Tailgate Adjustment

[Mark D]

Hi all. Merry Christmas. I'm looking for a bit of advice on how to laterally adjust the tailgate on my '72 lowlight. As far as I can see there's only vertical adjustment with the four mounting screws, but nothing on the hinge mechanism itself...

   

   

Am I missing something obvious? Or is it simply a matter of using a bit of applied brute force. Thanks for any help,
                                                                                      
                                                                       Mark

[Wayne Murray]

Is their something bent? Do you also have the wedges on the side of the D pillars?

[Mark D]

Is their something bent? Do you also have the wedges on the side of the D pillars?

The wedges are there but the door's so far out it hits the edge of the panel before it gets to the wedges. In the photos above, the tailgate isn't closed all the way. I can close it and it sort of centres itself. As for something being bent it's hard to tell. There's no noticeable damage.

[Doob]

When I came to refit my tailgate (1971 Kombi) I could not find any Workshop Manuals that covered the topic in any detail - which seemed a little strange to me.
The 4 bolts, that mount the tailgate on the 2 sprung hinge arms, allow some 'up & down' and 'in & out' adjustment - but no obvious side to side adjustment, as far as I can see.  
Fortunately, my tailgate refitted without major alignment issues (apart from getting the new seal to fit properly!!).  
But I was curious about the lack of side-to-side adjustment provision, and could see how this might be an issue.

On a quick search, I found this topic discussed on other forums - but no real 'light bulb' insights. 
For example see :
  https://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads...nts.91740/
and
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search..._chars=200

Other than bent hinge arms, I am not sure what would cause a sideways shift of the tailgate?

[Mark D]

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the subject. I have seen that post before on The Samba about one bloke on either side pushing and pulling, so maybe that's the answer, although I may try and use a little more finesse.....maybe two big shifters on the hinges to try and get a bit of a bend in the right direction. I'm sure it's going to fun.........
                                                                       Mark

[Grantus]

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the subject. I have seen that post before on The Samba about one bloke on either side pushing and pulling, so maybe that's the answer, although I may try and use a little more finesse.....maybe two big shifters on the hinges to try and get a bit of a bend in the right direction. I'm sure it's going to fun.........
                                                                       Mark

Was it always like that? Did you remove the tailgate, and now trying to refit, to discover the issue?

I’m sure it never left the factory like that, so would have fitted correctly then…..and if it did then, there must be a way to do it again.

[Mark D]

I haven't removed the tailgate yet. I was in the process when I saw the gap problem.. I removed the glass, though I can't see that less weight would have caused the problem. I've only had the van for about 12 months, but I can see that it's had a bit of a rough life, though I have seen a lot worse. The rear righthand corner has been mucked around with at some stage, but I can't see how that would affect the tailgate either....

                                                                                               Mark

[Grantus]

Diagonal dimension check of opening, to check for square, along with hinge to edge dimensions either side checks perhaps?

Just suggestions, to see if some previous repairs to the area, were not as good as they should have been.

[Mark D]

Diagonal dimension check of opening, to check for square, along with hinge to edge dimensions either side checks perhaps?

Just suggestions, to see if some previous repairs to the area, were not as good as they should have been.

I checked the diagonal and it's spot on, so in the end I did some tweaking with a 24 inch shifter. Now the tailgate is pretty much centred.....but the left hinge is now 15mm closer to the edge than the right.......more tweaking necessary.....

                                                                                                       Mark