Door sag

[east302]

One other thing to consider is if the hole the bushing rests is worn to the point it's oblong from wear the new bushing is not fully supported and doesn't last long in which case the hinge can be drilled for an oversize outside diameter bushing.

Yeah, I was thinking that when I started cussing my door hinge. The bushings fit tight but there’s a tiny gap between the pin and the bushings that cracked. I think the tolerances are off.

 

[east302]

Just about every time I buy a Dorman replacement, I see/get poor results. But it's sooo convenient!

It’s the old “definition of insanity” thing. I’m just about an expert at it now.

 

[Hipster]

It’s the old “definition of insanity” thing. I’m just about an expert at it now.

LOL

You'll stop beating your head against the wall when it starts to hurt! lol

 

[alpinecrick]

Like others, I've been down this road......

On my 96, the hinge holes APPEARED to be round. I carefully checked them with drill bits, calipers, inside micrometer, Hubble, etc. But apparently they were not round. New bushings and pins would still result in slight up and down movement of the door in the almost closed position. Oversized bushings fixed it. It seems even the if the old bushing(s) were not wore completely through, when the bushings become thin enough on one side they flex quite a bit and allow the door pin hole to become slightly wallowed out.

I was also having problems with the roller pin breaking, including my small stash of GM roller pins. I think I have finally figured it out. The "detent arm" (for lack of a better term), becomes wallowed out at the bottom of the detents, and over time creates a steeper and steeper "ramp" in the detents of the arm. My door would "squawk" in cold weather when closing it. I finally cannibalized the arm off a spare door I had bought. The door was a passenger side and I needed the drivers side. Drill out the pivot pins from both the old arm and the spare door arm, flipped the spare detent arm over and used a shoulder bolt and nut to attach it. Problem solved.

Comparing the worn out detent arm to the spare arm I could see how the old one was worn. Again it wasn't readily apparent until I laid them on top of one another.

As an added note, the GM roller pins were about as difficult to install as the aftermarket rollers. GM must use some special tool to install them. I ended up taking an old (USA made) c-clamp with a bent shaft, cutting the shaft and removing it, a bolt run through the c-clamp hole with a nut, and making a press to press in the roller pin--but was only successful after SLIGHTLY enlarging the roller pin hole in the hinge.

 

[Armalite15]

I’ve had good luck with LMC pin and bushing kits. Don’t know who supplies them.

 

[Axeldogs]

I replaced my bushings completely by welding hardened grade 8 washers to the hinge have done this to many of my vehicles. Had a third gen Iroc Z28 that I was replacing bushings yearly tried the washers and I’ll never go back to bushings

 

[stutaeng]

I replaced my bushings completely by welding hardened grade 8 washers to the hinge have done this to many of my vehicles. Had a third gen Iroc Z28 that I was replacing bushings yearly tried the washers and I’ll never go back to bushings

Really? Are you using the stock pins?

I tried to fix my sagging door on my truck last year, and probably had the elliptical holes you guys are speaking of. The replacement bushings wouldn't go in and they would break. Went through about a dozen of them.

Finally "reamed out the holes" with drill but. Unfortunately, the door still sagged. It's annoying!

Welding washers sounds like it would work, assuming I can locate the holes wherever they centered.

 

[alpinecrick]

I replaced my bushings completely by welding hardened grade 8 washers to the hinge have done this to many of my vehicles. Had a third gen Iroc Z28 that I was replacing bushings yearly tried the washers and I’ll never go back to bushings

That is an interesting idear! My concern is with metal on metal the grade 8 washer would wear through the pin awful quick? What size of washer did you use? Did you get a smaller size washer and drill the hole to fit the pin?

Did you weld washers to the top and bottom of each hinge?

Although the passenger doors on my 96 and 97 trucks showed no sign of sag, in a preemptive strike I replaced the bushings in both and they are working fine. Can't remember what brand of bushings I used though.........

 

[scottydl]

Do any of these fixes help with situations when the hinges themselves are bent/sagging? Two different shops have told me that's the issue on my Suburbans passenger side doors. I've still never seen/heard of a decent fix for that issue yet.

 

[someotherguy]

Do any of these fixes help with situations when the hinges themselves are bent/sagging? Two different shops have told me that's the issue on my Suburbans passenger side doors. I've still never seen/heard of a decent fix for that issue yet.

I doubt the hinges themselves are bent or sagging. In other threads we've discussed that the hole at the "small" end of the pin gets egged out, and there's no bushing there. This allows the door to sag regardless of new bushings and pins. The small end of the pin is an interference fit there.. It's at the top of the top hinge, and bottom of the bottom hinge.

The "proper" fix is to replace the hinges which is a little pricey and a lot of work.

The "hack" - and yeah, it's a hack, but it works - is a little bit of welding. Go ahead and replace all your bushings and pins, *leave the retainers off the small end of the pins* - then check the hinges for slack. Door partially open, lift up/down at the rear edge of the door, if those holes are egged out then you'll have movement up and down.

Jack the door up gently with a block of wood against the flat part of the door shell so you don't bend the bottom seam, this will shift the gap the direction you need to work on. Grind a little clean spot on the small end of the pin and the immediately adjacent hinge area. Tack just enough weld in there to hold the pin to the hinge so that it doesn't fall slack when you let the jack loose.

The idea is you want to weld just enough to keep it together; if you do too much you'll regret it later if you ever need to replace the bushings again, or the door, because there's not much room to work in there to grind your weld out.

Trust me, this does work; done it to several customer's trucks in the past. The only time I ever saw one that this wouldn't fix was a truck where the door shell was actually cracked near the hinge; needed a replacement door. That was just a bit too much of the driver hefting himself in/out of the truck with his weight on the door.

Richard