Driver's door dropped slightly

[Morris Montego]

Next job....my driver's door has dropped slightly on its hinges, not engaging perfectly with striker pin.
The method to sort, I understand, is to put a jack under rear of the door, loosen the hinge bolts a fraction and use the jack to slightly lift the door and then tighten the bolts.
However, I can't see what to loosen? Haynes manual in its door removal instruction says "drift" out the hinge retaining pins. Not sure what they mean?

[Doctordiesel77]

Next job....my driver's door has dropped slightly on its hinges, not engaging perfectly with striker pin.
The method to sort, I understand, is to put a jack under rear of the door, loosen the hinge bolts a fraction and use the jack to slightly lift the door and then tighten the bolts.
However, I can't see what to loosen? Haynes manual in its door removal instruction says "drift" out the hinge retaining pins. Not sure what they mean?

The hinges are welded to the door (some early ones had incomplete welds, which caused a few sagging problems) and held onto the door pillar by nuts which you can get at by removing trim/carpet and a piece of foam which is there to stop draughts through the access holes. You'll need a 13mm socket and short extension, if you look at the hinges you can see the captive bolts, which is useful when you're trying to get the socket onto the nuts that you can't see.... The top hinge nuts are a bit fiddly iirc, but if the hinge pins are worn you might get away with loosening the bottom hinge & jacking the back up. There is no point in doing it the haynes way, knocking the hinge pins out is not always as easy as they make it sound anyway!

[Jeff Turbo]

To get to the top nuts you'll need to remove the dash ideally as they're in the A pillar behind the sound deadening block.
When the door is open can you move it up and down? If so your hinge has worn, I think I have a new one somewhere if you need it

[Morris Montego]

Hmmm.....I've been looking more closely - The drop is very slight and I can't really see which part of the mechanism is 'out' a fraction, not even when I compare to passenger side. The hinges themselves don't appear to have dropped a touch where they are bolted to the car.
I did a few weeks ago lift the open door by hand, not being too forceful. This did seem to improve things a bit. I wonder, if I carefully jack the rear of the door without loosening any bolts may this "straighten" whatever is out a fraction? OR, may this cause more harm than good?

[Jeff Turbo]

Hmmm.....I've been looking more closely - The drop is very slight and I can't really see which part of the mechanism is 'out' a fraction, not even when I compare to passenger side. The hinges themselves don't appear to have dropped a touch where they are bolted to the car.
I did a few weeks ago lift the open door by hand, not being too forceful. This did seem to improve things a bit. I wonder, if I carefully jack the rear of the door without loosening any bolts may this "straighten" whatever is out a fraction? OR, may this cause more harm than good?

If you don't loosen the bolts you will cause damage to under the door as you'll be squashing it. Try moving the door up and down while it's open and looking at the hinge parts as they do wear there on the brackets part. If you can't see it get someone else to move it up and down while you have a look at the hinges. About half open should to it as fully open is another angle

[Morris Montego]

A very quick lunchtime look.....lifting the door by hand and stretching to view the hinges - the movement, the "play" seems to be mainly around the lower hinge. Not by much, but the door does lift a fraction.

[Morris Montego]

Doctordiesel77 - "but if the hinge pins are worn you might get away with loosening the bottom hinge & jacking the back up"


I should have some "Montego Time" tomorrow to fix the driver's door - I had originally thought the panel gaps were pretty even. Certainly, when the driver's door is closed, the trim at the window base aligns perfectly with that on the rear door. The panel gap at the door base is even. The panel gaps at "A" and "B" pillar are even too.....or at least I thought so. Closer inspection shows that beneath the rubbing strip and lower hinge the "A" pillar gap gets narrower and the "B" pillar one gets wider.

Johnny, will this suffice? - "but if the hinge pins are worn you might get away with loosening the bottom hinge & jacking the back up"

I assume I can access the lower hinge bolts by unscrewing the plastic trim on door sill and simply pulling the carpet back?

[Doctordiesel77]

Yes, the lower hinge nuts are quite easy to get at, you'll need to unscrew the bonnet release lever to get the plastic trim off (a big pozidrive screwdriver needed for this) as well as getting the plastic trim pins out, if you have some trim removal tools these aren't too hard to remove. If you locate the nuts, then close the door and loosen them by getting in through the passenger door you should be able to lift the door up by hand, open it and then, with the door just slightly open, chock the back of the door up with blocks of wood and retighten the nuts. If you have an assistant this will be much easier, as you don't need to open the door, just get them to hold it up at the back (open window and get hold of back corner of the frame) while you loosen and then tighten the nuts. Marking around the hinge with a fine pointed felt pen makes it easy to see how far you've moved the hinge.

[Morris Montego]

Thanks Johnny - I'll most likely be working alone but I'll manage with your above advice, instruction

[Morris Montego]

It was all going so well - armed with a set of plastic trim removal tools and a PZ3 screwdriver I set to work. There only were two of the screws, for want of a better word, holding the plastic trim on the door sill in place. These too snapped off when I tried to prise them out - No worries, the trim sits snugly enough without them. The bonnet release catch removed easily. I could see the hinge bolts but oh no.....there was too much bolt protruding and my socket would not reach the nut when attached to the screw driver handle. The spark plug sockets I thought.....but these are 10mm & 14mm.

Can I get a longer socket in 13mm? - off to Halfords.

Still, it's all been a learning exercise

[Doctordiesel77]

There's always something! On the plus side a deep 13mm socket is a useful tool....

[Morris Montego]

A deep 13mm socket for a fiver.......and I now have a driver's door that closes like it did in the showroom!

[Doctordiesel77]

Your 'to do' list is shrinking! Now I can say that it is usually the bottom hinge that seems to cause the problem without any fear of being proved wrong! The cheating method, if the gaps don't look too bad, would have been to loosen the striker pin & adjust it down a touch, but this does generally catch up with you not too long after...always best to do the job properly if possible

[Morris Montego]

Adjusting the striker pin did cross my mind but I thought "No, the door may close easily but it will be tight shut in it's slightly sagged position"

I'm feeling very pleased - The headlining AND sunroof can receive attention soon - I was happy to learn from the previous owner though that the motor does work.

Just thought of another little job though......I'll start a new topic.....