jmrec100

Are the hinges welded to the body? My drivers door is hanging lower now. Looks like the top hinge is pulling away. Is that a welded joint? Before I take the door off, I want to find out if it's welded. I can stick weld it with 6013 rod if need without much grind clean.



Upper door hinge, drivers side

RegularGuy

i do believe they are welded on. IIRC there is a technician manual for the dealer on how to repair them.

My passenger hinge is broke off, and to make matters worse the door wont open so i need to ear the door apart while its shut to figure out why it wont open just to fix the thing. At least yours isnt like that!

jmrec100

Thanks. I can for Now open the door. Then actually hold it up while it gets welded.

andrewmp6

Yeah they are welded and its common for the upper driver hinge to break off.You can weld it or some have drilled and bolted it back on.

jeep96cherokee

My upper hinge on my drivers door did the same. Had my buddy throw a beefy bead on it and he also threw a bead on the bottom one to reinforce it too. It threw my alignment out a little though. It still shuts fine, there was just a 1/4" gap on the top right of the door. I just double up the door seal in that corner and it seals perfectly now.

jmrec100

I just smogged mine. Passed GREAT.
So now back to the front top door hinge, drivers side. It got worse. Now I have to take care of it. A shop I trust looked at it and didn't think could get a good weld on it because couldn't reach behind it without removing the fender.
I looked thru the service manual and if I'm reading it right, I have to remove the bumper. Really? The lower hinge is showing a slight crack and the door is hanging low. Any suggestions out there? Do I really have to remove the front bumper? I don't want to do any unnecessary work.

cerami50

Wouldn't it be a lot easier just to remove the door, removing the three torx-head screws at each hinge-door interface? When my lower hinge needed replaced I removed the door, pried the hinge off and welded a new one to the same location. As a previous post states, you might have some slight misalignment but shouldn't be hard to get it close.

jmrec100

Are those Torx bolts? I'll try that tomorrow. I think with the door off, may be ok to clamp that hinge in then weld it.
I was trying to do a good alignment weld by removing the fender but seems like too much work. Ill do that tomorrow.
Body shop was trying to charge me $300 to do it.
Off comes the door, and back to the first shop. $40 seems reasonable. Only problem, gotta clean out the passenger seat. Maybe just let the wind get rid of the Big Mac papers.

93_xjcherokee

It is indeed a torx. #40 to be exact. You can get to the two inner bolts (there are 3 on each hinge) with the door closed looking through the front fender.

jmrec100

The inner two bolts, really. I'm guessing you mean , close door, climb underneath and access the inner two. I'm going to try that now. I was able to loosen all except the upper hinge, lower inner bolt. The upper hinge is almost broken off. Rather have it still in place and weld it. I was about to go thru removing bumper, fender etc...I'll let you know.
Thanks

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Hinge is breaking off from the BODY. Can't get the one bolt to loosen from the DOOR

cliffy

Mine broke off on my '95 in the same exact manner, the problem that I saw was that since it had completely broken off there was not much to weld to. I went to Lowes and grabbed a piece of 3/8" flat stock steel and cut it into pieces and had them welded around the hinge, then had a bead laid from the hinge to the flat stock. I had to cut a small notch from the inside of the fender to go around the steel but the door is as straight as it can be and opens and closes fine. I attached a picture of the hinge only, I did not take a picture of the final product since I was racing the snow to get it back together. I placed three pieces around the hinge, top, front and bottom.

jmrec100

My issue is I cant get the Door UNbolted from the hinge. Hinge is breaking off from the BODY. Can't get the one bolt to loosen from the DOOR The hinge is breaking off the Body, not the door. I may end up with unbolting the lower hinge, That is no issue. Then breaking the top hinge off the body. I rather not do that.
I see the holes in the hinge are to access the door bolts, T40 bolts. But looks like have to take off the fender to get at it. I tried just taking off part of the inner fender plastic underneath. Can't see how to reach it. In the morning, Im going to try to remove a few nuts and bolts to see if I can move the front drivers fender out of the way just enough to reach it with the door closed. The door is so off now that when I close it, I can't open the door behind with out hitting the drivers door. Only opens about 1/8 part of the way. And a gap at the top of the drivers door when closed.
See if I can get a dremel cutoff blaed and take off the head. ONE lousy &^%& bolt. All the others loosened well. I sprayed wityh WD40 rust stuff. Try again in the morning.
Other suggestions please

cliffy

I didn't bother to try to take the door off to fix it, I went right to removing the fender to get the best idea of what I was up against.

jmrec100

To take the fender off, A manual says to remove the front bumper etc... Is it that much work?

jmrec100

Or just a lot of screws? Do I have to take off the bumper?