Door hinge thread

[handcannon]

A couple days ago I changed the OPS and did the OPS relay mod. I am in the process of fixing it up after the PO slid on ice and smacked a tree. I had the drivers side fender off at the time. It made it much easier for me to reach in there to the OPS. I stepped in behind the wheel and straddled the suspension. It takes some time to pull the fender so I wouldn't pull the fender just for easier access, but it sure helped that it was out of the way when I decided to do the OPS. If you take out the fender inner liner you could have easier access for less time spent. Just digging back into my memory I think there about 15 or so bolts to pull for the liner.

I need to change out the door hinge bushings and wanted to do so while the fender was off but ran out of daylight. Sure would have been so much easier. As it was, I learned that I will have to take the door guts out to reach the bolt heads that are INSIDE the door. No threaded plate or captive nuts there, the hinges are through bolted needing wrenches both inside and outside to remove the mounting bolts. GRRRR!!!!

Don

 

[fastjohnny]

I need to change out the door hinge bushings and wanted to do so while the fender was off but ran out of daylight. Sure would have been so much easier. As it was, I learned that I will have to take the door guts out to reach the bolt heads that are INSIDE the door. No threaded plate or captive nuts there, the hinges are through bolted needing wrenches both inside and outside to remove the mounting bolts. GRRRR!!!!

Don

That's not factory! Hinges are welded on. Drive the pins out, replace pins and bushings, don't try to take the hinges off.

 

[handcannon]

The hinges are welded to the cab, but bolted to the door. My past experience (with an 83 Chev P.U.) is that it is easier to replace the bushings with the door removed and out of the way. Otherwise the room for both hands and tools to do the work is very limited.

Don

 

[Matt Bachand]

Let me find my thread for you.

http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/showthread.php?t=8968&highlight=door

Jackstands worked quite well. The neighbor even leaned up against it, until I pointed out it was floating

 

[Pruittx2]

A couple days ago I changed the OPS and did the OPS relay mod. I am in the process of fixing it up after the PO slid on ice and smacked a tree. I had the drivers side fender off at the time. It made it much easier for me to reach in there to the OPS. I stepped in behind the wheel and straddled the suspension. It takes some time to pull the fender so I wouldn't pull the fender just for easier access, but it sure helped that it was out of the way when I decided to do the OPS. If you take out the fender inner liner you could have easier access for less time spent. Just digging back into my memory I think there about 15 or so bolts to pull for the liner.

I need to change out the door hinge bushings and wanted to do so while the fender was off but ran out of daylight. Sure would have been so much easier. As it was, I learned that I will have to take the door guts out to reach the bolt heads that are INSIDE the door. No threaded plate or captive nuts there, the hinges are through bolted needing wrenches both inside and outside to remove the mounting bolts. GRRRR!!!!

Don

As a Bodyman for over 20 years, I've replaced a few pins and bushings, in my time,, I can do a chevy truck door, in about 15 mins. put jack under door, open it up, pop spring out of the hinge, drive up pins, and slide door out as far as wiring will stretch out, then swing door wide open and rest it on the fender, swap out bushings,, swing door back, put in pins, put spring back in, your done. No door panel removal either. If you have bolts on your door, then it has been replaced at some point. factory set up is welded hinges on both door and hinge pillar. When we got a new door, to fix a wrecked truck, and the hinges were still good, you'd have to drill out the door hinge welds, and then bolt door side hinge half in place. the bolts are a torx head on the inside of the door, with a nut on the outside. WORST DESIGN EVER! I hated to do that job.

 

[fastjohnny]

As a Bodyman for over 20 years, I've replaced a few pins and bushings, in my time,, I can do a chevy truck door, in about 15 mins. put jack under door, open it up, pop spring out of the hinge, drive up pins, and slide door out as far as wiring will stretch out, then swing door wide open and rest it on the fender, swap out bushings,, swing door back, put in pins, put spring back in, your done. No door panel removal either. If you have bolts on your door, then it has been replaced at some point. factory set up is welded hinges on both door and hinge pillar. When we got a new door, to fix a wrecked truck, and the hinges were still good, you'd have to drill out the door hinge welds, and then bolt door side hinge half in place. the bolts are a torx head on the inside of the door, with a nut on the outside. WORST DESIGN EVER! I hated to do that job.

That's why, in my past life in the bodyshop, I much preferred good used doors vs new OEM on the chevy trucks. Aftermarket doors came with the hinges welded on, but usually fit like crap.

 

[handcannon]

Messed around with the door today. The pins are no problem, but the spring was a problem without the proper way to compress the spring. Looked at a small engine valve spring compressor. It would almost work if the bolt to compress the two halves together, to compress the spring, had clearance to the door to be able to turn. Started checking around to see if I could find something to rent that would work, nothing yet. Also started digging through my scrap to see if I could fab something. All kinds of scrap but I'm getting a headache from brainstorming. Tommorow is another day, we'll see what I can build in my sleep.

Don

 

[Pruittx2]

I never used a tool,, just a pry bar,, torque the arm down below the roller wheel, and pry it back,, slip spring in, and pry rod back up against spring, then pry it past roller wheel till it popped back up past wheel, and your done.

As I reread that, I see it in my mind, but others might not, until you do it. Hope this helps

 

[fastjohnny]

You can use 2 big square-shanked screwdrivers, or a couple smaller pry bars inserted into the spring, then twist the spring over and slip into place. Requires some forarm strength.

 

[handcannon]

I never used a tool,, just a pry bar,, torque the arm down below the roller wheel, and pry it back,, slip spring in, and pry rod back up against spring, then pry it past roller wheel till it popped back up past wheel, and your done.

