need a little help w/ my Door

[wml53]

I have a 92 XLT..the drivers door is sagging a little ,not hitting the striker right...How do I replace or adj it to hit right?It seems to be a little low at the back.
Is it hard to replace hinges,if that's wahts wrong?
Thanks,Wallace

 

[twomedicine]

striker

Can't you just adj the striker in a better position to get the latch to match up better?

Adjusting that striker is easy. If the hinges are shot, you'd want to look at a manual or thread on door removal, it's probably straight fwd though. The electrical harness is what I would wonder about how to separate when taking the door completely off

 

[have2goski]

doors

well i would pull the striker and see how the door closes relative to the door jam.

if it seems acceptable, just reinstall the striker and line it up so the door closes right on it.

you should have some adjustment in the striker itself.

now if the door isn't closing well relative to the door jam you are going to have to mess with the door itself and the hinges.

loosen the bolts that hold the door to the hinge. (helps to have a freind help you with this)

it can be a little bit of a pain adjusting the door the first time around. just loosen, adjust, tighten and test. keep doing that until you are happy with the fit.

when you tighten the bolts back, don't tghten them all the way just enough to hold it in place while you test it out. and slowly loosen the bolts so you can control the adjustment.

once you have it where you want it. tighten them back down and make sure your stricker is where it needs to be.

now if the hinges themselves are shot you have two options.

1)replacement

2)try and rig something up to make your surrent ones work...............just figure out which way you need the door to move and find away to make it happen. I know some people have used big washers to fix the rear sag. not saying you should do it, just that others have and don't know if that was their long term solution or a temporary fix.



If you do have to pull the doors off, well yes wiring is a pain but not impossible. the way i got mine off was to pull the wiring out of the door completely. there are several connections you have to disconnect and I found it easiest to cut one set of wires that went into the door. its just 2 wires and they are easily crimped back together. Not sure what they went to off the top of my head but when you get into it it should be fairly obvious. they branched out off the main bundle.

take your switches off the connector plate. and make sure you don't forget the power mirror wires you should be able to work the cable out then.

and for future reference back doors are alot easier. their is a plug connection right behind the interior panel that will let you seprate the wires just inside the jam.

kinda long so sorry for typos or things that are unclear.

 

[wml53]

The door itself is not inline ,it hangs down about a 1/4 or so an inch from the lines it should.

 

[have2goski]

start messing with the hinges.

is the whole door low or just the back end?

 

[wml53]

Just the back of the door sooo I guess the top hinge would be the one to mess with???
Or could it be both??

 

[twomedicine]

adjust hinges?

You might take an observation of how the hinges react when the door is open and while applying an upward force. See if the hinge pivots themselves are loose, or if the fastening bolts/nuts are loose. Hopefully the hinge mounting area on either the door or the body is not rusted out.

There might be some adjustment in the fastening hardware. In other words, if you loosen the nuts holding the hinge assy to the body, both top and bottom hinges, the door might be able to be rotated up slightly to compensate for your 1/4" sag. Then just tighten down the nuts and re-adj the striker.

If you need to replace the hinges due to wear, maybe getting two of your friends to help out will not require the complete removal of the door. Open the door and while they are holding it up, take the hinges off and replace, maybe one at a time is best. This way you would not need to worry about disconnecting the electrical stuff and so forth/

2Med

 

[wml53]

Kewl...That's the Idea...Thanks sooo much...Will let you know if someone drops it....!!!
Thanks!!

 

[twomedicine]

Don't drop it on your toes

Hope that idea pans out. I looked at mine to see if it was feasible before posting my final idea.

Working one hinge at a time might prevent a drop on the toes. Or maybe a sling hung from garage rafter ties could be fashioned for working solo, or even ropes tied around the metal window frame (window open) for suspending the door while replacing the hinges/

y'all take care,
2Med

 

[Exp-Wi.]

I had this problem with mine, and the door was beyond adjustment. So what I did (might not be proper, as stated earlier) was add a washer between the hinge and vehicle. I put it at the bottom screw of the bottom hinge. It put my door right back in line, and it has been that way for about six mo. w/ no problems. You should probably exhaust all other adjustments before taking this step. Oh, and the door is heavy as hell if you take it off both hinges.
good luck.

 

[Rick Wojahn]

Go to your friendly neighborhood parts store and purchase two hinge pin kits for a mid 80's F-150. Support the door ( I used an engine hoist with rigged up sling around the top of the door) And then unbolt the hinges on the door side. You will have enough room with it done this way to access the hinge pin. I cut the old pin in half with a hacksaw then drove out each piece. Install the new bushings included in the hinge pin kit, drop in the new pin, bolt the hinges back to the door. If you mark the position of the hinges with a sharpie pen before you unbolt the hinge it should require very little adjustment when bolts are tightened. It only took about 45 minutes for me to do the door on my 91 Navajo!!!

 

[twomedicine]

shimmed door hinge

Ingenious. Sounds like a great approach to door adjustments on these things and would be an easier route to follow, and without ruining anything.

Quite a few yrs ago I fixed some hinges on an older Chevy van I used for camping. The driver's door was sagging due to worn hinge pins. The hinge steel was of very thick stock, so I simply punched out the old pins and drilled out the barrels for receiving some 3-4" long hex head 7/16" dia bolts. The repair held forever. Living out 70 miles from the closest town, in a fairly remote mining townsite (Wyo), comprimising and improvising were every day challenges (pre-internet days).

 

[Bronco_bill]

If you would like to replace the top hinge you must remove most of the dash. to properly tighten the nuts. Bottom is easy to replace. Good luck!

 

[pak8850]

I had to replace the hinge pins and bushings on mine, it was not to bad with two people and you do not have to take the door all the way off and if you have an hammer gun air type it is easier to get the bushings out.