Door Pins

[exarkun1178]

Ok people,  thought we could discuss the silliness that is the door pins.

I replaced my two pins yesterday.  how is it possible a simple hinge would have not weighed less then this pin set up?  what was ACBC thinking?

The passenger side when ok,  stubborn but did come apart.  the drivers side on the other had had to be cut in three places before it came undone. 

Can some one please tell me what keeps the pin in place?  i thought on first inspection of new SS pin set i had, the threaded thing was tapered slightly and would upon tightening of the nuts, grab the pin.  this is not the case.

next, i understand that the washers tapered thing and nut hold the door in proper position, and can be adjusted up down, in and out. 

I can conceptualize how the in and out work, but not at all the up and down tilting?  both the top and bottom of the door and body are flat square metal doughnuts.  and the washers that are on either side are flat.  how does the do have the ability to adjust up and down?

The whole thing is stupid.

[EuropaTC]

Well, if you casually say "I replaced both pins yesterday", then that gives you serious street cred in my books !  It took me a week to do mine, they'd rusted solid and turned out to be one of the most difficult jobs I've ever done on any car. (rust, access, rust, making spanners, rust, scraped knuckles, swearing, rust...)

Mine were original and had a split pin through the hinge pin, just above the bottom nut assembly, which stops it falling back out and onto the road.

I had some advice from a local Lotus specialist at the time who told me the biggest problem with Europa doors was that the pin seized in the nuts and then opening the door turned the pin itself in the body mounting. This wore away the mount and you could never get the doors right without replacing the body mounts. He must have seen a few because he'd designed a brass bush insert that you could fit into the existing alloy body mount which he used on his restorations.

Anyway I used a stainless rod which I pinned above the top body mount (you get to through the front wheel arch)  and fitted a square plate so that the pin itself can't move within the body. Now all movement must take place with the pin static and swiveling on the steel nuts in the door as originally designed.

I can't comment on the ability to tilt the door because all I did was replace mine with the same sized spacers and washers that it came with, bolted it up and it fitted. (eventually)

Not one of Chapman's better ideas but probably very cheap at the time.....

Brian

[exarkun1178]

Well, if you casually say "I replaced both pins yesterday", then that gives you serious street cred in my books !

I did have to use a cut off wheel on a dremel, and eventually, a Sawzall.

I will give your top square thing some thought..

 passenger side is perfect, and one can close  the door with a whisper.  the drivers door is not 100%, and may re do it Saturday.  but will have to cut the body work above  the pin to force it down, as no method from inside the door will budge it. The cotter pin.  i under stand it will stop the pin from dropping (not that that pin will move at all!)  butthe cotterpin on both sides sits 3 inches higher then the threaded thing.

[EuropaTC]

but will have to cut the body work above  the pin to force it down, as no method from inside the door will budge it.

I could easily be well off beam here because a) it was a long time ago, and b) I forget things, but isn't the OEM door pin threaded ?  Either that or I'm getting it mixed up with something else, but I have a very vague memory of using a threaded bar and slide hammer arrangement on something like that ?

Brian

[exarkun1178]

The SS pins i installed  over the weekend are not threaded,  not sure what was stock,  but the pins we removed from the car was also not threaded.

[YellowS4DHC]

I re-aligned my passenger door a few weeks back.  What a pain in the butt.  My wife and I spent 2 days getting it aligned.  Fits perfectly and closes nicely now, but what a hassle.

My door pin is stainless steel as are the bushings, spacers, and nuts that mount on the door (don't know if this is original or not).  The bottom of my door pin is threaded 5/16 UNC, which really helped in removing the pin.  Of course I didn't know that ahead of time so in getting the pin out the first time (adjusting the door hinge bushings is a trial and error job), I had to use vice grips and a lot of lubricant to work it down and out through the bottom of the sill.  But at least it wasn't all a rusted lump, thank God.

I know Lotus went cheap in a lot of ways, but I can't believe they would use non-stainless materials in this application - or would they?   I would never install a door pin or pair of bushings that weren't stainless  and I would drill and tap the bottom of the pin if it didn't come that way.  (I have two sets of stainless steel hinge pins and bushings that came with the car and the pins are NOT drilled and tapped - don't know where they came from)

I guess it goes without saying, the nuts that hold the bushings in position on the door must be as tight as you can possibly make them. 

regards
Rick