Amazon: door sag align/adjust

[redcar]

hi folks,
What a rotten January. Long story short I need to raise the rear edge of the passenger door about 15mm. The door nearly came off its hinges with the wind over the weekend, but now when i go to close it i need to lift it by the handle to close it. it appears to have gone out of alignment..

looking at the hinges, is it the fixings on the body, or on the door i need to play with to adjust the vertical alignment? normally i'd say its the body ends, but does this mean i need to take the fender off to re-align my door??

has anyone done this before? any help/advice gratefully accepted.

[Volvo_133]

I would look at the hinges with the door open, while an assistant lifts the door.
To have a 15mm drop should not have occured, unless something has broken.
I think the hinge pin may have broken.

[123GT-AMAZON]

have the bolts come loose ? on the hinges or has the pin broke i would with the door open left it up and down in a motion movement see if it has play and watch where its happening

at that point you will know where its doing the nasty and correct it , one way or the other you will need to undo the fenders for a long term fix you can tho with a hand undo the wing along the top and at the bottom near mudflaps that spare person can very carefully hold the wing out a fraction for you to use a 1/2" ( or 13mm ) ratchet spanner and undo the hinges or tighten them if need be so you can correct or remove .

this saves undoing the wing at the front near the front panel which is the pain bit aswell as all the headlight and winker wiring to contend with ,when done refix bolts on the wings and your done

repeat action if needed on the other side thats how i do a quick fix like that but you have to be on the ball with that fender so paint does not get chipped or twisted to much.

good luck and keep us posted on the outcome also if my tip has been of use defo saves time and gets the job done with less harm to alliginment of wings and front panel

kind regards
robert

[volvogv]

Question: When a door hinge wears out to the point where you can rock it up and down, and you have to lift up to close it, is it usually the the hinge pin, the hinge body, or both that wear out?

I have a similar problem with my Amazon..

[Tail]

There is also some adjustment on the door side of the hinge with the four screw heads, they were bloody tight on mine though and my son had the knack of applying pressure slowly but surely until they popped, we still had to replace a couple of the screws but it did mean we didn't have to remove the wing.

Doing it that way though if I remember rightly the door card has to come off and the door restraining strap (for want of a better word) has to be removed to allow you to open the door that bit further to get at the screws, mind you don't open it too far as the chrome trim strip can get pinched.

I enclosed a pic so you can see the panel behind the holes that moves around to give you the adjustment and that should give you 15mm.

[redcar]

Many thanks for your tips and advice folks. The door was sagging a little beforehand, requiring a firm hand to close it, but now it is completely out of alignment. I will recruit a mate with strong arms to help diagnose.

First, i think i'm going to wait until the weather clears up before i start digging into this one. Hopefully a bit of adjustment is all that is required and at worst a new hinge pin. i am worried i have bent the actual door where the hinge mounts, or even worse the pillar where the door hangs off.

and yes, i'm going to need to fix my chrome strip as well, where it got pinched


be careful out there... i'll keep you posted on progress

[Derek UK]

If you had some sag beforehand it's likely that one or both hinges are worn. The 2 door suffers most due to the length of the door. It's probably worth getting a pair of new hinges complete, or maybe just the one (top one?) if that's the one with the wear. Brookhouse has them. Check the amount of wear, and which hinge is worse, on the passenger door and compare it with the drivers one. Trying to adjust the doors with even slightly worn hinges will test your patience. New hinges will make your life a lot easier.

[arcturus]

I had the same thing with my 144. The door frame where the hinge bolts on warped. Brute force lifting the open door brought it back in alignment.

[Volvo Canadian]

If/when you do end-up working on the hinges, a little masking tape on the fender where it might get scratched/chipped is worth a thousand curse-words (you owe me).

Interested to hear how it goes.

[redcar]

thanks folks, i'm going to take a look this weekend. if its just an adjusstment, i'll be laughing. maybe a bit of brute force, maybe a bit of fettling.. i'll keep you posted.

whilst i'm waiting, i had a look at replacement hinges and they aint cheap. what do people think of these as an alternative?

http://www.volvoklassiekerswebshop.n...erd-p-663.html

€37.50 instead of the £55 for oem seems reasonable enough to me...