The door hinge bushings in the wife's truck have given up the ghost AGAIN .

This is twice in the few years that we have owned it.

It seems like I read here somewhere of someone doing away with the regular pins/bushings and drilling the hinges to accept Grade-8 bolts and ny-lock nuts.

If anyone has done or tried this, please let me know how it worked out.

If I don't read experienced warnings to the contrary, I am gonna give it a try as soon as weather permits.


Thanks.

 

My passenger door has the same problem....don't know why that door. Driver door....re pinned no more problems. Point is I'm thinking on mine it is the hinge its self that is wallowed out. I was told you can still get hinges from the dealer. I hope....if possible this is the way I'm heading.

Good luck.

 

I just ordered 2 pin and bushing kits from Rock Auto. See how long they last I guess. I might look at building my own as well if they don't hold up.

 

On a side note. I don't know why but something about old trucks people seem to think you have to slam the crap out them to get them to shut. This is part of my problem. I had a guy working for me that would slam the crap out of the door. Might not have been the root cause, but after that it was never right. Anyway I feel better now, and I needed someone to blame for the door needing new hinges.

 

I just ordered new lower hinge for my truck from the dealer. So they still are available.

 

Note that when installing the bushings they are supposed to be "pumped" with oil. The bushing material is porous and takes oil. I fill mine with oil while it is resting on my fingerprint, then putting my thumb over the other end, I squeeze repeatedly for a few minutes. This is supposed to impregnate the bushing with lube. The only bushings I have lost are from before I knew this trick.

As for the grade 8 bolts, I would be learey of having a wear surface that was harder than the hinge itself. Once the hole gets bogged out, the hinge itself is junk.

 

How much are the hinges? I need three I think.

 

I ?think? I still have a enough pin/bushing sets from Rock-Auto to do a few more trucks.

Maybe I will try this oil-soaking business before I reach for the drill.

I wonder what the outcome would be if I just dropped the bushings in a bottle of oil for a few weeks.

 

Aren't the hinges made into the cowl of the truck Or bolt from the inside or something? I thought there was something weird about the HInges on the dodges...

Unless we're talking about the 2nd part of the hinge that bolts to the door here...

 

Last I checked they were still availiable from the dealer. IIRC, about 70 a pair.

 

I agree with TJE. I let mine wear thru the bushing and into the hinge. A new bushing and pin only lasted about 6 months so I redrilled the hinges for a bigger pin and bushing and has lasted several years with no noticable looseness. I also used locktite stud and bearing mount on the bushing/hinge to ensure that the bushing did not spin in the hinge

 

That's how I address the issue when talking about "pre" soaking something always seems to work for me. Never to the extent of a few weeks more like a few hours to a day.
I would go this route one more time before I went crazy with bolts, drills, hammers. One more time wont hurt too much and if it fails again blame me and use the bolt Idea.
Good Luck

 

Yea, they are bolted from the inside.

 

Those bushings must be "oil-lite" bushings.

Oil-lite bushings are used in a number of industrial applications.

There are several on my Foley/Belsaw planer; in fact, the feed-rollers run in oil-lites.

They are made of a porous bronze that soaks up a ton of oil.

Had I have known about this oil business before, I probably wouldn't be re-doing it now.

Thanks.

 

Here are the part numbers for the door hinges, note the part numbers are different before and after build date of 03/01/1991

Also notice the Lower Hinge Torsion Bar were sold separately #2583-568



Last time i had checked I thought the hinges were about $70.00 each but I could be mistaken.

Jim