hinge pins

[mike3311]

Hey Board,

I'm a new member and (more importantly) a new truck owner. I bought a 79 Silverado last week that needs a whole mess of love but has a decent body and is relatively rust free. With the help of this board I finished my first project yesterday which was to replace the hinge pins with a pin and bushing replacement kit and the doors close a LOT better now. I'm really happy with the results.

Anyway, I'm more of a woodworker than a mechanic, so this is a new world to me. I wanted to post step-by-step what I did for the benefit of the inexperienced and criticism of those in the know. I'm sure I made a few mistakes in my method, but I'm happy with the results.

I have power windows and locks so removing the door panel was necessary.

1. removed the door panel
- I did this by removing all the obvious screws and then prying the top of the panel / inside window sill up from the side with a screwdriver, working my way down the length of the window. I bet there's a better way to do this, but I couldn't figure one out.

2. Unplugged the terminals from the door lock and window switches, cut the wires to the window motor and door lock mechanism.
- Yes, I CUT the wires. It was a long painful decision to make, but I just wouldn't free the terminal from the lock mechanism on either side. I wouldn't cut them right away, if you can get the terminal off, all the better. I tried for about an hour before pulling out the cutters.

3. Unbolt the wire harness from the inside of the door and thread the wires out of the door.
- The only interesting thing here were the sparks flying inside the door from the door lock terminal as I threaded it through. I wrapped the terminals with electric tape on the second door before doing that. I highly recommend that step since the door locks continue to get power. I also tried to find the fuse and pull it, but I couldn't figure out which one it was.

4. Support the door, unbolt it from the hinges and put aside.
- A second hand would be helpful here. I used a couple of 2x4s cut to the right length to support it. Also, it was helpful that I noted shims under some of the hinges and noted where they belonged. Finally, I marked the hinge by drawing a circle around the washer of each bolt before removing. That enabled me to put the door back on in the same position.

5. Cut the pin of each pin and remove the pins and old bushings.
- At the advice of another poster, I used a dremel with a cutting disc to do this. Some of the pin halves were in there pretty good, so it took some pounding, WD, and working with the vice grips to get them out.

6. Cleaned up the hinges and the holes.

7. Put the bushings in both holes on the side of the hinge that was still attached to the truck.
- One thing to note here is that the kit came with two types of bushings. One thin copper-colored pair and one pari that had some ridges on the outside. I suspect that those are for exceptionally worn holes, not sure. The copper-colored ones gave me a nice tight fit anyway.

8. Put the other half of the hinge back on and pound the pin through.
- ridges on the head end of the pin made for another nice tight fit in the top of the hinge here, but it took a lot of pounding to get it to seat all the way. I assisted this with some WD on one that was exceptionally stubborn.

9. Bolt the door back on.
- Using the circles I drew at the beginning, I was able to the the bolts in finger tight and then tweak the door until the markings lined up. Also made sure the shims (if any) went back in their respective positions.

10. Thread the wires back through and bolt the harness back to the door.

11. Try it out.
- I may have been just extremely lucky with step 9 on both doors, but mine closed fine. GREAT, in fact compared to before.

12. Lube it up.
- I used white lithium grease in a spray can on the hinges. Then I sprayed graphite on the door catch, the inside of the exterior door opener, the spring on the inside door handle, and the whole spring / lever assembly on the inside of the door. Basically everywhere that was rough or squeky when operating the door from inside and out.

13... put the panel back on, splice the wires I cut, etc...
- I haven't done this yet. I'm giving the panels an overhaul first.

So like I said, it works great now and I'm really happy about it. Thanks all for the advice on the board. Obviously I would have probably managed to kill myself without the little bit of guidance I gathered.

Thanks all,
Mike

[mike3311]

Originally Posted by killthewabbit

Great post! Even greater that it was your first!

One question: In step 4, when you said unbolt the hinges, I didn't realize there were shims there too. I thought they'd be on the cab side, but you're talking about the door side, right?

I need to do this to my truck too, but I've been putting it off for awhile now. Guess I figured it would take me longer than a weekend to do it, and I gotta drive my truck to work again on Monday.

Anyhoo, welcome from Murfreesboro, TN

I had shims on the door side of the hinge, but only on one of the hinges. It probably just depends on what they had to do the last time the door was aligned.

In terms of time, it took me about 4 hours for the first door and 3 hours for the second (after learnin). I doubt it could possibly take anyone with some mechanical experience longer than it did me.

Good luck
Mike

[mike3311]

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

1
there is a better way to do that , usually i make sure the window is down and start from the bottom of the pannel take it away from the things that stick through it and tap the whole panel upwarth with my palm it should be enough to get the windowstrip to come out without leaving marks on it

Thanks for the tip. I can see exactly what you describe and I'm sure it would work great!