Tailgate Hinge Issue??

Now for today's question of the day.....

I noticed that my tail gate seemed to be "popping" when I open it to the side. I figured it needed a shot of white lube on the spring-loaded arm that holds the door open. Well that didn't fix it, and in watching the door open slowly, it appears the part on the lower hinge that bolts to the door itself is "moving" like it's loose. This is the part that pivots when the door opens to the side but also has a bearing in it that pivots when the door is laid down flat.

So any idea how to tighten this? The bolt there is on the pivot point and it feels tight...but I have not put big muscle to it yet.

Is it time to go yell at my kid for dropping the tail gate instead of lowering it?

As usual, any help get a big thanks!

-Mike

Mine does the same thing. I believe we are going to need a new hinge but they are obsolete from GM.

According to my chassis service manual it says that the lock synchronization rods of which there are 2 may be bent.
You need to remove the tailgate interior panel and check the rods for straightness.This thing is pretty complicated and I just started reading about it.Manual also says the rod lock timing may be off and NO I am not making this up.
Take Care
Jim Gordon

does it make the check engine light come on??

nick

I'm sure it will soon Nick....

Thanks for the tips all. Never a dull moment.

phantom 309 wrote:

does it make the check engine light come on??

nick

My tailgate does the same thing. Every once in a while my change oil light comes on, does that count?

You have a change oil light...?

Now I've got to go pull out the owners manual.....I've never seen that light come on....and change the oil every 3K miles...

My caprice's gate does the same thing. I have only seen the oil change light come on in my RMW twice in the 18k miles I have owned it. It doesnt come on every 3k, it goes by driving conditions and somehow determines its time for an oil change.

Ahh...ok. No wonder I have not seen the light.

I tightened the bolt on the lower hinge, but it didn't help. It seems to be flexing when opened to the side where the bearing is for when you lay the door flat.

I realize that makes no sense but it's the best way I can describe it. I greased it all up. Will leave it alone for now. Still opens fine, but pops...oh well.

The hinges on our wagon were worn out. The door would drop down a little in a couple of places as it was swung open. It popped each time it dropped. I replaced the hinges with Fred Kiehl parts.

The long locking rod was also bent, but that was a different problem.

Someone else with the same problem pressed out the bushing and replaced it.

Flasheroo wrote:

According to my chassis service manual it says that the lock synchronization rods of which there are 2 may be bent.
You need to remove the tailgate interior panel and check the rods for straightness.This thing is pretty complicated and I just started reading about it.Manual also says the rod lock timing may be off and NO I am not making this up.
Take Care
Jim Gordon

Adjusting the lock synchronization is not too bad. Even adjusting the door closing is not too bad. It's just a matter of going through all the steps in order. I thought the instructions were excellent. It makes a lot more sense when you look at the parts, and figure out what the manual is talking about.

From what I remember, the hinges on the gates are different from 91-93 and 94-96. There is a 92 in the yard here right now. It still has the gate hinges, but I do not know how good the hinges are.

The only light the gate will illuminate is the gate ajar light. Everything else is coincidental.

Check for a bent body panel behind the DS taillight. Someone bumped mine (hit and run in a parking lot), and bent the panel just enough to catch my gate when I opened it to the side. It made a loud popping noise. Chipped up my paint on the gate. I need to get the gate painted anyway, but it really got me POd. Lowered the gate, and bent the panel back with my hands. Works fine now.

My 91 OCC does the same thing. I looked and saw sheetmetal whre the door hits it. Open it it pops. Im goig to push the sheet metal back out of the way.

John

I got that lower hinge in Dallas a while back but still have not installed it. Will try to take pics and do a step-by-step before the weahter heats up.

I'm tired of it popping, but and dreading removing the tail gate trim panel...I broke the one in the yard trying to get it off....mine's perfect....

