Dorman hinge pins are garbage.

[alpinecrick]

Im sure this has been said before, but,,,, I replaced my hinge pins and bushings maybe 3 months ago, and my door is already sagging. When I first did the install, it was grate. I could close my door with my little finger. Now I can feel it drag on the striker pin as I open it. I looked at the door just before it hit the striker pin, and sure enough, its down again. It was so perfectly aligned after the install. Well like the title says, Dorman kits are trash. Guess I will have one of the mechinest make me a set of bushings that will hold up. The Dorman bushings looked cheap when I installed them, but 3 months, thats ridiculous.

Did you read the entire door sag saga thread?

If the uppermost hole in the top hinge is wore out (no bushing goes in that hole), it doesn't matter what you do to the rest of the door hinges/pins/bushings. The pin is held tight by that hole (the pin doesn't rotate). When bushings wear out it not only wears an eggshape hole in the bushing holes, but can also wear that uppermost hole. That in turn will wear out the bushings in a heartbeat. Actually if any of the holes in the hinges are eggshape, the bushings won't last very long.

Either weld the pin to the hole, or I have given thought filling it with weld and redrilling. I took the easy way out and tack welded the pin to the hole. 6-7 months later it's still working.....

 

[kennythewelder]

Did you read the entire door sag saga thread?

If the uppermost hole in the top hinge is wore out (no bushing goes in that hole), it doesn't matter what you do to the rest of the door hinges/pins/bushings. The pin is held tight by that hole (the pin doesn't rotate). When bushings wear out it not only wears an eggshape hole in the bushing holes, but can also wear that uppermost hole. That in turn will wear out the bushings in a heartbeat. Actually if any of the holes in the hinges are eggshape, the bushings won't last very long.

Either weld the pin to the hole, or I have given thought filling it with weld and redrilling. I took the easy way out and tack welded the pin to the hole. 6-7 months later it's still working.....

Did you read my post? Point is, dont buy the Dorman set, they are garbage. I have been a welder for over 40 years. I am quite verst in bushings, weld filling holes, ect. The hole is not the issue. I miked them to check. The issue is how soft the bushing material is. As stated, it was grate with NO sag when I first did the replacement. Now the door is sagging again, it did NOT move once opened at first, by picking it up by hand. Now it does. Again, point is, DONT BUY THE DORMAN GARBAGE.

 

[alpinecrick]

Did you read my post? Point is, dont buy the Dorman set, they are garbage. I have been a welder for over 40 years. I am quite verst in bushings, weld filling holes, ect. The hole is not the issue. I miked them to check. The issue is how soft the bushing material is. As stated, it was grate with NO sag when I first did the replacement. Now the door is sagging again, it did NOT move once opened at first, by picking it up by hand. Now it does. Again, point is, DONT BUY THE DORMAN GARBAGE.

Kenny, I bought GM bushings, pins, and rollers years ago when I ran across them on eBay. At least 5 sets if I remember. They didn't last any longer than other brands--and I've tried several.

I realize you may be well versed in micing holes but I did the same thing, could not find any smoking gun, and the bushings still wore out within a few months. It apparently doesn't take much of an egged out hole to wear out the bushings. I replaced bushings in my 96 driver door numerous times with GM, Red Hound, Dorman, and a couple other companies, none of them lasted because that top hole was apparently wore out even though I miced it.

 

[kennythewelder]

Kenny, I bought GM bushings, pins, and rollers years ago when I ran across them on eBay. At least 5 sets if I remember. They didn't last any longer than other brands--and I've tried several.

I realize you may be well versed in micing holes but I did the same thing, could not find any smoking gun, and the bushings still wore out within a few months. It apparently doesn't take much of an egged out hole to wear out the bushings. I replaced bushings in my 96 driver door numerous times with GM, Red Hound, Dorman, and a couple other companies, none of them lasted because that top hole was apparently wore out even though I miced it.

I will recheck it, when I pull it apart again. Didnt meat to be an ass. Maybe you are onto something I missed, IDK. Thats why I really wanted to make my own bushings out of alumabronze. I still want to do that anyway, but I need a new set of bushings to get accurate measurements from.

 

[thinger2]

Both of you guys are right.
Dorman bushings are crap.
And the slightest out of round hole will crack any stock size bushing you install.

