I am in the middle of replacing the pins and bushings on my driver door. The top bushing I could get in with a hammer and the bottom just slides in and out with no effort and spins with the pin. I'm guessing it's not supposed to do that as these look they were pressed in with tons of force from the factory. The thing that is throwing me off is the splines on the bottom of the hinge pin which implies that this is pressed into the pressed bushing, so what is supposed to spin here?

 

Ok derp moment. Apparently needed more coffee. The splines in the pin go into the other bracket, so the obviously the bushings are not supposed to spin. So at this point it looks like I have to weld the bushings in.

 

don't we3ld them! buy new ones ones and use a simple socket set with a simple vice to push them in and out. eeezy peezy,.

don't bubba. don't weld them.

they spin when they wear out. need to be replaced. they are super cheap.

 

The problem is the new ones spin too. Apparently it was so far gone that it started to wear into the bracket.

 

Time for a new hinge. The bushings are brass so you can't weld it. The nice thing is that R=L so it's easy to come by a good used set of passenger side hinges that will fit the driver's side.

 

That's a good point. I did notice the passenger side was the same just upside down when comparing. I 'welded' the bushings in with jb weld and it seems to hold. There's a lot of cheap passenger hinges on ebay so I may do that anyway as they seem to get virtually no wear.

 

i just bought a used like new hinge for 40$ with the spring

 

I finished both brackets even though the bottom one probably didn't need it. Door alignment was painful but it's finally straight and closes with ease.

These replacement pins should come with something to secure them. It looks like they are just crushed in the factory but I could see a whole lot of things going wrong with that route. I ended up cutting my own ridge by hand and securing with an e-clip, which is how the front brake pins are secured.

The door switch strikes right about center but isn't pushing in enough. It looks like there is an inner piece that adjusts. I tried pulling it out but it feels like it's going to break because all I can pry it by is the plastic head.

 

getting the door to strike correctly with hinge adjustment is a tedious exercise, but necessary. There's no other way around it you will have to make small adjustments so the door closes perfectly. If the door is not closing correctly or does not want to close flush with the body, you may have a situation like I did. My hinges were completely off the car so I was dealing with and scenario where everything had been changed. I closed the door entirely which took a good hard push. then I loosened the hinge bolts on the door, not on the body, and gently tug the door panel out from the body at the front by the hinge. I heard a small pop. I think this was the binding releasing. I tightened the hinges, both upper and lower, back up again The door closed perfectly. I think it was too close to the body at the hinge is the problem. Hope that makes sense

if your issue is just that the door is not striking the post correctly, I had this issue as well. You should be able to see the door being forced upwards or downwards into position as you slowly push the door onto the striker post. In my case the door was too low and when it contacted the striker it rolls up about half an inch. I position my floor jack underneath the door handle and opened the door about 1 inch then I put a rag over my floor jack and folded up nicely to protect the bottom of the door. Then I jacked the bottom of the door very gently until the body lines on the door were three eights of an inch too high compared to the body.
then when I tightened the hinges back up again, I lowered the floor jack pan, and the door sagged about 3/8 of an inch! And the door close perfectly after that. I did have a few trial and air is on the first side and all I can say is keep trying and you will get it perfect with small adjustments you can get it so the door closes smoothly and sounds right.

 

Thanks, I see what you are saying. Seems like by pulling the door outwards at the hinges it brings the door in towards the body where it would strike the switch. What was throwing me off is that the door closes perfectly with no effort. I've lost count of how many times I've loosened these bolts and played with the door, but what's a few more times?

 

Is the door striker latch necessary? I've noticed it's gone on later model C4s.

 

I guess it's not necessary. Hinges appear to be exactly the same and the car went 20 years without a problem.

I tried messing with the alignment again and the switch wouldn't close unless the door was tucked in towards the car way too far (if I really pushed on it). Finally was able to pull the plunger out of the switch and let it readjust. Now everything is great. Alignment might be more like 95% but it closes easy and the door switch has finally stopped giving me problems so I'm calling it done!