69ss93z28

Hey guys I've been looking on the forums for a write up for fixing the roller in the lower hinges in my 93 z28. I've didn't really find anything so i decided to do my own write up. I'm also new to the forums so I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong place .

My detent roller on my drivers side was alright but i just decided to replace it anyway. It had a little bit of play in it though. My passenger side was seized up and and had worn a groove in the pin itself (you think the drivers side would be worse lol).

To replace both sides took me the whole afternoon (around 6 hours, but at least half the time was trying to figure out how to remove the roller stud and compress the door spring to put back in, major PITA lol)

Tools needed:

Ratchet w/ sockets (13 and 15mm)
Bench vise
Good set of vise grips (not the cheapo dollar store brand)
Hammer
Acetylene torch
Flat headed screwdrivers
Grinder
Door spring compresser (wish i had one cuz it would have made the whole job a lot easier. it is not necessary though)
Welder (optional i'll explain later)
Some grease
Water (to cool the hinges after heating)


First off I did this with the fenders off my car. You can't do it this way unless you remove them.

The first thing I did was to remove the spring. It's pretty easy to get it off. I just used a screwdriver and popped it off (do it with the door closed so there is no tension on it.

Next I removed the actually hinges. BEFORE you remove them, take a marker and trace around the hinge so you know where they were prior to removal.
Now remove the bolts (15mm), then the nuts (13mm). Congrats you got the hinge out .

Now the fun begins.

Take the hinge and grind the roller off. Make sure to only grind the roller off and not the stud because you are going to need it to hold your vise grip onto.


Should look like this:



Now comes the part that takes a lot of patience.


Take your torch and heat up the stud and the area around it until it is red hot. Be careful not to burn yourself. Take your vise grip and clamp it onto the stud immediately. Make sure you put it on so that you can pound on it with the hammer. Brace your hinge on something supportive (I used the bench vise), now hit the vise grip with the hammer. Keep doing this until the stud comes out. I heated the stud nearly 15 times (no joke) on my passenger side hinge, then it finally came out. I only had to do it 3 times on my driver side hinge. So just take your time.

Heres the stud removed:




Now heres how it looks:




The pin that held the stud in, came loose on one of my hinges so i just welded it to the frame.





Now we can put the new roller in. Finding the roller and stud was hard for me . I figured i could just go to autozone or oreillys and pick a pair up. Turns out they didn't have it and told me to go to the dealership. Instead i just went on ebay. Only one guy was selling them. I think they were $11 a side.




Heres the new stud and roller;




Anyways grease the roller and the stud. Then just hammer them in.




Heres how it now looks installed:





Time to put the hinge back in. Its pretty self explanitory, just put in the bolts (13Mm) then the nuts (15mm) and make sure they line up to the marks you drew before.



Now we go to get that spring back in. The job would have been easier if i had the spring compressor, but i didn't. So i just grabbed some braided metal wire. i looped it through the spring and used a vise grip to twist the wire. When it starts to compress it, start another wire through and do the same thing. I ended up using 4 pieces of wire.




Go put the spring back in the hinge.
Heres how it'll look:



Now all you got to do is get the wire off. I just used the torch to melt it quickly. A little wire cutter will work as well


Congrats you are now done and have doors that won't squeak everytime you open them.