Driver door hinge sagging | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Driver door hinge sagging

sholzee

Active Member
Joined
September 14, 1999
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City, State
Buffalo N.Y.
Year, Model & Trim Level
92 EB 4dr 4x4
1992 4 dr Explorer 125k miles. Driver door is sagging and hard to shut, its too low for the latch pin and jumps up on it when closed. How hard is it to fix and where do I get the parts?
 



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I've got a '91 and both front doors do the same. in fact my drivers one is so bad that it won't shut without a lot of TLC. The hinges are only like $40, the problem is you have to get the hinges off both sides, hence the drivers side e-brake must be removed. I got an estimate from 2 local shops, $350 to $425.
 






I think there is a way to just replace thr pin. Does someone out there know how?
 






I asked, but my bushings were too far gone.
 






If I remember you have to take the fender off also to get the hinge off.
 






you don't have to remove the fender.

I bought new hinges from the dealer last Friday and put the lower one on Sunday afternoon. The lower hinge is very simple...unbolt the two bolts from the door (I used a jack to help support the door), then use a wobble extension on a rachet to reach the bolt from the hinge to the body. Then, take off the interior kickpanel plastic (one pop in fastener), pull back the black plastic liner and then remove the nut from the other bolt. The lower hinge is fairly easy, and the top hinge is bolted on in the exact same manner, but the dashboard makes the interior nut much more difficult to remove. I was in a hurry and couldn't find an easy way to get to it, so I'm going to wait til this weekend and just start removing pieces until I'm able to reach it.

Oh, and pricing was around $25 for the upper and $35 for the lower. Can't remember the exact figure...it was New Years Eve afterall.
 






PsykoTone said:
I've got a '91 and both front doors do the same. in fact my drivers one is so bad that it won't shut without a lot of TLC. The hinges are only like $40, the problem is you have to get the hinges off both sides, hence the drivers side e-brake must be removed. I got an estimate from 2 local shops, $350 to $425.

mine does the same try putting a floor jack under the(open) door and raise jack push it back into place.
Thats what i did.
 






You can buy the hinge pin and new bushings in the "help" section of most auto parts stores. You can grind out the old pins with a dremmel tool and pry the bushings out. Its pretty easy. If the bushing is that worn where the hole is oval in shape then that is a different story. You could probably take it to a local welding shop and have them fill in the hole and then redrill it to replace the bushing. I bought the pin/bushing kit at advance auto for about 10$.
 






What Jim said. My doors were sagging bigtime on my '94, and I bought the hinge pin kit from Advance Auto..took me about 1/2 hour to do each door.
 






These were saved for this occasion:

I know I'm a newbie to this sight but I think I have something to contribute.

It sounds like sagging door hinges are a biggy to Explorers and I've been reading that it's a bear to get under the dash to unbolt and bolt new hinges.
Well I went out to my local Autoparts store to the HELP area. You know the Wall with all the red boxes that say 'HELP' on them.

Door Hinge Repair kit # 38410 is the ticket. 2 bushings, one Hinge pin and an 'E' Clip. $6

Open door and slide a jack under the end of the door away from the hinge, Throw a couple of rags under there so you don't scratch the paint. Jack it up until it is about an inch lower then the door.

Unbolt the top hinge out of the door only.

loosen bottom hinge bolts for the door side only. The door sould now be resting on the jack.

Rock the top of the door toward the front of the car as far as it will go without hitting the paint on the front fender. Basically move it out of the way so you can drill down onto the existing Door pin without the Chuck of the drill hitting the door.

3/8 drill bit, drill the flare off the original Pin.

With a large Nail or small Drift, hammer the old pin down and out of the hinge. take 'door side' of hinge out from 'body side' of hinge.

Take out old worn out Bushings, replace with the new ones in the kit. Remember what direction they came out of, put back same way.

put some grease in new bushings and around anything that shows it rubs, put door hinge section back into body hinge section and place pin down in through new bushings.

The end of pin is Knurled so after it rests on the hinge you have to use that nail or drift to seat it. There is a 'E' clip for the bottom.

rck door back in position to put back the two bolts you took out and line up the hinges to the door. The aliagnment is easy. You can see where the factory painted around the hinges.

