Safely separating door hinges and hinge springs

[JHZR2]

On my Ram, I replaced the full D/S hinge, but would like to just rebuild the PS pin/bushings. What has me hesitating is managing the spring in there if I unbolt at the door and grind/cut the pins. This would allow me to separate the door, drill out the hinge section, press in a new bushing, etc. top and bottom. Just don’t want that spring to fling out. It has to be pretty strong.

I wasn’t able to readily get into it and compress with needle nose type pliers.

There is a hole in the hinge, see where the nail is pointing. Can something in that hole hold the detent bar in place suffiently to prevent the spring from letting go?

Supposedly hinge spring compressor tools don’t fit in the Dodge hinges.

Will these springs fly out hard/fast? Can they be released easily and compressed back into place?

 

[AutoMechanic]

I don’t think they will fly out. Maybe try a trim tool to remove them? Like pry up on it with the two prongs of the tool. I know they make a special one for my old Volkswagen that only fits old Volkswagen LOL. So maybe they make on to only fit this Dodge.

 

[JHZR2]

When you say pry up, do you mean to pop it out when the spring is in place?

to me the concern is also that I’ll get it out, but then not back in. Possibly when I take the hinge off the door, I can use a more standard spring tool, but the key is to keep it from flying away during removal and install.

I would think putting a pin in there would prevent the detent bar from moving too far. But being at the edge of popping out is the st dangerous spot...

I would think/hope the holes lining up like that would be specifically for the securing of a spring.

 

[AutoMechanic]

Yeah pop it out with it in place. Maybe to hold it’s place you can get like a metal rod or possibly even like a wooden dowel rod to drive in directly behind that one as it comes out so it will keep the door in place like as you get it out of the top hole have the rod ready to follow in behind it then when it comes out of the other drive the rod in there too then just hit it out when you are done.

 

[eljefino]

Remember, they have to throw these together on the assembly lines somehow.

The idea of something being in that hole compressing the spring holds water.

But what if you pop that nearest pin, the one that holds that cammy holder-open lever? That lever would still be held in place by the spring and roller. Then, carefully, pull back on both the lever and spring. See how they're at a 90 degree angle, spread that to 180 as you take it apart.

Take note that I haven't done this and you can poke your eye out, kid. Can you get in there with zip-ties to keep the spring compressed or at least under control?

 

[JHZR2]

Remember, they have to throw these together on the assembly lines somehow.

The idea of something being in that hole compressing the spring holds water.

But what if you pop that nearest pin, the one that holds that cammy holder-open lever? That lever would still be held in place by the spring and roller. Then, carefully, pull back on both the lever and spring. See how they're at a 90 degree angle, spread that to 180 as you take it apart.

Take note that I haven't done this and you can poke your eye out, kid. Can you get in there with zip-ties to keep the spring compressed or at least under control?

I replaced the driver side hinge as a whole unit. It then contains the spring and is fully functional. That’s how they install them on the manufacturing line.... the issue here is thst rebuilding requires removing the two halves, and thus the spring has to decompress.

The issue with the dodge design, versus, say, GM, is that the spring is in the middle of the hinge, not the bottom. So access even with something like needle nose pliers is tough. I read somewhere to try a good quality hose clamp... so there’s that.

Id tend to agree that removing thst closest pin might result in the spring staying contained, at least until the detent bar squeezes out (since it is roughly triangular) and releases the spring.

I think the fundsmental unknown is how strong the spring is, and how much force it can spring out with.... if it’s more or less a dud, and with just pop out with minimal force, that’s a different scenario than if it really will come out strong and poke an eye out, which was my initial worst-case... and why I asked this,.. I agree, one could indeed do some damage...