Hinge pin replacement... (Page 1/1)
CSM842M4 JAN 19, 05:25 PM
Over the last 36 years and 90K miles, the driver's door on my wife's '84 SE has developed a significant amount of sag. I bought two doors worth of hinge pins and bushings based on 44 years of driving and working on my own vehicles, and before looking in my Chilton's manual. The book doesn't specifically break down hinge pin replacement, but it makes it appear that any work in the area requires stripping the door, inside and out, and removing the door from the hinges. Anybody experienced with this task on these cars: true or false? Is it ( I hope) not as involved as all that? I've got enough of a laundry list on her car without this one task being a huge ordeal all by itself. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance - Chris
Gall757 JAN 19, 05:43 PM
False.

toss the Chilton's. Very unreliable. The Fiero store has an inexpensive hinge pin package with good instructions....the door stays on the car.

[This message has been edited by Gall757 (edited 01-19-2020).]

CSM842M4 JAN 19, 06:02 PM
Thanks, Gall757. That's better news (so far) than I was expecting.
Patrick JAN 19, 06:07 PM

In a nutshell... open the door, take the weight off of it using a floor jack and a piece of wood, change pins and bushings. There are many older threads/posts covering this.
CSM842M4 JAN 19, 06:58 PM
Thanks, Patrick. Yep, started driving the pins out with pretty gentle hammer taps. Looks like the door will have to move away from the body to replace the bushings, and that will unload the door check spring. Can't really see why everything won't go right back in place with some tender persuasion and a couple of slave pins. This may end up being far more rewarding than I had anticipated. Thanks for the encouragement, guys!
Rsvl-Rider JAN 19, 07:15 PM
I battled the sag on the drivers door of my 88 GT for many months. I tried the whole hinge pin and bushing thing using a motorcycle jack with a 2 x 4 across it under the door for support. I also used a rope tied around the door and secured to a garage rafter as additional stabilization while I replaced one pin (with bushings) at a time. Unfortunately this did not solve the problem. It seemed likely that it was not the pins and bushings but metal fatigue in the hinges themselves that was causing the sag.

After lots of frustration I finally took the advice of a member here and used a floor jack under the door. Again, using a 2 x 4 to protect the bottom of the door, I jacked up the door aft of the center point with the door closer to the closed position. It was a bit uncomfortable since jacking up the door caused the whole driver side of the car to raise with it. This was necessary to get enough pressure on the hinges to reverse the sag. (I did not raise the wheels off the ground.) I did this in stages, checking along the way since I did not want to overdo it.

Once I was satisfied with the correction of the door sag I was also finally able to correct the adjustment of the door glass which had been leaking slightly when it rained.

I'll admit I was wary of this procedure but it did work for me. YMMV.

[This message has been edited by Rsvl-Rider (edited 01-20-2020).]

CSM842M4 JAN 19, 08:19 PM
Rsvl-rider, was this for hinge pin and bushing replacement or door swing adjustment? I'm actually thinking of using two floor jacks and a 2x to do this swap, just for the ability to tilt the door with plenty of support. I had noodled with the idea of building a door "cradle" out of 2x lumber, and may still if I get into doing a bunch of hinge refresh work in the near future.
Rsvl-Rider JAN 20, 12:20 PM

quote
Originally posted by CSM842M4:

Rsvl-rider, was this for hinge pin and bushing replacement or door swing adjustment? I'm actually thinking of using two floor jacks and a 2x to do this swap, just for the ability to tilt the door with plenty of support. I had noodled with the idea of building a door "cradle" out of 2x lumber, and may still if I get into doing a bunch of hinge refresh work in the near future.



I'm not sure I know what you mean by "door swing adjustment". I was trying to eliminate the sag so the door would strike the latch pin correctly. I assumed the sag was caused by worn pins and bushings. I believe it was actually the hinges that had weakened allowing the latch side of the door to sag. I think replacement hinges are available but the replacement process looked like a real pain so I went with the brute force method instead. By jacking up the door it placed the weight of the car on the hinges in order to reverse the sag.

(I edited my original post for clarity)