Deep in the weeds here but..Ive been doing this for awhile so
Have you ever seen the movie "The China Syndrome"?
They discover that all of the radiology on the reactor welds have been faked by noticing that all of the weld inspections are just copies?
This happens all the time with foreign metals.
All.. the ..*******.. time..
Any batch of raw material comes with a certification a "Cert"
The cert shows alloy content by percentage and batch number and heat number and when and where and who inspected it etc...
I have rejected train car loads of Chinese raw material because the cert had the same damn ink blob on the corner and they had used white out to change the date.
Same cert, same heat number.
Rejected all of it and refused to pay for it.
That got my company investigated by the State Department for treaty violations.

And they do same thing with bolts.

Part 2

The door hinge bracket is a "Punched and formed" part.
In other words, the bracket is punched from a flat sheet of steel and the holes are punched into it while its flat.

This is done in a massive punch press.
But, when you punch a hole in metal sheet, only the first 1/3 or so is the "true diameter" Usually +.003 and minus.000
Thats the "punch side"
The punch "shears" the metal
When the punch hits the metal, the tonnage spikes and the other 2/3 rds
Blows out.
It breaks from the spike in tonnage.
That is the "blow out" or "burr side"

And that happens because the punch is driving the metal into a "die"
And that die has to be bigger than the punch to allow that deformed metal a place to go.

On a door hinge, that die is about + .040

So the blow side is already way to big for the pressed in hardware.
Theoretically, all hardware needs to be pressed into the punched side in order to get full grip strength.
But that means that every part and every blank can never be flipped or "unstacked"
And that is why they design parts, whenever possible, to be symetrical.
So the life hating brake operator doesnt have to think about it when he forms it.
Even if its all wrong and the hardware pulls out.

And thats why I got out of aerospace Q.C. and went into construction.

But, the source of the entire problem..
GM door hinges are just a **** stupid design.
If you think your truck is bad, buy a second gen Camaro or Firebird.
Fourty acres of door on a pencil rod

 

[kennythewelder]

The new pins came in today. The bushing material looks to be alumabronze. I had the head machinist look it over and do a drawing of the pin, and bushings. There is 10,000 clearance on the small bushing ID and 12000 on the large ones ID. The machinist said this will close up some once its drive into place, and it needs some clearance to be able to rotate, but now that we have a drawing, we can make some more if need be. I also told the shop owner what was going on, and He also said, we can make some bushings out of alumabronz if we need to. I said I will install these first, and see what happens. If they fail, than I will have the machinist make me a set and maybe close up the ID some what. The Dorman pins were bright yellow brass, not a dull dark copperish color like these pins are. So we will see what happens. IDK just when I will install the new set. Once I do, I will post back.

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[SUBURBAN5]

The new pins came in today. The bushing material looks to be alumabronze. I had the head machinist look it over and do a drawing of the pin, and bushings. There is 10,000 clearance on the small bushing ID and 12000 on the large ones ID. The machinist said this will close up some once its drive into place, and it needs some clearance to be able to rotate, but now that we have a drawing, we can make some more if need be. I also told the shop owner what was going on, and He also said, we can make some bushings out of alumabronz if we need to. I said I will install these first, and see what happens. If they fail, than I will have the machinist make me a set and maybe close up the ID some what. The Dorman pins were bright yellow brass, not a dull dark copperish color like these pins are. So we will see what happens. IDK just when I will install the new set. Once I do, I will post back.

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Keep us posted. Maybe I'll buy em from you some time if they pass the test lol

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Keep us posted. Maybe I'll buy em from you some time if they pass the test lol

Yep me too!

 

[kennythewelder]

Well, I had to work today, so since the owner and his son had some work to do in the other shop, after we finished the paying job, I got His permission to replace the pins and bushings. After I got the old stuff out, I spent some time cleaning everything, and looking for what, and where the parts failed. The pins were good, the bushings, nit so much. Looks like 2 of them were spinning inside of the socket. One per pin. So with the door hanging by the overhead crane, I took a very close look at the holes in the hinges. The very top hole had a little ware, but not bad at all. The top hole on the bottom hinge, on the top side of the hole, had a ware spot on the top of it where the bushing had been grinding away at it. So I added an extra washer there. Same material as the bushings. Before putting everything back together, the owner came by to check on me. I had Him look at everything, and He said you should be fine, but if you have issues again, we will make you some bushings out if aluminum bronze. These dont look like aluminum bronze to me, He said. 2 of the 4 bushings. Were just a very little loose, so I used some blue lock tight, so maybe this will help, IDK. Once everything was back together, I made sure that the top pin spins with the door, and that the bottom pin does not, as it should be. I greased the pins before I installed them. So we will see what we see. I will report back in time and let yall know what is what. Only time will tell.

 

[1madmouse]

I hate finding this thread right after I replaced the door pins with Dorman pins. Great info here, just I was late to the forum.