Hello...one last project (for now ) on my newly acquired ‘90 SIII Vanden Plas.

The S shaped spring in the driver’s door lower hinge has broken. This seems to be quite common from what I have read.

I have acquired a good used one and plan to install it this weekend.

My plan is to remove the door to gain easy access to the hinge and hopefully have an easy time of installing the new spring and reinstalling the door.

Any comments or suggestions?

Thanks and stay safe!

 

Turn steering wheel to hard left and remove access panel just forward of hinge area. Remove two bolts that hold fender just behind the badge. You should be able to see and remove a few bolts from the hinge. Open door and notice that there are two more fender bolts that have to be removed in between the two hinges. Close the door and bring out the fender at the bottom a bit and hold out with small board. Open door, Support door with trolley jack, carefully open door with respect to the fender and remove the rest of the hinge bolts and withdraw the hinge. Before you install, Put in vise and spread grease into wheel. When done, grease wheels on other three doors.

 

Thanks Larry. I was hoping not to have to remove the hinge from the body of the car in order to repair the spring. I’ll let you know how I make out. Thanks for the info on how to do that. Also, great advice about greasing the other 3 doors. I will definitely be doing that!

 

Hi Larry. Just putting a bit more thought into your post. Leaving the door on sounds like a lot less work than what I was planning. I’ll leave the top hinge attached and the door on and follow your guidance with respect to the panel in the wheel well and completely removing the lower hinge for the repair. I’ll report back when finished. Cheers.

 

I could see what you were thinking about just swapping the spring into the old hinge. If you look at the lower hinge on the left rear door it looks very easy to do, Until the left front fender gets in the way.

 

I need the same repair.

peddlarbob an old poster here had a way to put the spring on without removing the hinge. He made some sort of tool.

Are you there Bob?

Rob

 

he dissapeared from forums and from ebay.

 

Found a picture from a vehcle in a bodyshop. just above and below the corrugated hose is the two fender bolts.

 

Thanks Larry for posting the pic of the hinge bolts. I did manage to finish the project this weekend. The lower hinge has now been repaired with a new (used) spring and it works perfectly. Using your technique of accessing the lower hinge bolts via the wing (fender) works well. With the hinge removed and in a vise, and with the help of a friend, I was able to install the replacement spring with a pry bar and a small hammer. It was a little tricky getting it back in and getting the door bolted and aligned, but it's a worthwhile project. Thanks again for your help.