Door trouble

Hi all,
On my R/H drive 93 XJ (which I really like, apart from the price of spare parts in the UK) the passenger door (would be the drivers door on a L/H drive) top hinge has broken away completely from the door pillar. I have managed to weld the top of the hinge to the pillar, as a quick fix, but the hinge is not in the correct position. What I would like to know is, if I remove the door and cut the top hinge free from the pillar and now clean up the hinge and pillar, what is the best way to make sure the hinge is now welded on in the correct position?

Thanks for your help.

Jeepcreep

Take the front fender off and have the door closed and aligned into position before welding.

hinkley

If you are working alone, I would do it a little differently from Mark, owing to the weight of the door, which makes it very difficult to keep in alignment unless there is someone on hand to push in on the forward edge of the door. If there is, it should work that way, because a little in-out misalignment can be adjusted with the hinge bolts, but even if you get the latch end aligned perfectly the door will tend to fall outward at the top unless there is someone to hold it. Definitely take off the fender in any case, but if working alone, I would also take off the door. Clean up the hole left by the hinge without removing too much metal, and its position will be pretty obvious.

When this happened on my stepson's Jeep, the hinge fit well enough into the hole that I was able to tack it in and then make a really strong weld which has held up well. To add strength I filled in the gap on the aft edge of the hinge with a piece of rod, and welded over that, to form a very wide fillet. That helps to keep the hinge from flexing outward when the door opens too far.

Thank you for the advice, I feel a bit more confident now of having a go at it. As long as I can see where the hinge should go then I should be ok. It seems crazy to me that a door hinge would break off on such a tough 4X4, If Jeep had welded all 4 sides of the hinge in the 1st place instead of just on the top and bottom, no hinge would ever have broken off ever!

The next problem I can see is how to get the Torx bolts out of the door, I tried a couple as I figured the door might have to come off at some stage. Out of 3, I managed to start 2, but the 3rd. one would not budge, not wanting to strip the head I gave up for the moment. Any tips/ideas on how best to get them started and removed would be most welcome!

Thanks again
Jeepcreep

Make sure to use a hammer and hit the torx bit to the bottom of the bolt head. Now you can use more force with greater confidence of not messing it up. Most/all torx heads are messed up by not being bottomed out or someone using a impact gun on it.


hinkley

BTW. I wouldn't remove the door, it is too usefull for alignment reasons. You can tack weld the hinge and then check if it works. Too much work if you weld it all and it is not right. Just my opinion though.

Jeep at one time offered a hinge repair kit to address this problem. There were two versions, selected based on the degree of separation. Your case would clearly qualify for the more extreme kit.

Quite some time ago the part numbers were written up on one of our forums, but due to changes and upgrades in the forum software I don't know if the post(s) will still be accessible. It might even have been before we changed to the software we currently use.

My Jeep dealer in the US has good parts people and they are available through e-mail. I know they ship domestically, so they might ship international. If you wish to contact them to inquire about current availability of these kits, you can e-mail to

[email protected]

If they can get the part but don't wish to handle an international shipment, I could pick up the part from them if you pre-pay it and send it off to you.

Eagle said:

Jeep at one time offered a hinge repair kit to address this problem. There were two versions, selected based on the degree of separation. Your case would clearly qualify for the more extreme kit.

Quite some time ago the part numbers were written up on one of our forums, but due to changes and upgrades in the forum software I don't know if the post(s) will still be accessible. It might even have been before we changed to the software we currently use.

Click to expand...

The kits are still available and are under $10US per hinge.

The Service Bulletin is 23-017-02 (May 20, 2002)
Kit A - 05083060AA - Less than 75% separation
Kit B - 05083061AA - More than 75% separation (or door has to be lifted to shut)

Thank you all for your tips and advice, I have only had my 93 XJ since June 2004 and have been fixing and sorting it out since. It looks like door will have to come off as top hinge has been poorly welded back on in the past and will not now sit flush to door pillar due to excess welding. I will take door off, clean up the hinge and door pillar, weld the bits that Jeep missed on the bottom hinge, and re-hang door to align top hinge. Tack weld top hinge and if door shuts ok, weld all sides of top hinge. It should not come off again in my lifetime!

Thanks again.
Jeepcreep