Hey guys, been a loooooong time since i've been here. How y'all doing?

Anyways... My driver door has always sagged a bit on the truck. It has gotten to the point now that you can't close it slowly. It sags too much. I've always kept up on lubrication, but that can only go so far.
I need to know if I have to remove the fender to adjust the hinges. I have a factory service manual for the 1987 Dakota's, but it does not mention whether or not the fender needs to come off. To me, it looks like it does. There is no way to get to the bolts.

Or could I just need new hinge pins and bushings? That may be easier, but I don't like throwing parts at something hoping it will fix a problem. How can I find if they are worn. I can't see any play when I try to pick up on the open door... Mabey I need to look at them when a helper lifts the door...idk

What do you think/what have you done?

 

Open the door about half way, then lift up on the rear of the door, see how much slop you have. Likely you need pins and bushings in any event, but, that may, or may not, be the whole story.

 

Pins and bushings FIRST.

There's a fair chance the hinges are shot now; as SOON as it starts to droop any, the pins and bushings should be replaced! Leave it, and the pin can wallow out the hole in the hinge itself.

(Ask me how I know. And ask me how easy it is to find hinges for a 1991 Cougar ... )

A work around, if you're good at welding, is to fill the hole and redrill it.

THIS may have problems on our trucks, due to the door side being welded on.

(Pro tip: Have someone help you pull the door after you drive the old pins out; you can rebush the body side with the door off, and then reattach the door without touching the hinges; this should keep it in factory alignment.)

Two kits per door ... https://smile.amazon.com/Dorman-HELP.../dp/B000C5G58O

Second thing - replace the striker bolt also (Mopar 4184105 for the space, 4310543 for the bolt; bolt with a shim is a Dorman 38441). It's going to be badly worn if it's been dragging that badly.

The parts lists are in the FAQ; you can use those to locate the part numbers so you can Google for them better. Note: The parts lists has them as, say, 4184 105 and 4310 543; take out the space and add the word "Dodge" to Google them.

RwP

 

"don't want to throw money at a problem"... that truck is 30+ years old. Pins and bushings are CHEAP. simple MAINTENANCE. also check and make sure that the door part of the hinge hasn't ripped out of the door frame. Just had that happen on my 96 a few months ago.

 

I'll get to it asap. Think I'll get a helper to lift while I look though. Every time I've done it before by myself I never actually seen any slop in the hinges. I just end up moving the whole truck around.


Thanks for the full reply and the link. Hopefully the hinges aren't too bad when I do get into it. as welding isn't an option for me... yet. I want to learn, but I need the equipment first. Hmm great tip, that will be much easier to do with the door out of the way, and luckily I only have a speaker wire to worry about disconnecting. Your right about my striker too. It looks bad. There is a deep ridge worn into it.


HA! Yea, I don't think too often about how old it is but yea, it's been around for over 31 years...
Jeeze, the hinge ripping out of the door!...Damn. No, I don't have that problem at all. No cracks, or tearing of the metal.


Thanks for the replies guy's. I'll be getting to this sometime soon. Hopefully I can get the Suburban out of the garage tomorrow.

 

I did get another look at the old pins and bushings. They are LOOSE.... and to top it off, they are original. Factory paint on them. Don't know when I'll get to them as the weather is being crappy out. Might get to it tomorrow as the Suburban is out of the garage and I got my dad's Jeep all taken care of, so now I have the space.

 

While the truck is in the garage, take the doors off, and find a welder to tig around the door side of the hinges.

It's been stressed with the pins bad so long; you'll need to make sure that they don't crack. And the crack may not be obvious until you get the doors off.

RwP

 

Well, that was a... a wasted effort.

I finally got the job done- took the door off and changed the bushings and hinge pins. Got everything back together and it still has the sag. Not quite as bad, but still sag. I also found that when I got it all apart, that the new hinge pin kits were as loose as the old ones I took out. I put the bushings back around the pins and could wiggle them the same amount. Didn't matter if they were old or the new, fresh out of the packages. They wiggled the same amount. On top of that, now my door jams are beat up from all the hammering I had to do. Well, at least I have a bunch of factory colored paint so I can repaint the jam.

I inspected the door itself. No cracks among the factory welds or in the area of the hinges. All looked good. The door itself had a lot of junk in it. Cleaned out a bunch of "sheets" of the black material that was sprayed inside of the doors. It all apparently fell off. Also had a mystery bolt inside the door. Looked like it was never used. No markings on it. Couldn't find anywhere, where this thing would go that it could have been missing from.

So, back to my original question. Do I need to remove the fender in order to adjust the door hinges? It looks that way, but my service manual says nothing about removing it for hinge adjustment.

 

It would be easier; but until the hinges are replaced (where they wore out!), then it won't do much good.

But yes, I'd pull the fenders to adjust the doors.

Then adjust the fenders to match the doors ...

RwP

 

there are oversized bushings available. same inside diameter but fatter outside, you may have to slightly drill out the holes the bushings go in to round them again, they are probably a bit oblong.
check the hinges on the door side again and MAKE SURE they aren't tore or tweaked.

I put 87 doors on my 96, the 87 doors are actually much lighter, the later doors (IDK when they started with this) have a "bolster" inside across the middle of the door, supposed to be "side impact protection".
but the lighter doors are easier on the hinges for sure. what was weird on my 96 was that while the bottom of the passenger door was shot (rotten with rust) the driver side that tore out on me was still otherwise a good solid door. I hope to paint my 96 this summer, make it all 1 color again.... white cab and bed, cream color doors and fenders, peeled white/primer hood and peeled/white/surface rusted roof at present.