Door hinge pins and bushings

mustang919293mustang919293
edited March 2012 in Feature Mustangs
I noticed today that my drivers door has a little sag to it. Picked it up and had quite a bit of play. How hard is it to replace the hinge pins and bushings? What are the tools and steps to do this at home without paying a body shop to do it.

Comments

  • kechme93kechme93
    Patience, my Drivers-side has been replaced by previous owner, and from what it looked like, THEY lost their patience. Lots of PRYING & Scrapes around Pins. Sorry, I have never took on the job myself.
  • bigtripsbigtrips
    actually just did the pin's on mine yesterday...well my pop's helped me out(retired Body Man), wasn't too bad but takes a little finesse....first you have to grind down the top part that is mushroomed from factory...being a body man's garage, he had a die grinder we used...i would think u could use a Dremel as well if u have the correct bits. Then we used a Punch with a hammer to pop the pin down, the tricky part is getting the bushings in, we used Vice grips to kinda get em started, then used a flat metal piece to put under it to hammer it up into place, then the top bushing was easier , just took the punch upside down and tapped it down. then put some grease around the bushings, pin slid right in, and done...kinda hard for me to explain, guess im not the best at it :)
  • mustang919293mustang919293
    That actually was what I was lookin for. I figured I would have to do something along those lines to get it done. I've got access to about any tool to do it. Just didn't know if someone knew a short cut.
  • l1k2gaddl1k2gadd
    I replaced the hinge pins in my daughter's '89 GT convertible with pin kits from Napa. I do not like the fact that the lower pin on the driver's door has a tendancy to travel upward, but the process here was fairly easy too.

    I placed a floor jack under the bottom of the door with a heavy soft rag folded all kinds of ways to soften the pressure on the paint on the bottom edge of the door. I actually used a small, sharp chisel and cut the flattened ends of the old pins off. I believe the Dremel with cutting discs will be the way I attempt to replace my next ones though. Once BOTH pins were cut and removed the door was supported (teetering on) by the jack and by me and the old bushings pushed right out and the new bushings slid right into the holes as I carefully maneuvered two halves of the hinges together and got the door back into place and slid the hinge pins through the bushings. The pins had NO caps to secure to them and NO holes for cotter pins to keep them from traveling though. I will likely drill the next ones if they have no provisions for stopping the travel before installing them. Even though the pins were greased on installation that one lower pin still travels up over time. I have to take a small hammer every now and then and tap it back down. The passenger door isn't used much so I haven't noticed pin travel there yet.
  • mustang919293mustang919293
    Could you have done 1 hinge at a time? To keep door in place. Or is it impossible? I believe my problem is with the bottom hinge. I really don't want to replace the top ones unless I absolutely have to.
  • bigtripsbigtrips
    u can do it one at a time, just make sure you have a floor jack with some kind of padding on it like the other guy said, i forgot to mention that in my earlier post, we used a floor jack as well :), i only did the top pin on mine
  • l1k2gaddl1k2gadd
    Both upper and lower hinges had wear on the '89 GT convertible. The lower bushings were shot. The bushings were wearing a bit on the upper so I thought why do only half the job? When you lift the door from the bottom you can see if the top bushings are wearing too if you see up/down motion in the two halves of the hinges.

    I started with one and thought about passing on the other but I decided to dive right in and do both because you have to seperate the two sections of the hinges to replace the bushings. I believe I tried seperating the one hinge by itself and it binds up a bit and makes the area you have to try to manipulate and squeeze the bushing into real tight. Doing both made seperating the hinge sections and inserting the bushings a breeze.

    Balancing the door wasn't too bad either because the floor jack did most of the work. The door jamb power wiring harness assisted in the stabilizing of the front of the door also. The floor jack also kept the hinge halves from binding when going back together and sliding apart because the door pretty much stayed at the height it was at throughout the entire process, and the window on the door was down throughout the replacement too.
  • mustang919293mustang919293
    Great info guys. I'll attempt to do this job sometime in the near future. I'll check again to see if the top hinge has any play. I may be better off to replace all of them at the same time.
  • MustangmanMustangman
    Good luck with it. I need to replace the pins on my '86 GT driver's door but have putting it off as it isn't that bad and it hasn't been a priority. Did it on a '93 T-Bird and it was a miserable job but the door is heavier I think and the hinges were a bear to get to. Any job has to be easier than replacing the heater core though :lol:
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