Door hinge pivot worn out...

[Sebulba]

Hello all,

Well I decided to investigate the entrance door issue I have.  The door hangs a good half inch low and when you close it, the top is a bit outside the door opening.  Not much, but noticible.

It appears that this door has 2 pivot points.  The one on the bottom that is exposed and the main hinge point attached to the cast iron arm that the air cylinder attaches to.

This top pivot point is very worn.  I shined the flashlight in there and you can see the 'slop' in it when the door tips up and toward the hinge to fit in the door opening.

Anyway, has anyone dealt with this issue?  Are there bushings that can be replaced?  Or would it be a matter of replacing the cast iron hinge arm?  Or is the other half that is worn.

Don't want to tear into this without some idea of what is going on since we do live in at present.

Thanks in advance

Seb

[luvrbus]

Look at the guys post about a grease bolt on the MCI on here,some had bushings some had a bearing,the grease bolt is the culprit most of the time 

[Sebulba]

Look at the guys post about a grease bolt on the MCI on here,some had bushings some had a bearing,the grease bolt is the culprit most of the time

That post has a good picture of that pivot point. 

So, do you think that it is most likely that the bolt is worn and maybe not the cast iron hinge arm?

That would be good engineering to make the bolt out of softer steel than the arm to protect the bigger part.

Interestingly Subaru did this with their wheel hubs and spindles.  The hubs were a softer steel than the spindle, so that if something had to fail it was the hub.  Cheaper and easier to replace than the spindle.

Thanks for the help.

Seb

[mqbus767]

In my case, the grease bolt was seized in the hinge. I had to carefully heat the metal (it's cast iron, be careful) and then apply some torque. The hinge was second hand from a parts bus so clearly hadn't been lubed in quite some time.

[luvrbus]

I reamed mine out and installed bushings and tapped the hinge for a grease zert with a grade 8 smooth bolt

[Jim Blackwood]

Something you could do if you wanted to retain the original function of unloading the lower pivot. You'd need a lathe or a friend who has one. At the hardware store you can buy long "coupling" nuts which are often 4 or 5 times as long as a standard nut. So you drill out the arm from the bottom to the depth of the coupling nut's length and clearance drill the remainder. Turn down the OD of the coupling nut to be a light press fit in the hole. Press it in, and voila! Function restored.

Jim

[luvrbus]

The hinge working on a threaded bolt suck to me 

[Jim Blackwood]

What the threaded bolt does is take the load off the lower pivot and eliminates the need to shim the upper pivot to do it. By the design you can tell that the weight of the door is taken by the upper bolt bracket. Not sure exactly how rigid that bracket is but it must be rigid enough. By turning the bolt it is evident that you can adjust the door upwards and take the weight off the lower pivot which really isn't designed for much of a vertical load and might break if loaded too heavily. I suspect that function is a bigger consideration than any jacking of the door as it opens.

There is no reason why a threaded bushing cannot work just as well as a plain bushing, provided it adequately designed and properly lubricated.

Jim

[luvrbus]

The bottom bearing on the door on the D is adjustable and carries the weight the best I can figure,most of the doors have a cover and people just don't take the cover off and grease the bolt.Bushing worked good for me,they can be a bear to change because the threads are all beat up in most cases   

[Jim Blackwood]

You are probably right. I haven't had it apart so I was just going from what I've seen here and  Glen's video. But there was a reason for those threads. If not to adjust the door height then what was it?

Also that upper hinge is way more massive than the lower one and would seem to be better able to support the weight.

At any rate, without lubrication it would wear and with wear go out of adjustment, which would put the weight on the bottom pivot like you said.

Jim

[luvrbus]

I think the hinge is so beefy because of the air lock claw is located directly across and the dash latch goes inside of it, like you I think it is some type adjustment but they are always so tight you cannot turn it

[Glennman]

My older '74 MCI has the same hinge assembly. I believe the bolt (pin) is seized because the pin spins in the hole rather than in the hinge thread. It squeaks each time the door is opened because it is steel to steel. When I installed the sedan door in my '02, I installed a keeper on the pin's hex portion at the bottom (3/4" hex) so that the pin always stays still and the hinge spins on it instead of the steel to steel action where there is no lubrication. I can see where the hole would start to wear out after a while. Now I faithfully keep it greased and it works great.

[Jim Blackwood]

So what they do is rust and seize up in the casting then? Guess I'll have to check mine. Put that on the to-do list.

Jim

[Glennman]

I really don't know how the pin would otherwise remain stationary as originally installed without something to keep it still. It's pretty clear to me that the pin threads are supposed to spin inside the hinge threads during normal operation, with the way it is built to receive grease, but there doesn't seem to be any way to keep the pin still without the keeper I built. I doubt that the pin receives grease only for the purpose of occasional removal, because the base of the pin where it goes through the hole would otherwise only spin on steel to steel if the pin is allowed to move. It's a mystery to me!

[chessie4905]

roll pin?