S-10 Door Hinges

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:32 am

O.K. I have had 5 S-10s in the past 20 years and all of them have had the door hinge pin problem including the 2001 Crew I drive now. I have used White grease. 3 and one and other lubes. Has anyone found a better bushing other than the pig metal crap that GM has or the one in the HELP section at the auto parts stores? There has got to be something better.

I went to the junk yard once and found a 53 Buick. I opened the door and shut it and the hinges didnt even squeek, the door shut like a new car would. They just don't build em like they use too.

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:58 am

Where have you been the last 52 years? Hopefully not recently returned to us from the Aliens

Quality has suffered and degraded from as long as I can remember and am sure my 69 camaro was considered flimsy to people older than me.

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:27 am

Is that your Saucer?

Stop screwing up my corn field !!!

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:37 am

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:50 am

The hinges on my '89 are trashed too and as far as I can see, there aren't any replaceable bushings. Not sure what to do about them other than have to lift up on the arm rest as I pull the door closed every time.

Pauleo · Post by **Pauleo** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:51 am

Larry The Cable Guy wrote:That's funny right there. I don't care who you are!

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:20 pm

I have changed the bushings before but I think they could make em out of a better product. Its a pain in the butt to do. I have been doing it without the spring compression tool but I think I am going to buy one this time. I have to replace the drivers door bushings one the Crew and the Blazer. Will be next weeks project as long as I have the time. I will take some pic's if anyone wants to see how its done.

barch97 · Post by **barch97** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:42 am

BADs Crew wrote: I will take some pic's if anyone wants to see how its done.

Yes, please

adrenalnjunky · Post by **adrenalnjunky** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:15 am

barch97 wrote:
BADs Crew wrote: I will take some pic's if anyone wants to see how its done.
Yes, please

Me needs pics too - cause mine needs some in the drivers door as well.

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:53 am

I was just surfing another site and found this. Its a great description so I copied it. I have done this with out removing the doors. I seems to save me time. Also When I do it I use a floor jack under the door with a folded towel over it, also I tape a towel between the fender and door so when you pull the pit they don't hit each other and chip your paint. I can raze or lower the jack to help line up the door. you can also put your knee on the door sill and add your weight to the truck to help with adjustments when reinstalling the hinge pin., I will still take pics when I do it and post em.

Parts:
each door takes 2 pins/4 bushings/2 locking clips

1. Make sure you have another person to assist. You'll kill yourself trying to rely on the jack stands alone. It's impossible to hold the door and remove pins, connectors, etc. Trust me, the door is HEAVY. Cover the jack stands with towels to protect you door paint.
2. DO NOT TRY TO DO IT WITHOUT REMOVING THE DOOR. I spent an hour trying to do it one hinge at a time, then just supporting the door with it still hooked up to its electrical connections...only to realize it needed to come all the way off anyway. You'll be lucky if you don't mess up wires. Had I done this from the beginning, it would have been MUCH easier. There's only TWO connectors that need to be unplugged anyway. Pop the window control panel, remove the two screws under the hand rest, and pop the door out bottom first-then lift up and off. Remove the two connectors, feed them back out the door, and now you're ready to remove the rest.
3. Use your spring tool on the two FURTHEST notches of the spring. Make sure its seated as far in as possible or it could slip off and hurt you. Make sure it's as far in as possible so you can compress it the max amount possible-you'll need it. Tighten the 1/2 inch (13mm) nut till the spring easily pops off it's to securing points. I reccommend throwing a heavy towel over it as you remove it from the door just as another safery precaution. I left the tool on the spring with it compressed, and the towel over it to make the reinstallation quicker.
4. Now remove the small retainer clips from the pins, and knock the pins out. The top one you'll hammer out from the top, and the bottom one from the bottom. (NOW IS WHEN YOUR ASSISTANT WILL COME IN HANDY) When you remove the first pin, they'll have to support the door to keep it in line or else you won't be able to get the other pin out. If the door is cocked, you'll have a hard time removing the pin. Have the two jackstands underneath to make it easier for them.
5. Now you'll need to remove the 4 bushings. The two on the top hinge remain on the car, while the bottom two remain on the door itself. (Another definate reason for removing the door completely.) I used the head of an old pin as a punch to hammer them out.
6. Clean all the surfaces the best you can, and install the 4 bushings the same way they were originally. If your bushing holes are over-sized from wear, they may just pop in, and you'll have no problem. Mine however, were a bitch. I needed to press them in. DO NOT HAMMER THEM, AS I LEARNED THE HARD WAY, THEY'RE BRITTLE, AND THEY'LL CRUMBLE. I ended up pressing them in with pliers, but I reccommend the correct tool for this. Make sure they're completely seated.
7. Now grease your pins, and bushings, and have your assistant again support the door on the jackstands, as you feed the cables back through the door. Have match the door up to the hinges as you replace the pins and hammer them in till they are completely seated as well.
8. Replace your two retainer clips, and make sure they're seated on the thin groove at the tip of the pin.
9. Reinstall the spring.
10. Reconnect your two electrical connectors.
10. Reinstall the door panel, and window control panel...and you should be good to go!

