First, a big shout out to Hiusmell, for getting me started on this by providing the parts, so that I could tinker.


There are a few articles out there about replacing your door hinge pins but I could not find any about replacing and/or repairing the detent roller. As you can see from the first 2 pics, mine was pretty bad, on the driver's side. I was able to do this on the truck and without removing the spring. The main complaint with the door spring is that a spring compressor will not fit in there, that is correct.


There are plenty of write-ups on the door pins and I already replaced the pin for the detent roller pawl, also without removing the spring. I did this by using a large diameter rod (I used a big t-handle allen wrench) and dropped it in the holes on the hinge, on the door side. This keeps the pawl in place and keeps pressure on the spring.


For parts for the detent roller repair, all I needed were:


1) 1ea 5/16 ID X 7/16 OD bronze Oilite Bushing (sleeve, spacer, bearing)


2) 6-32 bolt


3) 6-32 washer


I bought the Oilite bearing off of Ebay. Mine had a flange as you can see in the pics. I have since found some on Amazon as well, without the flange. The bearing needs to be at least 1/2" long but I would be tempted to go with one that is 1" long and cut/grind it down to 9/16".


You will need to cut off the nub at the top of the roller pin. I used a sawzall, it is soft and cuts easily. You could grind it off with a dremel, but cutting was quick.

 

You will note that the hinge in the pics is out of the truck. That is because I tinkered with the ones that Hiusmell sent me before I actually worked on my truck. And, its easier for pics.




Before you go ahead and use a punch to get that roller pin out, you are going to want to remove pressure on it from the spring. If you, you can just knock out the pin and let the spring come out. I will show you later how to get it back in. What I did though, was to use the poor-man's spring compressor tool, a hose clamp. Get a good one, the Harbor Freight ones are marginal, at best. In the pics, you can see where I placed the hose clamp behind the spring mount in back and around the pawl in front of the spring. At first, with a large pair of channel locks, I was able to compress the spring. But, I could not compress the spring AND get the hose clamp on, so in the end, I compressed the spring just with the hose clamp. Again, get a good one, otherwise, it will just strip the threads on the clamp. Once the pressure is off, go ahead and using a punch, drive the roller pin out.

 

Now that the pin is out, I took mine apart and too a wire wheel to it all. Now, I cut my flange end off, leaving a 9/16" sleeve/bearing/bushing. Then I drilled and tapped a hole in the small end of the roller. This is the end where we cut off the nub. My plan here is to use a small bolt and washer to keep the detent roller pin in place. I have tried this first, we will see, I may end up tacking it in with a quick touch of the welder. I greased up the roller. I put the sleeve on the pin, after liberal use of some grease, then I stuck it in the freezer for overnight.




Ah, go have a beer/soda/hard cider/tea/apple pie...

 

In the morning, I took the pin out of the freezer and ran to truck. I pushed in the bottom hole, slid on the roller and tapped it in place. Then, I used some red Loctite on the 6-32 bolt and anchored the roller pin in place. I am done.


Oops, no pics of the final assembly but you get the idea.

4/10/16----- the tapped hole with the bolt and washer are holding fine. I am going to leave it as-is, unless I see it working out in the future.


Now, for those of you that took the spring out or you hose clamp failed you in the wee hours, here is the trick for getting that back in. I can take credit for this, I found it on another forum. Put the spring in a vise or your spring compressor tool and clamp that puppy down. Then take some good quality, medium gauge wire and cinch it compressed. This is the tricky part, you can only do the one side in the vise. You can use those large channel locks again to compress it so that you can put some wire on the other side of the spring. You will only want to put your wires that hold the spring compressed at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions of the spring, otherwise you will not be able to get your wire back out. I suppose that it would eventually wear down and fall out, though. Place the spring in position, cut your holding wires. Before you place the spring, you may want to use some more wire to tie the pawl to the spring seat, much like I did with the hose clamp. This will help keep the spring seated in the proper position as you cut your wires.




Go for a drive...

 

Never mind this post,

See below...

 

I found them for $1.01 each with out the flange. They don't have 9/16 but just get the 5/8 and cut it down. Nice write up! I plan on doing all the hinges on both my trucks. Nice to know what to get now.

Part #6391K164

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-sl...rings/=11p45ho

 

Good old McMaster-Carr. I keep forgetting about them. How much did they ding you for shipping? But, yeah, you can forget about your local hardware store for these.

 

Awsome write up. Thank you for your time.

 

Thinking about this...

If you do both doors at the same time, you may want to swap the roller pins from side to side. The drivers side pin will surely have some wear under the roller but the pass side probably not so much, if any.

 

I don't even have them off yet. I usually get stuff from them through work so they pay shipping. Can't imagine it's more than a few bucks. You may be able to get them from fastenal but they usually want you to buy a bag full not just a few.