Door Problem - What to do???

I had a day today. First the door hinge on my shop disintegrated, then the spring in my spring loaded hinge on the garage/kitchen door threw a spring. Down til tomorrow.

BUT - then I went to go to the hardware store and the drivers door on my MJ wouldn't close. Crap. So I messed with it, sprayed some silicon on it....still no luck...then I took a look at the striker, the area around the striker is not rusted, it just broke.



%$#@

Anyone have this problem? How to fix? I thought I'd retrieve the striker, unbolt it from the piece of broken metal and reinstall it on a piece of flat stock, and weld it in. Any other ideas or input?

...and before you ask, I did not slam or abuse any of the doors, although I felt like it.

About the only want you'll be able to fix that would be to bolt(cheap) or weld (best) some new metal behind the striker area to fix it. Being that you're in cali where there seems to be alot of newer xj's in JY's I would use it as a good excuse to upgrade to 97+ doors and the 97+ striker.

dave92cherokee said:

About the only want you'll be able to fix that would be to bolt(cheap) or weld (best) some new metal behind the striker area to fix it. Being that you're in cali where there seems to be alot of newer xj's in JY's I would use it as a good excuse to upgrade to 97+ doors and the 97+ striker.

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I could likely get a newer door cheap...I may look at that tomorrow at the JY after work. I had thought about welding a plate there...my brother has the welder 2 hrs away. Bolting it might work OK but really I have no clue as to how it broke in the first place.

double post

My vote is to weld.


Check for looseness in the hinges? My guess is that the door dropped and made contact with the striker as opposed to engaging the latch. Look for witness marks on the door then make corrections as necessary.

that is a pretty common failure, i've seen it a few times. it comes from the door being misaligned, usually from hinges that are wearing out. the door drops enough that the striker takes a hit each time you close the door and eventually it tears and cracks. my ZJ and S10 blazer had the same issue.
i fixed it once by making a plate for behind the pillar and mounting it on the striker and drilling a dozen holes around the damage and welding the back plate thru the holes. then i made a plate for the outside and welded it on top for additional strength. make sure the hinges are adjusted properly with new pins and bushings.
i do agree that this would be a good time to upgrade to newer doors.

four_shot said:

Check for looseness in the hinges?

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This.

sidriptide said:

it comes from the door being misaligned, usually from hinges that are wearing out. the door drops enough that the striker takes a hit each time you close the door and eventually it tears and cracks. my ZJ and S10 blazer had the same issue.

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On my 95 ZJ I had a similar problem. But on the door side. The door itself wasn't actually hitting the pin, but the latch mechanism was lifting the door up each time it closed. The door started to form cracks around where the latch bolted to it. I fixed the hinges and make an aluminum plate to sandwich the door to the striker. Unfortunately that won't help the OP.

I took another look at it last night and the door is indeed about 1/2 inch "dropped" when in the closed position, the striker is shiny on the top where the latch has been whacking it. When the door is open I can lift it about that 1/2 inch, but even though I can move it slightly up/down, when I'm looking at the hinges and pulling the door up I can't really see them moving. So I would agree that the hinges are loose, somewhere.

There is no sign of a crack in the hinges, so the play has to be in the hinge pin itself. Apparently, a 16th inch movement in the pin translates into about 1/2 inch at the other end So now...how does one go about replacing the pin & bushings. Never done this one...anybody out there that can tell me how to fix the hinge itself?