My door hardly would close at all. I only had to do the Top hinge even though the bottom one is a bit sloppy. The door closes smooth as silk. HONEST!
no bloody knuckles either

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PROBLEM: Sagging door, door not closing or closes hard due to play in the door hinge bushings.

PART: Help Part # 38410 (door hinge pin and bushing kit, FORD). Found with all the other help! products in most auto parts stores. cost around $6.00

TOOLS:

die grinder, dremel tool, or drill with a small grinding stone.
long punch and hammer or air hammer with punch bit
pliers
jack
13 mm wrench
grease

REMOVAL OF OLD PIN:
(most times you will only need to replace one pin start with the top)

1. Start by supporting the door in the full open position with the jack

2. Remove lower door hinge bolt (on the door side) using 13mm wrench, this gives you the room you need to grind off the flange. (it is a good idea to trace out the hinge so you can make sure to put it back in the same place)

3. Grind off the flange on the bottom of the pin using your grinding stone

4. Remove upper door hinge bolt (on the door side) make sure the door is supported well before doing this.

5. Drive pin upward using punch and hammer, you may need pliers to pull the pin out the top. You will need to push the top of the door out of the way to remove the upper pins. If the bushing is frozen to the pin, lock vicegrips to the top of the partially removed pin and drive the bushing off using a cold chisel and hammer.

6. Now the door side of the hinge should be free remove it and make sure both bushings are removed.

INSTALLING NEW PIN & BUSHINGS:

7. Place new bushings on door hinge (they set in the top and bottom of the hinge so the flange side of the bushing touches the body side of the hinge).

8. Slide the door side hinge back in making sure the door stop will work.

9. Bolt the door hinge back on the door using the lines that you traced out to place it correctly

10. Grease the new pin and slide it in from the top, using the punch and hammer tap it a few time to seat it fully.

11. Put the “E” clip on the pin using the grove closest to the hinge.

12. Unjack the door and try it out. If it works GREAT! if not try to loosen up the hinge bolts on the door side and have a friend pick upward on the door to remove all play. Tighten bolts while keeping upward pressure on the door. If this still does not fix your problem you might need to replace the other hinge pin and bushings or replace the whole door hinge assembly.
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Like everyone stated. Throw a rag on a Floor jack and place it up under the middle of the door.

I did the top Hinge by rocking taking the Bolts out of the Door side. Loosen the Bottom hinge bolts so the door will slightly Rock away from the car. Then you can drill down on the Head of the Pin.

The bottom: Kinda the same but I took the hinge out of the car completely.
There was one bolt that was a real pain even with a 'U' joint socket.

But with the whole hinge in a Vise it was easy to do the Pin and Bushing swap.

My top one was real bad. Maybe do that one ( easiest to do ) and you can live with the lose bottom until Spring. You will want a large Torx socket to adjust the Striker and make that door close super nice after messing with the hinges.


P.S. There are two bolts from the Hinge to the Body. One faces out and the other faces in the car. behind the Kick panel. The top hinge is impossible to get to without pulling the Dash apart. The bottom is easier.

The Bushings: The Bushing should be pushed in from the top on the top part of the hinge and pushed up from the bottom on the bottom part of the Hinge. In other words, the Head of the Bushing should sit between the two Hinge Halves.

_________________________________________________________________
one thing i did that i forgot to mention earlier... after thinning the tops of the pins a bit
you can get a chisel under the top and carefully shear off the top of the pin...

least i did that cuz my dremel was gimping out on me.... and i didnt want to go to the store for new brushes

_________________________________________________________________

1st thing I found was balancing the door on the jack was tricky at best. I did the top first by drilling out the top of it with a 3/8". Took the top doorside bolts all the way out, loosened the bottoms. This jack balance trick is iffy at best, so I get the Colman cooler & balance the door on it. It was slightly lower then where the door normally is, so it allowed enough room to get into the top pin. Once the top of the pin was drilled out I noticed I did NOT have a punch. Fine, so I use the new pin to pop the old out. Everything is going too smooth I think. Take the doorside hinge outed the top one first & stare at the brass bushings. Used the screwdriver & hammer to tap them out, then visegrips to start the new ones. I squeezed the grips enough to start them, not crush them all the way in. Trick is to start them so they are even. Finished up the new ones with the hammer & tapped in flush.

