GM Van Side Door Hinges

[tallgirl]

You have no idea, really you don't.

See it is not just water, it is the chemicals, in some areas salt is still heavily used and where the roads run through wet lands it is some other chemical.

Yes, and what most of y'all are using -- WD-40 -- is a penetrating oil and degreaser. WD-40 is great stuff, but it is not a lubricant in the same sense that either lithium or moly grease is a lubricant. It's also not weather resistant the way heavier lubricants are, and lithium grease is not a dry lubricant the way molybdenum disulfide (the stuff in moly-based greases) is. Nor is lithium grease resistant to salts and other chemicals -- the stuff you're complaining about on the roads -- the way moly grease is.

What y'all are doing is degreasing your hinges and replacing the heavier oil products (grease) used to lubricate the hinges with what is basically mineral spirits and naptha (lighter fluid) in a spray can. You using a solvent as a lubricant, basically.

Read the links. They'll help explain why you want moly grease instead of lithium grease and why you definitely want to stop with the WD-40.

Just read the links, okay?

 

[tallgirl]

Here are a couple of photos.

(snip!)

Assuming whoever owns the truck will let you, I'd drill, tap and bottom tap (to prevent the hinge from binding on the pin -- I can explain if anyone doesn't understand the rationale -- I'd definitely NOT use a self-tapping fitting) for grease fittings, then use a moly-based grease through the fitting until it had oozed out all over the place. Then, I'd work however much of the heaviest grease I could find into the spaces between the tops and bottoms of the hinges to act as a barrier against water, take a shop rag and remove the excess grease. If the hinge collects dirt and grime, I'd wipe it clean with a clean rag and LEAVE THE WD-40 ON THE SHELF.

Basically, I'd do what I said in #11.

The purpose of the grease is NOT to act as a lubricant, which is where I think y'all are confused. It's to act as a weather barrier. What's happening with the WD-40 is you're removing whatever lubricant might have been on the hinge pin and leaving nothing behind, including anything that would keep the weather out. The next time you use WD-40 on it you make it progressively worse, until you've got a full-blown WD-40 addiction going. And with the lithium grease, unless you can keep the grease in it, you have no lubricant because lithium isn't a dry lubricant.

This is what I use for this purpose --

(And you get some nice piccies of a few of my shop manuals )

I smoosh it around the tops and bottoms of the hinge to seal out the weather, then I wipe off the excess (though, as you can see, it collects dirt anyway ...)

(And if you think working on that truck hinge is a pain, try working on that hinge.)

And a picture of me working on the stupid thing --

 

[macmikeman]

Another approach. How about tossing a couple of caps of glucosamin with chronodrontin regularly into the gas tank upon fillup? :grin:

 

[iwire]

Julie I don't know what to say.

Thanks for all the obvious info. :roll:

Now if you look back to post #5 you might notice that I would rather use grease than WD-40. :grin:

 

[jinglis]

I have had this problem on several GM vans over the years. Just recently our shop mechnanic installed 'kits' available from GM to remedy this problem on my van. They now have grease fittings which are part of the kit.

 

[jinglis]

Sorry, I should have gone into a little more detail. These kits are replacements for the hinge pin. You have to remove the door and install these kits which seem to allow for more clearance for the grease where needed. These kits are available in Canada.

 

[peter d]

Bob, it's simple, tell the shop to stop buying vans with barn doors.

 

[e57]

I have a GMC van - SLIDING DOORS.... Grease 'em any time you like with what ever you like.

Slightly off topic, but when I bought mine I posed a question to the dealer. "If I open the driver side window eight times a day - How long be fore the window mechinism wears out?" A: "The warrantee is 3 years or 36000 miles." Since then I have replaced the window crank knob with the passenger side one, as the knob popped of in my hand right after 3 years..... Some engineer spent thousands of billable hours perfecting that IMO.

 

[tallgirl]

Julie I don't know what to say.

Thanks for all the obvious info. :roll:

Now if you look back to post #5 you might notice that I would rather use grease than WD-40. :grin:

Bob, I had noticed your suggestion in #5 to use grease, and I gave props to you in my post #9 in regards to your (excellent, in my opinion) suggestion to install grease fittings. Sorry I wasn't more clear in my endorsement of your suggestion. Grease fittings are a good thing -- I remember when I learned how to grease a car at the ripe young age of 10 or so and was told of the importance of proper lubrication by my father. "Oil is cheaper than parts", I think he said.

My criticisms were in part about your comment in #5 that keeping WD-40 handy is a solution --

have had the same problem with my last two GM vans. Winter road conditions get into the hinge and seize it up. You can prevent this by keeping WD handy*. This keeps the hinge loose but leaves nice stains down the side of the truck.

My apologies for reading that as an endorsement of routinely using WD-40. Now that we're in violent agreement on the perils of WD-40, the Messiah can come and an era of peace and prosperity without stuck van doors will arrive.

 

[bikeindy]

I think keeping WD-40 Handy is a good idea. I'd reather risk having to get some grease in there later while I keep my door working and not bending parts as I try to open or close it when it suddenly without warning seizes on you. I don't know what kind of stuff they are putting in the salt these days but it make it green and I have an idea it isint a "green" product.