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Removeable door help

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DrShaggford

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Joliet IL
Im in the process of making my doors removeable and to eliminate having to realign the doors im modifying the hinges with the doirs still on. I have the bottoms of the hinges cut off and everything disconnected but I cant get the doors to lift off. Ive tried jiggling the door about and smacking the hinges with as hammer. Ive tried penetrating oil and ive even tried using my hi lift but I cant get them off. Does anyone have suggestions?

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Pre 97 I assume?

It was nearly impossible for me to cut enough off to take them off the first time with the doors on. Its not difficult to realign the doors afterwards. The pin is a tight fit. I removed the doors, took the hinges apart, filed on the pin to make it slightly smaller in diamter then reinstalled everything. Sooo much easier.
 
re-aligning the doors isnt difficult, theres 3 bolts per hinge into the door.... 2 are accessable thru the hinge.... those 2 holes? yup. ignore the 3rd, leave it screwed in but loose. set the door where you want it, maybe shim it tight, then tighten the two bolts, fallowed by the 3rd. not really that hard.
 
When I took the doors off my 97 xj I air hammered out 3 of the 4 pins and used a cut off wheel on the 4th. My buddy gave me the bright idea of hitting the area around the hinge with a little spray paint b4 removal so realigning it is always easy :roflmao::spin1::spin1::spin1::spin
 
The body side hinge sleeve has a flat edge that sticks out at a bit of an angle. You can see it in this pic

YJ_Mirror_Bracket_Holes.sized.jpg


Meanwhile the door has a piece of stamped sheet metal between the hinge and the door shell, with a raised lip. You can see it here, around the hinge.

First_Cut.sized.jpg


The corner of the body side hinge will catch against the edge of the stamped metal piece. In order to keep it from catching, you need to round off the corner using something like a sanding disc on an angle grinder. The first time, you need to have the door at the correct angle so that it will lift up without catching on the hinge.This can be difficult
 
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I already have those bottom tabs cut off and removed. I also have that steel lip that gets in the way of the hinge removed. The doors are literally ready to lift off but they just wont budge. Looking at the hinge while trying to take them off the door side hinge and the body side wont separate even a hair.

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IIRC the first time I took the doors off I had to use the stock bottle jack with a 2x4 under the bottom of the door shell. Just pushed it up and off. But the doors moved a little bit and I think I did this so I could get at the wires. Been a long time I don't really remember

Maybe the cuts through the pin are bad and the pin has a flared edge.

It's not that hard to realign the door hinges. I've done it a few times. For each hinge, tighten one bolt and leave the other two kinda loose. Then adjust the position, retighten the one bolt, etc., until it's in the right place then tighten them all
 
Did you spray these with anything and let sit before trying to remove? I used wd-40 and a crow bar with a 2x4 on the door frame. I wiggled the door a little while i was lifting it with the bar.Make sure it is as close as you can get it to the hinges on the bottom of the door as possable.
DID you also remove the door stop and elec?
 
I missed a previous post yes it is pre 97 its a 94. Yes I have diconnected the wires and the door helper thing. I have not cut the pins at all I was waiting til the doors were off so I could clean up the burr cutting leaves. Also like I originally posted I used my high lift jack under the door and all it does is lift the whole truck. I tried brute force and force while wiggling and jiggling. I have soaked the pin in deep creep.


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Also those 2 wholes in the hinge you are talking about....wouldnt you have to take the fenders off to make use of those? I would much rather grind my torx socket down till it fits. Im about 10 minutes away from rolling my jeep so I can jump on the doors while its upsidedown. I appreciate all the input its made this whole thing a bit less stressful.

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DrShaggford said:
Also those 2 wholes in the hinge you are talking about....wouldnt you have to take the fenders off to make use of those? I would much rather grind my torx socket down till it fits.
Click to expand...


possibly.... didnt think of that, ive got fiberglass fenders that come off with 6 philips screws, and a 3/8ths bolt. so they came off first things first.
 
On one side I had to pull the hinges off anyway and flip them over because the pin pressed in from the bottom. By doing it that way jeep only had to make one set of hinges for the whole vehicle. Other than that, both side came right apart without out much effort.

As far as aligning them: since i had the doors off, I just cut the hinge and wacked it with a hammer once. To lign the door up I stuck the hinges back together, bolted them down pretty tight to where the door would shut almost right. Then slammed it shut, and pressed around all the edges till it was flush and correct. Then I just opened it real carefully and fully tightened the bolts back down. Also swapped out the bolts for hex cranium bolts.
 
Realigning the doors is pretty simple, I unbolted the doors then heated the hinges and drove the pins out n just put some 1/4-20 bolts through them as pins, good fit.
 
I had the same problem on my '96 xj. I took my jack and with a combination of cinder blocks and 2x4's I lifted the door off. Be sure to do it slowly as the doors will pop off quickly with all the pressure. Also, clean out the hinges after wards and removes ther mesh sleeve. Good luck!
 
I completely unbolted the doors from the hinges and replaced the factory bolts with normal hex head bolts. Once the doors are removed and the bottom ear is cut off its alot easier to drive out the pins (from the bottom up). After driving out the pins I ended up drilling out the whole a couple sizes bigger so the doors slide right in and just picked up a couple extra door shims as needed. They line up/close perfectly and are easy as pie to take on and off.
 
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