Bolt the top back onto the door & open the first beer. Total time for top pin was less then 20 minutes.

So I'm thinking I'm home free. Door works ok, but has a big alignment problem. Seems to sag still, but now when closed. I check the play in the door & find the bottom one is too far gone to ignore it. Seeing how I had everything out already, I figure I might as well go after the bottom next.

Unbolt the bottom hinge from the door, loosen the top. Can't get the drill in from the top or bottom (need to drill out the bottom this time). Called my brother up & finished the 1st beer. He shows up to try to hold the door out of my way so I can get the drill in. Kind of get enough room to start drilling, but it's going at an angle. So in all it is not working too well. We decide to remove the door completely by removing the top door bolts. 30 seconds later the drill is through the bottom. Old bushings out & new ones in faster then the top due to the experience of the top ones.
Total time for bottom one: about 45 minutes, 1 beer.

So in closing, it is not too bad. Took longer to figure out the door / jack balance thing then to do the whole job.

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Now, that you're finished and IF you had to do the other side:

Would you say that taking the door off, to begin with, MIGHT be easier?? Was putting it back together and getting the alignment difficult?? And, would you say that doing both (tops and bottom) hinges should be planned on from the start??


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1. Taking the door off completely from the start would have saved time. If you only have a drill, this is the only way you get enough clearance to reach the bottom pin. Although if I had a 12" long bit I might have been able to do with the space given to me with the bottom unbolted & top loosened.
2. Alignment was not too bad. I would recommend marking the hinge / door 1st (I relied on the paint / no paint mark on the door. With some peratrating oil sprayed in the area it was hard to see what was paint & what was oil). Maybe some masking tape or other non-permanent method. Could even scribe the hinge, but why expose metal when you don't have to?
3. If the top pin is gone, the bottom is not too far behind. So while everything is out you may as well consider doing both at 1 time.
4. An extra set of hands helps greatly in holding the door up while you spend time getting the old pins out. The wife laughed her head off watching me balance the door while trying to drill upside down (that was before I called my brother).

Walter
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check the condition of the door hinges. If they are sagging then you will have to pull harder on the door pull and break it again. I fixed my hinges and now the doors close using just two fingers instead of a heavy slam.
If you are interested in repairing your hinges then read the articles in this forum for a good method of accomplishing this repair. For myself, I used a cut off wheel to cut the hinge pin but I think a reciprecating saw would have worked just as well, if not better. To repair the hinged I strongly suggest using a repair kit made by either Dorman Products or their Motormite division. Their part number is 38438 and the kit contains 1 pin, 2 bronze bushings (the part that actually wears out) and a C-clip to prevent the pin from moving. The kit will repair 1 hinge and you have two hinges per door. (the top hinge wears much faster than the bottom hinge and the driver hinges wear faster than the passenger hinges for obvious reasons). The retail price of the kit is $10.52 but you should not have to pay more than $7.01. Dorman and Motormite are sold in many but not all auto parts stores.

Aloha, Mark
 






Hi, On my 02 Sport there is a 1/8" rise when the door is close at the pilar end. A slight sag. I lubed the hinges with spray but the previous owner did not. This is and entirely different door. Any ideas for this drivers door since it hits the door lock stud each time its closed and causes it to raise it that 1/8"
 






Hi, On my 02 Sport there is a 1/8" rise when the door is close at the pilar end. A slight sag. I lubed the hinges with spray but the previous owner did not. This is and entirely different door. Any ideas for this drivers door since it hits the door lock stud each time its closed and causes it to raise it that 1/8"

The hinge should not contain any movement.. What do you mean its an entirely different door?

Check out the Door hinge Pin replacement Thread for lots of info and pics on this.
 






Door

The hinge should not contain any movement.. What do you mean its an entirely different door?

Check out the Door hinge Pin replacement Thread for lots of info and pics on this.

Well the thread I found in searchs relate to the early 93's and 94. The sport being a 2dr as well is quite likely different in 2002 builds. I have been also looking for door window deflectors but cannot determine if the Sport Trac (4dr) will fit the front doors on this or not.
 






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