Mr Over-achiever here.

Was oiling the hinges on the doors of '95 XLT and noticed a hole in the top hinge that was just meant for a screw driver to hold the tension off the small rotating wheel for the holding the door open mechanism.

Oiled well and spun wheel around with fingers. Removed screwdriver and sproing -- spring escaped.

Looked in the service manual and no instructions on how to get the Genie back into the bottle.

Problem is it looks like the door has to be closed or nearly so to relieve most of spring pressure. Is it a Magic door spring?

Anyone have instructions on getting this sucker back in to do it's job? Not a critical issue, but would be nice to have it back in there.

Thanks

Clarke

 

There is a cool tool for just such an occasion.... trouble is, the door has to be off to have the room to use it....

Can you kinda/sorta reposition the spring, and pry it back into place with your screwdriver?

 

Thanks, I was kinda guessing the door would have to come off. I gave a few tries at prying it back on but the spring is like a damned valve-spring and about 5 of the 8 coils need to be pushed back to get the lever back in place.

If the door was off it would probably be easy enough without the tool. Ciest la vie. I guess the driver's door will go spring-less unless someone can come up with another idea. I will not be removing the door it is not a big enough issue for that.

Before anyone suggests it, I tried a valve spring compressor but just not enough room, the spring kept shooting backwards.

 

Can you compress the spring with a vise and use picture wire, or something similar, to tie it closed? Then put it in place with needle nose, and cut the wire to let it expand in place? Could be dangerous if you let the spring shoot out :<

You don't need to compress it completely - just enough to fit in place.

 

Thank Brewman, but it is a stout spring. Honestly, like a valve spring. Picture wire would not hold it and it would have to be compressed a lot to do it. Not to mention the danger.

Good news is, it is back in and the better news is I got to "repair" the oilite bushings at the same time. Here's how if anyone is in this predicament ever.

Opened the door wide and use some masking tape across the hinge and the door connection area. Just a couple of places will do then with a sharp knife, cut between the tape at the hinge/door point so you ill be able to align the door on reassembly.

Get a floor jack and towel t protect the bottom of the door and take the weight of the door with the jack. Remove the two bolts holding the top hinge. Damned 13mm Metric by the way. This truck is half SAE and half Metric, good excuse for more tools though.

With the top hinge free, lower the jack until the door is almost hanging off the bottom hinge and open the top hinge fully.

Tap out the vertical retaining pin holding the door holder thingy that has slipped off the spring.

Being ****, I re-knurled under the head and also drilled and tapped the other end 8-32 as the pin was installed from the bottom up and I figured at some time that may drop back out. The 8-32 socket cap screw with a washer will prevent that.

Anyway, grab the door holder thingy with small vice-grips, hold the spring in place and twist holder thingy into place on the spring and the roller.

Then using a drum brake adjusting tool, lever out the moving part of the door hinge until the vertical pin can be pushed up from the bottom, through the holder thingy and into the hole at the top of the hinge.

Tap the knurled section into the hinge, apply thread lock to a short 8-32 cap screw and use a washer to make sure that vertical pin never drops out.

Jack the door up into place and wriggle it (door) until you can start the two bolts by hand. Get them close to tight and align the previously cut masking tape markers and tighten the two hinge bolts. You are done. woooo hooo.