door sag/separation, welding question

Driver's door is sagging on my 96 XJ. Hinge is separating from the body. Found one post without much help. I once welded the hinge to the door on a Chevrolet, but the factory actually glued the hinge to the door, and the heat couldn't have been good for the glue. Are the hinges on the XJ glued or spot welded, and how hard is it to weld it back up? I would assume you would jack the door up a bit. Is there anything I can do to support it better to lessen the chance of future failure?

i belive they are spot welded.
just rebenber that the sheet metal the the hinge is on is "sheet metal" = thin. i like to pot a plate behind an bolt through it.

You'll get best results if you remove the door altogether, and it's almost impossible to do well without removing the fender too. Once you have access, it's not hard to do. A plate and bolt can help, but you can also just weld it making sure that you penetrate well enough. The sheet metal is actually two layers thick. On my stepson's 93 2 door, I also added a big fillet weld to the rear edge of the hinge, where there is none originally. I actually placed a piece of round rod in the gap and welded over it. This helped a lot to prevent it from tearing out again.

You may notice, especially if it's a two door, that the door check does not engage soon enough to prevent the hinge from hitting its own stop, and this is what causes it to pull out from the body and eventually to tear and sag. It isn't the downward force that causes it to fail, but the bending outward. Once you've gotten the hinge back in place, it's a good idea to shorten the door check by a quarter inch or so. I just welded the hole in the end shut, ground it off and drilled a new hole. But otherwise, if you can prevent the door from pulling out on the hinge, the hinge will stay on, though the door might fall apart.

I put a plate and bolt thru the hinge. I didn't need to remove the door, but it was really tricky getting a nut on there. Once I tightened everything up, then I put a weld on the back of the hinge with my stick welder.
The door checks no longer worked on my XJ. I had an old broken nylon holdown strap. I cut it, doubled it, and bolted one end to the door and the other to the pillar. Kinda like on a Wrangler door. Working so far.

You will find an excellent "how to repair door hinges write up" at the Go.jeep website http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoDoorHinge.htm This shows very clearly the best way to repair a broken/cracked door hinge weld.

Any pics of the sagging door? I have a similar problem on my XJ and it's really starting to get to me.

Thanks,
Matt

Here was mine, don't have any after pictures

I have a related question.

My top hinge has completely separated from the body, and the door is only hanging on by the lower hinge. I don't really have the money or resources to get it fixed at the moment. I'm assuming that the lower hinge will give at some point. Is it wise to keep the door hanging like that? I avoid using it as much as I can. Would it be a better idea to just remove the door for now?

This is probably a really stupid question, and I seriously doubt it would work, but would epoxy maybe hold that hinge up there? Yeah, again, I realize it's a very heavy door, and that it likely won't work, but I'm pretty desperate, so.

I ran mine with the top hinge off for a little while. The bottom hinge was fine and supported the doors weight. Just a PITA to open and close, as for epoxy, prolly not.
Scott

ttocsnekia said:

I ran mine with the top hinge off for a little while. The bottom hinge was fine and supported the doors weight. Just a PITA to open and close, as for epoxy, prolly not.
Scott

Click to expand...

Do you mind if I ask how long this was?

http://www.i-car.com/pdf/advantage/online/2002/july/2301702.pdf

your dealer may need to be reminded. Some dealerships "are unaware" of this particular TSB. Parts plus about 3 hours of labor. I'll be getting mine done soon.

like a month

There is a dealer repair kit.

I hate to necropost, but this was the best thread I found on the subject.

The 99 I just purchased last night has the same issue, and I noticed the TSB was only to the 97 models, as well the link on GoJeep said it was to the 97's as well.... thought that was a bit odd, even though it appears the hinge is seperating at the same exact spot.

MattSEG said:

I hate to necropost, but this was the best thread I found on the subject.

The 99 I just purchased last night has the same issue, and I noticed the TSB was only to the 97 models, as well the link on GoJeep said it was to the 97's as well.... thought that was a bit odd, even though it appears the hinge is seperating at the same exact spot.

Click to expand...

it's the same for all of them, in fact it could even go the other way to the earlier models as well.

Simply not enough metal there to support the doors when they're abused.

Is your 99 missing the door check straps? That seems to really do it when the doors get opened farther than intended.

Sweet, I might have to make a trip to the dealer. I got a 96, so I have the computer recalibration to do, along with this. My door is sagging, causing a gap at the top of the door when it is closed. Was going to weld it, but the fix they have looks to be a decent one. I can always add welds later on if I really want to.

el_roy1985 said:

Sweet, I might have to make a trip to the dealer. I got a 96, so I have the computer recalibration to do, along with this. My door is sagging, causing a gap at the top of the door when it is closed. Was going to weld it, but the fix they have looks to be a decent one. I can always add welds later on if I really want to.

Click to expand...

kits may or may not be available.

Mine are stitch welded.

Kits are available thru the dealer. Had both my front doors done in late November. Had to buy the kits. Dealer did them for free with the TSB printed out and handed to them.

Will the dealer fix it if the hinge has already ripped off, and you aren't the original owner?

The later (99 for example) hinges differ from the earlier ones, but they share one feature, which is the tendency to tear out at the rearward end if the check straps fail and the door is stopped by the hinge. Keep an eye on this, because when this happens it will visibly stress the metal every time, and cracking follows. Two doors will do this even with the checks in place if you fling them hard enough to compress the rubber snubbers in the check, or if repeated stress has pulled out the mounting point on the door.