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Door Bushing Replacement, how difficult?

dhcomp

dhcomp

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Ok, so my 94 blazer has bad door hinge bushings. They were replaced around 90k ago by a body shop, but its past time to replace them again. The door droops about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch at teh body line when about to latch. Shop charged $120+ to replace a $4 part, and i was wondering if i should take a crack at it this time.

Granted my 94 is a little different, i took a look at the tech article on removable doors. It shows unbolting the hinges from the doors before removing the hinge pin. is this the way to do it? How heavy will my door be? Any trick ideas for holding it up while removing, besides a couple friends? I don't plan to do this alone, but also don't plan on having someone hold it on their own.

When i get the pin out, are the bushings pressed in, or what? Is the standard "Help" style door bushing repair kit from kragen (shown in tech article) the correct bushings/pins?

Any other insight? Thanks for the help, sorry about the longpost!
 
first, aren't your '94 hinges glued on? i'm pretty sure they are on my '94 c1500.

the gmt400 platform doors are bigger and heavier than the old style truck/burb/k5 doors. but they aren't that bad if you eat your wheaties :wink1:. a rope from the ceiling or engine hoist make it really easy. a few jackstands with towels on top of them (to protect the door) work well, too.

why are your bushings wearing out? my 94 is my dd, has 130+K miles and is still on the original bushings. i know mileage doesn't actually kill door bushings, but i'm just saying.
 
It also make a difference in manual or electric windows on weight. I don't see as how your bushings should be wearing so much. MY stepdad's truck was an '88 and they shut just as good as new with his having over 200,000 on them. Unless you're in and out alot there's something else making them wear out.

Back on topic. Like vortec said i thought they were glued on so idk how you'd go about doing that
 
Its been my dd since i was 16....and has power windows.

But besides that, no idea why they are wearing.

They may very well be glued on....i just looked online, didn't really look too much at the truck yet :(.

So i guess i cut the pins, support the door, pound them out, put new bushings in?
 
hhmm, that's 3 years less than i've dd'd mine. do you have kids in there a lot that hang on the doors when they get out? there's got to be some reason they're wearing out that fast. did you ever grease them? i spray white lithium grease about once a year.

be careful about the "door holder opener spring" (that's the technical term ha). it's big, thick and strong, so they have a tendency to want to pop out if you release the pressure on them too fast. you might want to make sure that it's the bushings wearing and not the hinges themselves. that would be even stranger, though.
 
No idea why they wore out so fast, although maybe the door wasn't aligned properly after they replaced the bushings, so maybe it stresses the bushings every time the latch hits the door striker? Maybe? I have no idea, and really, kinda past hte point rite now.

I'm not sure my hinges aren't worn, but i really doubt i wore ALL the way through teh bushings. And even if the hinges were worn, i could probably still put new bushings in, and bandaid the problem for another few years.
 
since you do not know if they are glued or bolted I would suggest going out and looking at the hinges. open the door and pick up on it to see what is loose. you are asking for help but you are not even sure what the problem is yet. your geussing its the bushings.

cutting the pins in half is not the way to do it. thats just creating more work.
 
gmc4cw said:
since you do not know if they are glued or bolted I would suggest going out and looking at the hinges. open the door and pick up on it to see what is loose. you are asking for help but you are not even sure what the problem is yet. your geussing its the bushings.

cutting the pins in half is not the way to do it. thats just creating more work.
Click to expand...


Sorry, don't think im being as ignorant as you are making me sound.

It didn't originally dawn on me that mine may not be bolted, and i checked, they are welded or whatever to the door, no bolts.

I can see that the pin is loose at the pivot point, and it seems to be teh bushings are worn. It is a possibility that the bushings are worn through and the hinge is starting to wear, but i really doubt it.

I was just asking what the best way to approach this repair is. How do you remove the pins and release the spring safely?
 
The doors on these trucks are notorious for wearing bushings. i just cut the pins with the doors on (prop up bottom of the door) fast and easy. Be sure to do it soon, itll wear all the way through the bushing, not good!
 
79k20350 said:
The doors on these trucks are notorious for wearing bushings. i just cut the pins with the doors on (prop up bottom of the door) fast and easy. Be sure to do it soon, itll wear all the way through the bushing, not good!
Click to expand...

