OK, thanks to the help of several great contributors out here I have fixed my door rattle problem. I now have another issue to attend to. Does anyone know what is involved in replacing a door detent spring? This is the flat spring that allows the door to stay open at the several detend positions. In the course of searching for the striker bushings needed to resolve the door rattle issue I discovered that these springs are available as repair parts. I would really like to resolve that issue but I do not want to remove hinges and mess up any door alignment. Can the spring be replaced w/o removing the hinge?

As always, comments and advice are greatly appreciated!

 

I have the same problem with my truck and took a quick look at it and it seemed that the whole hinge had to be replaced...the spring was spot-welded to the hinge...you say the spring is available seperatly?... I would guess that the hinge would have to come off to fix the new spring to it...what do the repair parts look like? is it the same kind of spring?

 

Yes, I have found the part on the Autozone web site: Shopping, body parts, door hinge parts. It is a $9 part. The part show has a hole in it which I assume one of the door hinge bolt go through. It is very difficult to see between the fender and the front of the door to see exactly what is required to R&R. I think the bulk of the knowledge on this forum come out during the weekdays so I suspect I will get some handy information come Monday!

 

well I went out today and found the spring you talked about...it has one hole that woulde require one of the three bolts for the hinge to be removed. Allthough there are no instructions on the box the book buddy used to look it up at the parts store said that it did not require removal of the door...and after looking at the part I would have to agree...undo one bolt and install.

Corey

 

Would be interested in hearing, from your expience with it, what is involved. As stated earlier, and even tried again last evening with a flashlight, I can't even see the bolts to assess what's required. I guess I'll have to pick up a mechanics mirror so I can see in there, then do it by feel.

 

hey ham... installed the spring yesterday at the body shop ware it's gettin a new paint job...they had just finished painting the jams and had my door off...Dam if it wasn't the easyist repair I've done!

Sorry bud

 

Can someone give me the part number for this door hinge spring from Autozone? I can't find it on their website. Nothing comes up in a search, and there is no door hinge parts section. Thanks.

 

It's Dorman #38435. Autozone and Kragen both have it, but Autozone is cheaper. I looked at the door hinges, and you definitely have to remove the door to get to the bolt in the hinge.

 

Yea, I bought the part several weeks ago but after looking at it, and buying a mechanics mirror to try and see in there, I think I will probably never end up replacing it. Short of using a distributor wrench I see no way of getting at that bolt without either removing the door or the fender. Even if I could find an offset wrench to get the bolt out I don't see how anyone would get their hand in there to put the bolt back in. I think this will be one of the fixes that never gets done. Oh well...

 

Mark your door hinges by scribing around them in the paint and remove the door next time a buddy comes over.
Alignment shouldn't be too bad if you go back to the marks.

LMC has the springs too.

 

Well first let me say I am not at all a body shop person. That being said, I just don't trust myself to ever being able to get the door back in the same position even if I did scribe around the hinge. Unless anyone has any ideas on how to replace that one bolt holding the spring without disturbing the door or the fender I think I'll just have to pass on this one fix.

Thanks for the feedback though!
Phil

 

I also am anxiously awaiting the steps required for this job.

 

I searched google for the instructions to install the dorman 38435 door spring, this thread was one of the results.
As the new spring was different in design from the original, As I could not find any instructions and one other user sought clarification, I threw together a small tutorial.

Works great, gone are the days of whacked knees and pissed off trying to hold the dang door open.


Hope this clarifies the process.