricker,weld new piece cut from donor unit right over it! Worked well as 18G metal is not enough to cause the close issues! It seemed to work on the car I saw! LMK step66

 

The door striker area of the B-Pillar is definitely a bad design, it really should be double layer.

My brother-in-law has fixed a number of these and says that the latch isn't usually a total loss, he said that when the hinges become worn, the latch begins to contact the striker lower and lower (as it wears). Eventually, the plastic cladding on the latch parts starts to break away causing the latch to jam up a bit. This was the case with mine, the upper 'jaw' of the latch failed to move up and out of the way resulting in straight-on contact with the striker. My b-o-l said to just take a box cutter and remove all the loose plastic. That's what I did and it seems to work (almost) like new.

Since I slammed the door a couple of times, I did more damage that I should have.

To repair the B-pillar, pop the cover from the upper shoulder belt bolt(hinged on top), then remove the bolt. Then pop the sill plate(s) loose and move the wiring out of the way. Using a needle-nose Vice-Grip grab the backing plate, and remove the two striker bolts.

Remove all the paint from the B-Pillar adjecent to the striker and fit a reinforcement plate (the thickness of the striker shims). Mark and drill the reinforcement plate, then attach and fit the striker. When everything is properly fitted, stitch weld the plat to the B-Pillar (as my photo shows).

To avoid this from re-occuring, replace the hinge pins and trim all excess plactic from the latch. Lube it up like you life depends on it, iy really does. After that, include lubing the hinges as part of your oil change/fluid check.

As a precaution, I picked up replacement hinge pins for the front passenger door today while I was at the parts store... $14 for the pair.

 

i also have this problem (drivers door striker loose)

previous owner put alot of jb weld or something (grey) there

when i bought it i missed it somehow.

door shuts but that striker sure is loose
i did replace the hinge pins and bushings

i would love to see a video or at least a step by step with pics

would be great

 

Haven't been on here in a while, so let me begin by saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. I'm in the same boat. Live in Hudson Valley New york and bought my 2004 Blazer Ls 4X4 about 13 months ago (right after a vicous pre Haloween 13" snow fall) and just used the 4 wheel drive the other day for the first time (first significant snowfall since I got it, figures...) Went out last night to start it and when I closed the drivers door it "banged''. When I looked this is what I found.

 

i imagine that is what mine looks like also but they have so much epoxy/jb weld around it i cant tell

but i bet its really close to looking like that

 

im in the door striker boat too, the 97s pretty bad!!!!

 

Mine on my 94 did the same thing , I pulled it back as best I could and ran several passes with the welder over the crack and knock on wood I have not had a problem since . And my door latches better than it ever did , I was worried that it wouldn't work but it already didn't work so I figured what the heck .

 

ya thats what i figure i will do, might put another layer of metal over it also, if that fails ill just bungie cord it shut!

 

I'd like to add that if u haven't completely destroyed the jamb and if you can "brace" the striker your good to go. To keep my striker from dropping back into the jamb i stuff a piece of crumpled paper to hold it steady to allow the door to partially latch. (sucks during the rain as the door does not fully seal} but it beats the bungie idea as i get in and out constantly (newspaper delivery) to this i recommend that if your seal is off you wrap your control panel to keep rain away