Dorman hinge pins are garbage.

The cracking and popping is almost surely the detent roller (a.k.a. "hold open" feature) - the spring loaded roller in the middle between the hinges.

Richard

 

2x on what he said! All these components like a liberal dosing of white lithium spray lubricant every so often. Same thing with the hood and door latches. Lubricated parts don't bind up, and when body panels bind up, things get bent up.....

 

Yes, true enough, but when I installed the pin and bushings, I greased up everything with a good amount of red grease. I had been doing the white lith grease for a long time to help with the ware issues. I looked up the dorman pin set, and it says the bushings are made of brass. And Im sure its cheap chinese brass. Then I looked at some other brands, and they said the bushings they sale are bronze. I think I will get 1 more dorman set to get the measurements from, and have the mechiniest here make me a set if bushings out of alumabronze. That will hold up, for sure, but I need to talk to the owner first, and get his 2 cents worth. The dorman set is less than $10, so no big deal to waste a set.

 

Hell, have him make them out of pre-hardened 4140 or A-2

 

Hmmm oil and grease r cheap! I give grease on hinges when I redo tho pins and bushings, lotsa dormant sets I have put in still nice and quite years later.

 

IDK, if the dorman set I bought at autozone is just the cheapest crap they make or what, but, like I said before, I greased the hell out of the bushings before I installed them. So I just ordered these. I hope they are better quality. They have a 10 year warranty so we will see. No mater what, I had to get something anyway to get measurements from to make some bushings. When they come in, I will write down the measurements, before I install them. Hopefully these will be ok, and I wont need to make some bushings. I can go back to autozone, and get a refund for the dormans.

 

Yup. I got a dorman set on mine. There quiet too. Driver side starting too sag. Passenger holding up
Only noise I've ever experienced is squeaking

 

Anything Dorman makes is garbage. I will go to a junkyard and buy used parts before I buy anything Dorman. At least you know it lasted 20 years. Dorman will last 20 days if you're lucky.

 

"Brass" bushings from China and most bushings from china are made from the cuttings they sweep off of the floor.
Calling it "brass" doesnt mean anything.
Its a pretty damn loose term.
Chinesum meets a pretty loose spec that the US and most countries abondoned long ago.
But, for various political reasons.
Blah, blah
Almost all US steel is "dual spec"
So if you buy 36 kip steel its also 50 kip
Because its been melt/ forged so many times that its pretty damn free of inclusions
All of this is much much way more important when you deal with a brass or bronze or copper alloy.
But, all that said..
You are 6G Brother.
And Im not

 

When we make hinges at work, the bushings are made from a harder metal than the pin. This helps the pin to slide inside of the bushing. You are correct in you thoughts. Had I known that the bushings were brass, I would have looked for something else. You never want a soft bushing. They will distort. The owner of our shop, wanted to order me some bushings from one of our suppliers. I would rather make sone out of alumabronze. Dorman just fooled me, and I wanted to spread the word, before someone else makes the same mistake. I know we can make some bushings out of alumabronze that will hold up. Thing is, I am not a machinist, and although, I can run a leith, I kind of wanted a machinist to make them for me. They do that every day, and are better at set up, than I am. We will see how this set works when I get and install them.