I usually use a 5/16 nut, bolt & washers, and a 3/8 nut, bolt & washers with a socket to press the bushings in place.

Spring tool. NAPA P/N - 770-3818 $22.56

Hope this helps.

adrenalnjunky · Post by **adrenalnjunky** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:50 pm

where do we get the pins and bushings, and what kinda pricing am I looking at?

adrenalnjunky · Post by **adrenalnjunky** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:43 am

Ok- the local Chevy dealer is across the street from where I work. So at lunch I pulled around to the service dept to get an estimate on having the bushings replaced.

I have just officially been sworn off of buying another car from them, and probably a Chevrolet again as long as they are the only Chevy dealer in my area. simply because of the ongoing dissatisfaction with dealing with their service department.

Service guy looks at the hinge, and shakes the door to gauge the slack.

Then he looks at me and says "I'm just guessin, but I guess it'll be a couple hundred dollars to fix that."

I almost thought he was joking with me.

He wasn't.

So I reiterate "Couple hundred dollars?"

"Yeah - just guessin"

"Is that as close as we can get right now?"

"Pretty much."

I have a history with this dealer dating back to the 97 Z24 I bought new from them - just little stuff that was not properly addressed. Stuff with my Blazer that wasn't properly addressed when it was still under warranty.

Never again.

SO - how much does it cost if I fix it on my own?

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:02 pm

NAPA has em on their web sit at $5.69 each with the clips. Most auto parts store sell them in the help section. I don't think GM is much higher. Lots of stores around here like Auto Zone carry em and will lend you the spring tool to install em. Its not a hard job mostly it is the top pin bushing that wears out, I change the one on the drivers door on my 1st gen, S-10 in like 45 min by myself without the tool. I popped the spring back in with a brake spoon used to adjust the the rear brake pads. I won't do that with my crew because I don't want to scare the paint. Here is the link to NAPA so you know what your looking for,

link't

Link't long url-HJ

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:38 am

I wanted to install the hinge pins today but after going to 4 auto parts store I was unable to find the spring tool. So I went online and found it here.

http://www.toolsusa.com/autobodytools/i ... t&cat=body

As soon as I get it I will install the pins and post the photo's.

adrenalnjunky · Post by **adrenalnjunky** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:10 am

Actually that only takes you to the main page - but the part number looks to be 4520, or here's a link directly to it...

Spring Tool

snocat1 · Post by **snocat1** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:18 pm

That's funny I had mine replaced Saturday by a buddy that works for his dad's body shop so I just paid for the pin's for 25 bucks no labor and tax.

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:08 pm

I recieved the spring tool today. Here is a pic of the tool and pin kit.

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:10 am

My hinge pin replacement is completed. I have the pics but I don't have enough storage space here to post em. As soon as I find some space to store them I will put them up.

Post by **HenryJ** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:25 pm

BADs Crew wrote:... I have the pics but I don't have enough storage space here to post em....

