Door alignment: hinge pins

[chrysleritis]

I thought I'd share the experience with my front driver's side door alignment issue on my 1941 Chrysler New Yorker (C30). It had been one of those doors where it hadn't closed right in years, you had to slam it just so, and it would latch only every once in a while. It was to the point where to save trouble, I usually climbed in the passenger side and slid across. Not a good look. So for this winter's rainy season project (but then it didn't rain for the last couple months anyway, but that's a different issue...), I thought I'd tear into it. I last had it apart a couple years ago while putting in new door panels and windlace and window channel, and I improved things a bit by adjusting the door position at the hinge straps and the striker plate on the B pillar, but it didn't really last. I figured it was either: worn latch mechanism (most likely, very common), "frame sag" at the pillar (not likely on a 4 door with minimal rust issues) or something else. I did not suspect the hinges, because the door, when opened, did not wobble or rock on the hinge pins -- it seemed snug, but the door would just not swing closed into the B pillar. You really had to push on it or slam hard and it wanted to spring back open. I figured I would just tear down the whole thing and start from the frame. The car has the pocket hinges with the pins recessed into the pillar, shown in the Master Technician booklet at https://www.web.imperialclub.info/Repair/Lit/Master/025/page15.htm 
Very helpful booklet. I also read through all the posts I could find on the forums about doors and latches and hinges. Also helpful. I lurked on eBay to find Roto Lokit kits or latch mechanisms. 

 

Remove garnish molding, window crank, handle, armrest, door panel, lower window channel, window glass. Remove door check by drilling out 1/4" rivet at door pillar, then remove check from inside door.

Remove door by removing hinge plates from door. Set aside door. Remove hinges from pillar -- these required phillips head impact driver and penetrating oil. The floating nut plates in the pillar were all stuck in place -- no adjustment had been possible, but those worked loose with penetrating oil. These adjusters had not been moved in many decades. The hinges moved freely out of the car, but I thought they bore investigation. I had a tough time trying to drive the hinge pins out and finally had success with an impact wrench turning the screw on a hinge pin removal tool and mangling through a couple of dowel pins to drive out the hinge pins. Both upper and lower hinge pins were really bent, but not particularly rusty, which explains why the door just did not want to swing fully closed. It's tough to see how they still functioned, and I'm not sure how they got that way unless someone really swung on the door or wrenched it badly. Clean and repaint hinge parts. 

I had trouble finding suitable replacement pins. They are nominally 11/32" diameter and 2 1/4" long. They measured 0.341" actual diameter (on a straight section).  There are lots of pins out there in Dorman land which are nominally 11/32", but most of those come in at 0.337", which was too loose. A couple of old Mopar places have things which claim to be 0.340". I ordered three different Dorman hinge and bushing kits at $4 a pop, and one of them had good steel pins that were 0.3425", which was what was needed after driving out the old pins and reaming the hinges. I had to cut the pins to length and grind a bevel on the ends. They pressed in just fine. Plenty grease.

The latch mechanism, which I suspected was trouble from the beginning, just needed a little cleaning and fresh grease. I used a dremel tool to smooth off the worst of the ridges on the star wheel. The door is now amazing and swings perfectly closed and will latch with the slightest push after adjusting the striker plate, and finally is aligned in the opening and with the rear door and the belt line molding pieces. 

The takeaway here is that it was the hinge pins which were badly abused, and not the latch mechanism, which is still fine, but which is often the center of attention on these old doors. The other moral of the story is that the pins were terrible to drive out, but they did yield and the other hinge parts came through just fine. Other moral is that you may wind up hand-selecting pins of correct diameter or else re-drilling and reaming to a new diameter. 

Now just have to put the rest back together.  

[Eneto-55]

Thanks for including the pin diameter specs.  I was told that mine were supposed to be 5/16", and that they had probably been replaced with oversized pins at some point, since they measured out the same as yours - to 11/32".  If you read all of the stuff about hinges and pins, then you've read that I planned to ream out my hinge straps, and did so on one, and installed an oilite bushing with an ID of 5/16".  (Most of my hinge pins were twisted off just below the serrations on the head, and I also had to drill them out - couldn't press out, even with a press & lots of soaking.)  Can't easily ream an oilite bushing w/o ruining it, and the wall thickness of the ones I bought is too little to go up to 11/32".  So I'm stymied at the moment, and rethinking what I will do to fix this.  But I DO want to have bushings in there, not just steel on steel as they were originally.

 

Also, did you paint the backs of the hinge frames, or were they that way originally?  (Curious, because the backsides were not painted on my 46 P15.)  

[chrysleritis]

 

Yeah, I've read through your reaming and bushing schemes! It does sound like you might have to back up a bit and re-think. 

 

There was some failing paint and surface rust on the back side of the hinge frames, so I cleaned and re-shot, since I hope to not have to get back in there for a while.