-Mike

I also got to thinking about my old boxy wagons. Never had any hinge issues on the 78 Grand Safari or 86 Electra Estate, or on my 89 Custom Cruiser. Those gates were much heavier, had the electric sliding rear window in them. I'm thinking that lower hinge on those must have been a stouter unit, and wonder if one from those models would fit on our never cars...

Brainstorming!

Mike if you do replace your hinge, a step by step would be awesome. I need to do mine too.

Will do!

Cadet57 wrote:

Mike if you do replace your hinge, a step by step would be awesome. I need to do mine too.

X2

Replacing the hinge was pretty straightforward. It's been about a year and a half, but this is what I recall:

Remove the plastic cover of the tailgate (I've done that a lot).
Remove the plastic cover beside the bed.
Put a rolled towel on the bumper to prevent the door from getting chipped.
The FSM tells you how to defeat the interlock. I think you open it like a door, and then use a screwdriver to snap the latches shut, and then pull on the "open like a gate" handle. Keep a good grip on the tailgate when you do this.
Use a ratchet with a 8" or 10" extension and a deep socket to remove the bolts that attach the hinge to the car.
I held up the tailgate while a friend lay in the car. (Jerry GoldSSWagon says that he does it by himself. I don't know how he does it.)
I remember that we had to unbolt the spring from the car, because the tension was causing us some trouble.
Bolt everything back up.
Follow the FSM for tailgate alignment.

Done! I put up with it popping for 8 months, that was enough!

I was scared to damage the tailgate or bumper doing it alone so I bribed my Dad with dinner at Chuy's and we attacked the hinge after lots of fajitas. Thank goodness the weather dropped into the low 80's and we had a nice breeze tonight.

The step-by-step Nick wrote above is about right, but we did not remove the gate totally from the car, instead we left it hung up on the upper hinge. We were trying to get done so I did not take my normal 10,000 pics, but I got a few.

Here's how we did it:

- Lay the gate down and remove the two release handles. Then remove all the screws from the tail gate cover, and carefully pry the cover off. I broke four Christmas Tree clips when taking it off, but thankfully had nabbed a bunch at the salvage yard last time I went.

- Remove the grey tin cover with three bolts to access the inside of the tailgate door to get at the hinge bolts in there.

- Next put the gate up and open it to the side, and then remove the side panel/storage box. I did this sitting in the 3rd row seat and handed it out to Dad.

- I then used a red Sharpie to outline the location of the hinge where it bolts to the door frame. The adjustments are done on the frame side, not on the tailgate itself....thankfully. I placed a thick towel under the tailgate so it would not hit the bumper if something "bad" were to happen.

- Next, with the gate open, Dad sat outside on a chair and held the gate over his legs while I unbolted the lower hinge. There are four bolts on the door frame side and three inside the gate itself.

- I had to use a hammer inside the door frame to break the old hinge loose once the bolts were removed, as they caulk around the hinge and it was stuck on pretty good. A few taps and it finally broke loose.

- Now came the "fun" part. The door is still open to the side and attached to the upper hinge. Dad lifted up on the end of the gate, pivoting on the upper hinge, and the lower hinge came out of the frame, but the spring-loaded torsion bar was in the way of one of the bolts on the gate itself. I had to carefully unhook the torsion bar at it's pivot point. That was a bit of a pain but it can be done by hand, just be careful. After that the old hinge came right out.

- I opened the new hinge all the way on the vice, using a pry bar, before we started the project. Now I mounted it to the gate first, installing the nuts finger-tight (Dad holding the other end of the gate door on his legs), and then re-attached the torsion bar and lowered the door so the hinge bolts slid into the mounting holes on the door frame. I them jumped back into the 3rd row seat and put those nuts on hand tight.

- Break time....................................

- Next I tighted the nuts inside the tail gate with the wrench. Since there is not an ajustment on the gate you can go ahead and snug them on all the way.

- Now came the next fun part. With Dad watching where I marked the old hinge, and me inside the car with a pry bar, we spent about 5 mins lining up the lower hinge. I then tightened up the top two nuts and we slowly closed the tail gate. Was a nice relief when it closed easy and latched fine. I then layed it down, just to be sure that still worked. There was no binding, so we raised it back up, opened it to the side, and I tightend up the two lower nuts on the door frame.

- Now it was just a matter of putting everything back together. Started at 9pm, and were done by 11pm. You could most likely do it much faster, but I was scared to scratch anything and also wanted to make sure it was lined up perfectly.

Finished up by lubing all the hinges and latches. The tailgate pivots smoothly now, no pop, no bounce....like new!

You can see where I marked around the old hinge with a red Sharpie here.



New hinge installed and tin cover re-installed on gate where you access the hinge bolts


Used white caulk around the edge of the "new" salvage yard hinge:


This is the old hinge. The weld on the pivot was totally broken there...sorry the pic is not better, but I believe this is what was loose and popping.


For those who tackle this project, I have no idea how you could do it alone. It really is a two-person job. Also it was noted above that different year cars have different hinges. My car is a 96, and the hinge I got came off a '92 Roady. They are exactly the same.

That's two out of three projects done for the holiday weekend...and one day left!

-Mike

Let me agree with you, because it was a bitch when I did my alone a few years back.

Thats good to know that the hinges are the same. Will make finding them easier. Thankfully, my tailgate is opening and closing again after a bit of WD40, so this project is on the back burner.

I can't tell from your pic, so in your opinion is the weld on the pivot a candidate to be rewelded? My tailgate pops, and dips down a bit toward the fully opened position. If it is the same problem, I could just have my husband weld it for me, instead of trying to find a hinge...

The weld was not the problem on my hinge. It may have been the pin, or the bushing.

I once read post of how someone pressed out the bushing on the hinge, and pressed in a new one. His tailgate worked after that. I never found the post again.

Someone here can probably sell you a replacement hinge.

Robyn if you weld it and it works let me know. I saved the old one and will have it fixed for a spare....if it can be fixed!

-Mike

I will, if that is indeed my problem.

Just did this today. Went better then expected. I had a good non-poping hinge from a yard car for over a year. I cleaned and painted it and did the R&R without hitch.

I put it in alone just as I took it out at the yard. Follow the gate trim removal instructions in prior posts. What I did was just leave the tailgate in the down position for the whole operation.

Raise the gate up to take tension off the spring, loosen and remove retainer for the upper spring. I had plenty of thick towels on the bumper in case there was a further drop. I also took a wooden box with more towels and placed it under the left side of the gate to rest on while the hinge was out.

Remove nuts like described in prior posts. Before removing, be sure to mark where the old hinge was. It is a lot less work if you place the replacement hinge top exactly aligned where the the old was. Once the nuts are off, you will have to lift up the left side of the gate and wiggle the old hinge out. Secure the replacement hinge into the door first to the marks you made and fully tighten. No adjustments are done at the gate fastening point. Once that is done, it is just a matter of lining up the top of the replacement hinge to the mark you made. Fasten the top 2 nuts only. Now you can lift up the gate and close it and test fitment. Once you have it where you want it. Lift the gate back up and reattach the tension spring. Test again. If all okay, tighten the lower 2 bolts and you are done!

Be sure to run a bead of seamseal along the top to help shed water. Basically put seamseal wherever it wad place on the factory hinge.

Looking at my old hinge, it was the center pivot pin bushing that was the culprit. It is a factory pressed in pin with a bushing in the center that has a top and bottom plastic bushing. My bushing had masive play in it and this is what was popping when there was travel to the next detent on the spring tension arm in the center of the hinge. I suppose this could be repaired but it would be a heck of a job to do it.

So nice to open the gate and have it completely quiet and smooth!

Be sure to test any possible donor hinge in the yard before you get it. I lucked out and got one off a 91 that looked like rear was rarely opened or used.