Door hinge repair

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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Door hinge repair

Post by Petros »

HI all,

I picked-up a project TErcel recently, a blue '84 SR5, that needs a number of fixes that I am working on. One of the more annoying issues is the driver's door hinge is worn and sloppy, making it difficult to open the door. You have to lift the weight of the door up with the handle to get it to free itself from the latch to open it.

I have owned cars in the past that has a small amount of adjustment in the hinge mount, but it does appear to be the case with the Tercel. My question is, short of replacing the hinge itself, is there any easy way to fix this problem?

Possible fixes:

Loosen the hinge bolts and lift the door up and than tighten them down with the door latch aligned?

Drill out the worn hinge pin and replace with an oversized bolt or pin?

Reposition the latch on the door? Is there any adjustment or movement in the latch mount?

Any suggestions?

It appears that to remove the door hinge you have to remove the front fender to get access to the bolts, I really do not want to go that far if I can avoid it. I may have to, but I thought I would see if anyone else has fixed this kind of problem first.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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ARCHINSTL
Goldie Forever
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My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
Location: Kirkwood, a 'burb of St. Louis

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by ARCHINSTL »

Possible help - maybe contact hberdan as well to see how it held up:
https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... air#p28985
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
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hberdan
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My tercel:: Sold my 1987 Tercel Dlx 4x4 Wagon but miss driving it everyday. I don't miss working on it, though.
Location: Colorado!

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by hberdan »

Yeah, my drivers door was loosey-goosey, lots of up/down movement when open, and the source of the mysterious clunk.
A big old hammer will fix it.
"I'm high on the real thing: Powerful gasoline, a clean windshield, and a shoeshine."
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by Petros »

sounds like the fix I have been looking for, but the link has not worked for the last two days. Could someone explain the repair for me? I take it to just mashed the worn and sloppy hind to take up the slop in the hinge? So you strike it where the hinge is worn? Should I use a punch to concentrate the blow?
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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Goldie Forever
Posts: 6369
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 1:52 pm
My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
Location: Kirkwood, a 'burb of St. Louis

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by ARCHINSTL »

Hmmm - the link worked just now - 9:37 PM CDT.
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by Petros »

it did not for me. I keep getting this message:

" Information: I'm working on upgrading the server to keep spam out. It'll be back up by 3pm Pacific Time. Thank you!"

Still does not work. So just tell me what I need to know please!
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
User avatar
ARCHINSTL
Goldie Forever
Posts: 6369
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 1:52 pm
My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
Location: Kirkwood, a 'burb of St. Louis

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by ARCHINSTL »

Hmmm - well, my recent experience...
Like many, I have a link tied to the "new posts" section (prob poor description, but...). Anyway, I kept getting the same message as you just posted (about 'upgrading') from Monday until last night - so I thought the site was still in transition.
Then I idly entered "www.tercel4wd.com" and the home site opened. Then I clicked on the "Forums" and the full list popped up. Then I clicked on the "New posts" and a whole raft of them popped up - all since Monday.
So, I just copied the new link http://www.tercel4wd.com/search.php?search_id=newposts and all was good. This one is somewhat different from the one I've been using forever - but I did not save the old one, obviously.

Beyond that, I cannot help. Is it the same for other T4WD links? Anyone else have Petros' predicament? Maybe Neu could comment?
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
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marlinh
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My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
Location: Kootenays

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by marlinh »

Just read this post and tried to open the link from hberdan's repair. It appears to be gone. Is it lost forever? I was curious about what he did.
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Gottolovem
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My tercel:: 1985 SR5 with snow plow,1987 auto 1984 parts car,1987 FX-16 GTS
Location: Reno

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by Gottolovem »

I have the same problem with my door and my thoughts on the repair is to put two 1/8 inch thick washer under the bottom hinge(door side of hinge that mounts directly to door) and bolt it back up,that should kick the other side of the door back up (latch side) closer to the strike and perhaps bending the strike a tad down as well.

I haven't tried my plan yet i just keep lifting my door to get in.
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marlinh
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My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
Location: Kootenays

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by marlinh »

Thanks for the info. One of my first tercs used to clunk like that. The front end was tight so I never worried about it.

EDIT: It always sounded like the noise came from the front fender/door area.
Last edited by marlinh on Fri Nov 15, 2013 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Gottolovem
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My tercel:: 1985 SR5 with snow plow,1987 auto 1984 parts car,1987 FX-16 GTS
Location: Reno

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by Gottolovem »

marlinh wrote:Thanks for the info. One of my first tercs used to clunk like that. The front end was tight so I never worried about it.
Huh
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dlb
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My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by dlb »

marlinh wrote:Just read this post and tried to open the link from hberdan's repair. It appears to be gone. Is it lost forever? I was curious about what he did.
if anyone comes across a link on the forum like this:

http://www.tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtop ... 16&p=28985

all they need to do is click that old, non-working link to open it in a new window. it should bring up an 'error 404' screen or something like that. then you can just remove 'forums/' from the URL of that non-working window so it looks like this (minus the spaces—i had to add them so the full URL would show up here):

http:// www. tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3916&p=28985

hit enter, and the link should then work.
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Mad_Marx
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My tercel:: 1986DLX (K.I.A. by a Texting Driver, currently being uses as a parts car) 1986 SR5 AC, Cruise, Sunroof a.k.a. TERC II Electric Boogaloo (restoration in progress). 1984 SR5
Location: Boise, ID

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by Mad_Marx »

Does anyone have a valid part number for a door hinge pin/bushing repair kit that works for our cars? Rock Auto doesn't list one specific to the Tercel, but has a plethora of "universal" kits. :/
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helipilot77
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My tercel:: 1984 SR5 wagon
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Door hinge repair

Post by helipilot77 »

The door can be removed without removing the fender. Remove the bolts that hold the door to the hinge this will allow the door to be removed, allowing access to the bolts that hold the hinge to the body.
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BaileySims
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My tercel:: 1983 Tercel SR5 4WD
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Re: Door hinge repair

Post by BaileySims »

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12566&p=97277#p97277

Maybe this guy still has them?
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