Author - Pim25

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Buy Mark II X30/40 door hinge shafts and sleeves set

You must have noticed how doors sag over time on our cars. This is especially true for two-door vehicles where the load on the hinges is very high. You pull the handle, open the door - but it slips off the latch and noticeably drops down. The reason is that the door hinges become loose and no longer respond to adjustment. However, in the hinge itself, the gap isn't really all that large – fractions of a millimeter, but due to nearly one-meter leverage around the lock area, this already amounts to more than half a centimeter.

Adjusting such doors by shifting the hinges is no longer possible. One solution might be to enlarge the mounting holes in the hinge and then adjust the closing precision, but such a method is more of a temporary fix and does not address the overall 'looseness' in this joint.

To return the hinges to their original condition, I proceeded as follows.

On the well-known eBay, I found for sale a replacement set of shafts and sleeves for the 1979 Corolla and decided to take the risk and buy it, rightly assuming that hinges on cars from those years should not differ much.

The seller has the option to send this item by mail (!) directly to Russia, and along with shipping costs, such a kit would cost you no more than 10 thousand rubles even with today's rapidly rising dollar rate.

My assumptions turned out to be correct – measuring and comparing the diameters of the purchased repair kit shafts and original hinges showed them to be identical – both at 8 mm. The length, however, was slightly longer – but this is more of an advantage than a disadvantage – I will explain why later.

A few words about the repair process. First, disassemble the hinges from the car for repair. Here it's better to use a trick: remove the front fender and close the door. Then repair and replace each hinge one by one without opening the door. This allows you to perform all work 'by yourself', then adjust the hinges and finally put the fender back in place.

So, we fix the removed hinge and saw out a piece of the shaft in the middle to facilitate disassembly.

The remaining shaft is knocked out from inside. Note that they hold well, and it's important not to bend the hinge itself – it's made of fairly soft metal. However, this allows you to straighten it back without problems if it does get bent.

Now we need to insert a new shaft with sleeves into the 'freed' hinge. Soak everything with WD-40.

I must say that from the start I was afraid that my hinges were worn out so much that the repair kit would not help them. However, after disassembly, I happily discovered that only bronze (brass?) bushings had worn – as the softest part in a 'metal-metal' pair, while the steel of the hinge remained unchanged.

Here's an example comparison of old and new bushings:

Therefore, the new bushings (outer diameter 10 mm) fit perfectly:

Then, slightly filing down the edge of the shaft end and generously lubricating the sleeves with grease, carefully insert the shaft in place. Note here that the upper part of the shaft near the head has grooves which hold it from turning during operation. Which side of the hinge they should be on – this is your choice: you can install them as on old shafts, or try to orient them so that after installing the hinge on the car, the head ends up at the top.

Important! Do not hammer the shaft all the way in – the shaft head must not touch the metal of the hinge and should be about 1-1.5 mm away!Otherwise, the grooves 'bite' into a tightly fitted bushing inside the hinge and prevent normal rotation of this part.

Next, I left an exposed part of the shaft around 0.5 cm while cutting off the rest.

After these operations, we already have one new hinge that rotates very tightly – like a new ball joint when turned by hand.

Since I worked with spare hinges, after two evenings' work, I had a repaired set ready for replacement.

One more thing. To prevent possible shaft exit from the hinge (for me, two shafts were installed with their heads down), I drilled the exposed end of the shaft with a 2 mm drill and clinched it.

After installing the hinges on the car, I got perfect operation without gaps or play, while the adjusted doors now open and close very easily.

For work, tools used included pliers, hacksaw, drill, hammer, screwdrivers and other small items. Yes, a hair dryer is also great for heating up the hinges when removing old shafts.

I'll be glad if my report turns out to be useful to someone :)