Try reducing the file size of some of the images you have already uploaded. At least three are over 200k and one is almost 500k alone. Pictures rarely need to be more than 50k in size for a good representation.
That alone will free up 900k , or enough for 18 , 50k images.

jeff024 · Post by **jeff024** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:57 pm

if ya run outta space here a great site for more pics FLICKR

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:59 pm

OK I have the pics, The first thing is protect the paint. I tucked a towel in the cowl and down between the door and fender.

Next thing is don't lend your floor jack to a friend so he can level his sidewalk. I had to use what I had to hold the door in place. Make sure the door is in the full open position,

Next I compressed the spring and removed it.

This is the end of the spring where it hits the door. Its rusted and this is what was making my door squeak. There was no way to get grease behind it. On re-assembly I cleaned it and coated the ends well with grease.

This is the push clip that was at the tip of the hinge pin. I used the snips to cut it the pulled it off. I forgot to take a picture of the hinge pin removal but all I did was tap it down and out of place,

After the pin was pulled I pushed the door back and lowered it at the end where my jack would have been if it wasn't under someones sidewalk. Notice that the door side of the hinge rested against the bushing. This held it nicely so I left it there while I pulled the bottom bushing,

This is how I taped both bushings out.

I used a bolt and nut to press the new bushings in. They stick through a little so I stacked two 1/2 inch washers over the hole so I could press them home. The pin is 3/8 so you will need a 5/16 bolt.

Here are the two new bushings installed. Notice how one is pressed down and the other is pressed up. They are also two different sizes. The larger goes in the bottom.

This is what took me so long. The push washer that comes in the help kit is crap and I didn't like the clip being all the way at the tip of the pin so I went and found a new push nut. I suggest when you get your pins pick this up before you start the job. When you put the new pin in it is nurled at the tip under the head. It it hard to get it back in place, I had to tap on it for quite a while to get it to seat, I wanted the clip to be rite down on top of the upper part of the hinge to be sure it never fell out since it is driven up from the bottom.

This is the completed job. Notice the new clip is down on top of the hinge and not on the tip. I used a 3/8 deep set socket to push it home. I cleaned up most of the grease I had been using to stop it from squeaking but still need to detail it out. Now the door shuts rite and there is no play at all in it and I only changed the top one.

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:38 am

Anyone else have this problem? Works here. Try it here......

http://community.webshots.com/album/447635404Ulimoe

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:14 pm

Yes, I am seeing them. Visit the link and once you return they show up. He and I am on dialup

adrenalnjunky · Post by **adrenalnjunky** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:26 pm

just my theory - I don't have a webshots account.

I'm betting that it will show the links for people that are webshots members and have a webshots cookie stored int heir browser cache. (Don't worry if this is greek - Internet Tech support is what I do)

I've seen this same sort of thing happen with people using ImageStation as their photo depository.

so - I'm goping to create me a webshots account, and log into it - then see if the links show.

Edit - Yep - now it appears that the only images that appear are the 2 that I clicked on in your photo album. Apparently Webshots doesn't like what they call off-site linking - it would be like someone on s10forum.com linking to a picture that HJ has stored on the crewcab server - the pic shows in the other site's forum, but is being downloaded from our server every time someone looks at that other site's forum. That increases the amount of bandwidth used by our server, and ends up costing more, even though those guys weren't even visiting our site.

therefore, many image hosting sites require you to be a member, to be able to see remote links.

kwalsh · Post by **kwalsh** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:12 am

I thought I was in the clear with this door hinge issue.....this weekend both doors simultaneously started to screech

the passenger door is much worse than the driver side.....go figure

BADs Crew · Post by **BADs Crew** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:34 pm

Thanks to Barch97 posting the image resizing link in the Forum Information Section I was able to move some pics around and change this tread. I hope everyone can view the pics now without clicking on the web shots link.

Post by **HenryJ** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:05 pm

Thanks for your write-up!
I added a combined page to the S-10CREWCAB.COM website's stock information - Door hinge pin & bushings repair: