Rear door hinges

[Lightning]

I have a rattle on the rear door of my Defender TD5

The door hinges look fine, the door sits perfectly on the latch and has not dropped or gone out of alignment.

However l checked and all three hinge pin bolts are fairly loose.

Obviously l am going to try tightening them, but how tight should they be. I was thinking tighten up until resistance is felt and then back half a turn.

ls there a correct setting/procedure?

[oneandtwo]

Personally I would replace all three with late TD5 / Puma rear door hinges - they are pressed together and seem to last a lot longer than the old brass ball type. 

I fitted some pattern late ones to an old 300tdi defender recently and they were fine.

[Lightning]

Problem is the hinge bolts have all had ball bearings hammered into them due to door thefts in this area.

So unless the hinges are actually dropped or worn out l don’t want to change them, l just want to try and tighten the loose hinge pin bolts.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Lightning

[Snagger]

It won't be the bolts that are loose, but worn brass balls.  The bolts have springs under the nuts to hold everything in compression, so tightening the nuts won't achieve anything.  You can remove the lower nuts and then, with the door open (and spare wheel removed) lift the door so that a helper can quickly swap the brass balls with new, copiously greased, then lower and refit the nuts.

[Lightning]

OK will do, thanks for the advice.

[western]

New bolts with spring & brass bearings are available from Craddock or ebay

[paime]

As snagger says, best to do this job with an extra pair of hands. I bought a brand new door, had it painted and then dropped it on my driveway trying to get the hinges to line up!

[neil110]

Or use a high lift Jack to support one end of the door, mind you it probably needs a mate to hold the Jack so not much further forward. It is also a LOT lighter if you take the glass out.