As I reread that, I see it in my mind, but others might not, until you do it. Hope this helps

I THINK I'm understanding you. Anyway I've got a pic in my mind that I'm going to try Sunday. I wanted to try today but I had too many things on my plate. I'm getting tired of the door not closing properly, I want it fixed. I'm suspicioning I may need to get a new latch also.

Don

 

[Turbine Doc]

Moved the door hinge stuff to it's own thread here, will leave in 6.5 section for a short while before moving to the generic body section of the forum

 

[Badaxe]

The door spring definitely earned more than it's share of bad words. I finally compressed it with a vice and wrapped it with "chicken wire" to keep it compressed. Put it in place and clipped the wires, popped right into place.

 

[Pruittx2]

WELCOME to the site, you chicken wire tie'in Badaxe!!!

 

[handcannon]

Finally had time this morning to work on replacing the door hinge bushings. I usually get so involved with my projects that I don't take any pics but I made sure I got some this time. I used ideas given by several in previous posts. Thanks to fastjohnny, Matt, Pruittx2, and Badaxe for your help.

Oh, by the way, this is for a 94 K2500 pickup. I would think that most, if not all, of this would be appropriate for other years and Suburbans also.

Pic 1: To start with I used my motor hoist and a nylon strap to support the door.

Pic 2: Using a large flat blade screwdriver I jammed it into the spring coil and twisted it. This partially unseated it. Then I finished prying it out with the screwdriver.

Pic 3: Shhhh, don't tell anybody, but I didn't have a punch long enough so I used my ratchet extension as a punch. Here I'm starting to move the pivot pin down to disengage the keeper ring.

Pic 4: The keeper ring that holds the pivot pin in place.

Pic 5: After both hinge pivot pins have been removed the door can be moved away from the cab. In this pic you can see that the wire loom has two disconnects if the door happens to need to be completely removed. To replace the hinge pins you will not need to do anything more than move the door any more than you see in this pic.

Pic 6: I used a combination of small and large flat screwdrivers and pliers to remove the old bushings. The upper hinge bushings were in the cab half of the upper hinge and the lower hinge bushings were in the door half of the lower hinge.

Pic 7: The new pin and bushings. There are two sizes of bushings. Make sure you get the right size for the right location on your hinge. The larger bushing goes up next to the head of the pin. The upper hinge has the pin upside down with the head at the bottom of the hinge. The lower hinge has the pin facing up with the head at the top of the hinge. The holes in the hinges for the bushings are sized accordingly so if the bushing doesn't want to fit, double check the size of the bushing you have for that location (they will be an easy press fit into the hinge). The flange part of the bushing will be on the outside of this half of the hinge when pressed into the hinge. When the other half of the hinge is meshed over this half the flange provides a bearing surface between the two hinge halves.

Pic 8: The bushings are fragile and easily broken so DON'T try to hammer them into place. I used a socket that had an inner diameter slightly larger than the size of the end of the bushing that presses into the hinge.

Pic 9: I then used a clamp to seat the bushing until the bushing flange was seated snugly against the hinge body. In this pic you can just barely see the flange of the bushing between the hinge body and the cushion on the end of the clamp screw. After all four bushings are properly installed the door can be slipped back into place and the new pins put in place. The pins are knurled up next to the head so they will need to be tapped into place.

Pic 10: There are new keeper rings with the new pins and bushings. Here you can see the new keeper in place just prior to being seated.

There are more pics in the next post.

Don

 

[handcannon]

Pic 1: In order to re-install the spring I made three wire clips. These clips were made from coathanger wire so they were stiff. I bent hooks on each end with one end being slightly more than a 90* angle and the other end at a much sharper angle. The finished length was slightly more than 2". I then compressed the spring in my vise and put the three hooks in place.

Pic 2: This shows the spring with hooks in place.

Pic 3: I then put the spring into place and then started removing the clips.

Pic 4: After the clips were removed the spring needed to be pushed up into the final location.

I would reccommend applying a lubricant during the install of the pins. I didn't think about this ahead of time so I didn't have anything on hand to apply. Something like a white lithium grease should work good. Or something like aerosol motorcycle chain lube that goes on thin and thickens up after being exposed to air would also work.

A long punch would also be much better than what I ended up using

Hope this makes thing easier for others who need to do this.

Don

 

[fastjohnny]

Nice write-up, and good thinking out of the box on wiring the spring!

 

[handcannon]

Thanks fastjohnny! Since I didn't have any soft wire, chicken wire, mechanics wire or the right tools I just improvised. That is something I have had to make second nature to me as a cabinetmaker/installer. Often on an install in a kitchen remodel we get into situations that were not anticipated and we have to improvise to make the install come out looking and working as it is supposed to.

Don

 

[Badaxe]

Strong work and great pics.

 

[Matt Bachand]

Thanks fastjohnny! Since I didn't have any soft wire, chicken wire, mechanics wire or the right tools I just improvised. That is something I have had to make second nature to me as a cabinetmaker/installer. Often on an install in a kitchen remodel we get into situations that were not anticipated and we have to improvise to make the install come out looking and working as it is supposed to.

Don

Often, or Always?? I'm good at improvising and problem solving too Anything but leave the job and go to the store...

 

[handcannon]

Often, or Always?? I'm good at improvising and problem solving too Anything but leave the job and go to the store...

Often is the correct term. Whether I am working on my stuff/vehicles at home or am on the job site working for somebody else, leaving to go after something that is needed is not always cost effective. I live several miles from the nearest parts house and job sites are usually the same scenario, too far from the shop to be running around. So, you either improvise or work around it and pick up needed parts the next day. On the door project, I improvised. I couldn't let it set overnight and I don't think it would be so easy to drive into town with the door dragging along side. Hmmm, maybe that would make an interesting fail pic.

Don