May already be worn through, but we'll see.
http://www.s10forum.com/node/36
seems to show a pretty in depth way to do it.

Think i'll purchase one of those spring compressor deals, seems worth it for $25 or so.

Are the dealer pins/bushings any better than these:
http://www.partsamerica.com/productdetail.aspx?MfrCode=DOR&MfrPartNumber=38416&PartType=713&PTSet=A

I'm out of town for thanksgiving, but i'll tackle this right when i get back.

Thanks guys!
 
dhcomp said:
May already be worn through, but we'll see.
http://www.s10forum.com/node/36
seems to show a pretty in depth way to do it.

Think i'll purchase one of those spring compressor deals, seems worth it for $25 or so.

Are the dealer pins/bushings any better than these:
http://www.partsamerica.com/productdetail.aspx?MfrCode=DOR&MfrPartNumber=38416&PartType=713&PTSet=A

I'm out of town for thanksgiving, but i'll tackle this right when i get back.

Thanks guys!
Click to expand...

The spring compressor is definitely worth the $$, at least it was for me when I did these on a regular basis at the dealership. If the bushing is worn through might want to get new pins also and make sure it hasn't worn into the hinge and hogged out the hole. I remember someone once telling me the OEM parts were a graphite impregnated type bushing but not sure if this it true :confused: There are also some pin retaining clips you'lll want to replace when you go back together. I usually just use a big pair of channel locks and a socket to press the bushing back in while the door is resting on a floor jack(someone holding the door makes it MUCH easier). Use the flat side of the channel locks to squeeze the bushing in while the socket sits on the hinge over the bushing hole(socket needs to be bigger diameter than the bushing).
Use some wheel bearing grease on the pins as the go in the bushings to help smooth movement. Make sure when you're all done that the door lines up with the striker and that's it, you're done :D

And no, you're not the only one with this problem, almost all the GM trucks that use this pin/bushing style hinge need this repaired on a regular basis.
 
It might be worth taking it to the body shop that did it the first time. Maybe they would fix it for you for not. How long has it been since they were replaced? You said 90k miles but how long of time period is that?
 
5280k5 said:
The spring compressor is definitely worth the $$, at least it was for me when I did these on a regular basis at the dealership. If the bushing is worn through might want to get new pins also and make sure it hasn't worn into the hinge and hogged out the hole. I remember someone once telling me the OEM parts were a graphite impregnated type bushing but not sure if this it true :confused: There are also some pin retaining clips you'lll want to replace when you go back together. I usually just use a big pair of channel locks and a socket to press the bushing back in while the door is resting on a floor jack(someone holding the door makes it MUCH easier). Use the flat side of the channel locks to squeeze the bushing in while the socket sits on the hinge over the bushing hole(socket needs to be bigger diameter than the bushing).
Use some wheel bearing grease on the pins as the go in the bushings to help smooth movement. Make sure when you're all done that the door lines up with the striker and that's it, you're done :D

And no, you're not the only one with this problem, almost all the GM trucks that use this pin/bushing style hinge need this repaired on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight. Who knows when i'll do this again, but i figure it still ends up way cheaper doing it myself and buying the spring tool than paying someone to do it, so why not have the right tool for the job?

I'll definitely replace the pin/clip along with the bushings.
Any easy ways or tips to rig up a door holder? I was planning to hang the door from the rafters or something wiht maybe a ratchet strap. I'll definitely have another set of hands, just don't want to deal with detaching the wiring harness, so i can't remove the door completely.
 
If you have some help just use a floor jack and 2x4 under the door to hold it up. The rubber boot in the doorjamb with stretch or just pop it loose but the wiring will stretch enough to allow you to slide the door out enough to replace both the body and door side bushings. I also like to run some tape(masking or body shop) along the rear edge of the front fender & front edge of the door to act as a cushion when moving the door on & off. It's a nice safety instead of chipping the paint when moving the door back & forth.
Once you have the spring tool and some experience you can do your friends trucks for beer or some extra cash :D

They do make a specific door holding tool to be able to do it by yourself but they're not cheap....
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_126177_126177

door tool.gif
 
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