today i was replacing the worn door hinges, drivers side, on my 1994 f250.
while attempting to line up the backing plate (adjusting plate ? mounting plate ?), into which the hinge bolts screw, the upper one fell off and is now lost somewhere inside the sheet metal.

can't feel it with the magnet, can't see it with a flashlight, and no amount of poking around with a coat hanger can even tell me where it might be.

i am at a loss as to what to do ... should i remove the dash to gain bit of access ? remove the parking brake assembly and the massive aluminum bracket behind it ? both seem like daunting tasks which might not even accomplish anything . i can run out to the wreckers (1 hour each way) this coming weekend to see what things look like with more stuff removed but i am hoping that someone here has seen this horror show before and can offer some help.

help please !!!

 

not sure if 94 is same as 86 in kick panel openings but that happened to me. the piece fell to bottom of kick panel area.mine has a arm/hand sized hole that i could just get at it.had someone hold it from inside once the piece was slide up in place

 

Like ^^ he said. Remove the kick panel, then you can access the "pocket"

 

That happened to me when I was replacing the hinge pins and adjusting the doors on my 95 F150. Relax, all is not lost.

You shouldn't have to remove either the dash or the parking brake pedal.

What I did was remove the plastic kick panel, giving me a few more holes in the sheetmetal to look and reach through. It is a PITA, so if you have anyone close with small hands, bribe them to retrieve the nutplate. A small flashlight can help, there really isn't much room to look and feel for the plate.

I think I used a piece of electric fence wire to get mine (it has been a couple of years).

Robert

 

embarrasing update ...

it turns out that the magnet that we were probing with wasn't sticking to ANYTHING ... it was de-magnetized . 20 minutes of fishing around with it and it never occured to either of us that there was a problem !

will get back at it tomorrow with renewed enthusiasm and a working magnet. taking the kick plate off doesnt really allow much access ... just exposes the parking brake assembly and the aluminum bracket that at bolts to. it does provide a tiny hole or 2 to poke the magnet into, but that's all .

really appeciate the input thus far; thank you very much ! when and if i do locate that plate, it should be great fun trying to get it back into place. thank you, ford f-series engineers.

 

I have always believed, as a mechanic, that until the time comes when serious mechanics sit in with the 'engineers' and can put thier opinions on the table for a 'user-friendly' product, we, as users will continue to resort to drastic results for solutions to a non-painfull $olution.

 

It is quite hard to consider the negligible possibility of this particular issue when you're considering safety, crumple zones, sound deadening, weather isolation, ergonomics, alloys, ease of manufacture, ease of assembly, manufacture costs, general costs, and so on... Sometimes things get left out, I'm actually amazed at how I can work on almost everything in this trucks, it's that well designed. Anyway... the OP got an answer for his problem, I hope he reports back once he retrieves the part .

 

a happy ending ...

armed with a working magnet i was able to fish around through the hole where the door wiring harness passes through and soon heard that satisfying "clink" of a magnet contacting a loose piece of metal. with a little patience (there's a cable in the way) i was able to pull it up to where i could get 2 fingers on it. at that point i had to take a phone call and while i was talking my neighbour managed to finesse the bracket back into place !!! don't know how he did it but it got done and the job is now finished .

for anyone with worn door hinges who might be reading this ... FAR better to remove the door (not the hinges) and drill out the worn pins/bushings and replace them with the new kit that you bought at the parts store. this prevents 2 problems ... first, you don't have to worry about either of the mounting plates falling off like mine did ... this is probably a rare occurence, but an unpleasant one if it happens. secondly, you dont have to worry about re-aligning the door. i got VERY lucky and with only 2 adjustments got the door almost perfectly aligned (fortunately i made some marks before removal but i really did get very lucky with the alignment).

thanks again for the help; hope this thread helps someone to NOT make the same mistakes i did on this repair.

 

I am having the same problem I dropped the plate but was able to get it out now I'm stuck trying to figure out how it gos back ware it belongs can anyone help

 

as i recall, it just hangs on a couple of sheet metal "hooks", for lack of a better term. just manipulate it up to where it's a little higher than it should be then lower it onto its resting place. good luck.

 

Ok so am I going to have to cut the sheet metal to put it back or is there a opening if I take apart the dash

 

taking apart the dash or the kick panel doesnt gain you anything ... been there.
you are going to have to get a suitable magnet and go fishing through the openings in the door jamb. be patient and you should be able to get it up and into place.

 

I'll try to get some pictures posted tomorrow evening when I get a 1995 Crew Cab complete cab assembly here at the house. At least you can see what you are trying to get to.

I'll be swapping out left side doors completely and a few guts from the right sides.
I want to get any thing that needs rebuilt done while swapping out parts.
Looks like hinge pins are on a hit list.

 

I had the misfortune of losing the nut plate for one of my door hinges. I found that if you remove the kick panel and the hood release from the inside, you can see where the nut plate goes and fish it out with a magnet. Here are my pictures:


Back of Kick Panel It pulls out toward the seat after taking a plastic pin out.



Without Nut Plate - This hole is where you can fish the nut plate out with a magnet.



Nut Plate



With Nut Plate