Roller detent pin

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alpinecrick

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I wondered that, too, and was trying to think of how they installed it at the factory and just duplicate that.

Best guess is they put some cuts in the top of the pin and pressed it down, but would think that it had to be before they welded the hinge onto the body as there isn’t a lot of room.

However they did it, it had to have been quick and easy ($).

Yes, GM stakes that pin in with two cross cuts and “peens” the top by mushrooming it. Which of course requires the top of the pin to be ground off to remove it—a Royal PIA.

Glad to see you pressed the roller pin in, pounding it in doesn’t work—I know this........

I found most of the aftermarket bushings and roller pins work fine if installed properly and if the uppermost hole in the top hinge where the hinge pin has a interference fit is PERFECTLY ROUND AND NOT WALLOWED OUT IN THE LEAST, TINIEST BIT.

If that hole is even microscopically wallowed out no bushings—not even GM bushings—will last long, and a droopy door also wears out the roller pin.
 

alpinecrick

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Also, some of the aftermarket roller pins do use a circlip others use a PAL nut. I have three GM roller pins and a aftermarket roller on my two trucks, and I found some “heavy duty” PAL nuts that were a bit thicker and they have worked fine—and I drive on washboard gravel roads often enough that should tell the tale.
It seems as though it doesn’t take much to keep the rollers in place.
 

east302

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I found some “heavy duty” PAL nuts that were a bit thicker and they have worked fine—

Would you mind grabbing a picture of that sometime? The ones I saw locally looked too tall to be able to grab onto the stub.


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alpinecrick

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Would you mind grabbing a picture of that sometime? The ones I saw locally looked too tall to be able to grab onto the stub.


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East,

I bought the PAL nuts at the local Ace Hardware. I just went out to the shop and looked at my 96 and 97. I have three GM roller pins held on with a PAL nut and one aftermarket that came with the circlip.

Yes, the GM roller pins don't have a lot of the shaft sticking up beyond the hinge, but with a socket I pounded the PAL's down onto the shaft almost flat, and painted them. They have been on there for almost a year now and haven't moved. Now that I think of it a buddy installed new GM roller detents and he used a regular thickness PAL nut on his 97 Suburban. I just talked to him and he says no problem with his. As I mentioned I don't think it takes much tension, and sounds like even a "normal" thickness PAL nut would suffice nicely.
 

Frank Enstein

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VERY focused heat from an oxy-acetylene torch with a tiny tip and a light bump with a hammer would hold it.
 

someotherguy

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It sounds stupid and probably looks even stupider, but typically PAL nuts are designed so that the "threaded" hole is offset to one side. Flip the nut over and that part is right next to what you're trying to thread it onto.

Worked great when our maintenance guy broke the bushing in the shift linkage on my 2009 3500HD wrecker (years ago); we just pushed the cable back over the trans stud and put a small flipped PAL nut onto the stud. Held up like a champ. :D

Richard
 

TechNova

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It sounds stupid and probably looks even stupider, but typically PAL nuts are designed so that the "threaded" hole is offset to one side. Flip the nut over and that part is right next to what you're trying to thread it onto.

Worked great when our maintenance guy broke the bushing in the shift linkage on my 2009 3500HD wrecker (years ago); we just pushed the cable back over the trans stud and put a small flipped PAL nut onto the stud. Held up like a champ. :D

Richard

Pal Nut is a generic term and everyone may not be thinking of the same item. It sounds like you are describing what I call a tin nut. They can or can't be used to cut threads, depending on the number of slots they have. Either way, they would not be for a hardened pin like the detent roller. The PAL NUT I think of would also be the ideal fastener for a detent roller pin. GM's supplier staked it because they did not want it to move at all. A pal nut is simply keeping the pin from falling out, it is not keeping it tight in the hole side to side. The force on the detent roller pin is when opening and closing the door, driving on bumpy roads is not adding much force. That force can wallow (not my word) out the hole, the pal nut is not helping that. It's pretty easy to imagine a little misalignment of the roller pin is going to do unpleasant things to the function of the door detent. If the "pal nut" has been working , great, might last forever. I welded mine because I was painting the hinge anyway. When these trucks were common daily drivers and farm trucks we welded them and used a black aerosol over the spot weld. Alot of people didn't want to spend the money to remove the door and buy paint.
One thing I like about old vehicles is we don't have to follow OEM procedures. As long as the repair is safe, you have multiple options to repair the detent, pick one.
 

TAF2003

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This is interesting.... I never realized you could replace just the roller while leaving the pin in the hinge:

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