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I am not familiar with your model. If it has welded hinges, making slight adjustments to them isn't difficult - if you have some experience and a hinge setting tool but without these things the job becomes quite complicated.
If the hinges are bolted types, door realignment is somewhat more straightforward, though access to the bolts is sometimes difficult. The spring fitted to one of the hinges is likely to be very difficult to refit due to the strength of the spring - it would be advisable to wear safety glasses and gloves as strong springs can be dangerous.
If the door pillar has been bent it might not be possible to align the door until the pillar has been reshaped.
sounds like one of the door hinges may need to be adjusted or worn enough to either re-align the door or replace a hinge pin providing the fender hasn`t been hit or become mis-adjusted.
Before attempting to adjust the door, you need to check the wear on the hinge pins. Open the door fully and look at the middle of the hinge. See the pin there? Lift up on the latch side of the door as you watch the hinge pin. If you see the hinge moving around the pin or see the pin shifting back and forth then the metal grommet the pin goes through is worn and needs replacing. Motormite makes a replacement pin set that comes with new grommets ( or bushings to some). It's not so hard to change, but it can be a little tricky. Jack up the door to relieve the pressure on the pin.Start with the top pin. Watch the pin as you jack and keep going until the pin is in the middle of the movement range. Tap the old pin out and then inspect the grommet to see if it's worn past the outer edge of the metal. If it is worn past the edge then you'll need to replace that hinge. Otherwise, you can use that old pin to tap out the old grommet, and replace with the new one, then the new pin. slowly release the pressure on the jack and watch the new pin for excessive movement, then do the bottom pin and grommet.. Test door swing and alignment. If the door still hits low on the catch post, loosen those torq bolts after lifting the door slightly and now lift the door the distance it was low plus 1/8 inch. retighten torq bolts and release jack, then retest the door alignment to the catch post. Don't let the door strike the catch post hard - just let it slowly come into contact as you watch for alignment. Repeat procedure until door lines up centered on taht catch post. Good luck!!
may need new hinges on door and body of vehicle, if so it is about 600 -700 to replace , may be able to get new bushing and pins , without replacing hinges
Here's the solution: You might want to park it under a tree and tie a rope to the door to pull it up when loosened. ADJUSTMENT
Fig. 1: Door hinge adjustment
Fig. 2: Rear door hinge adjustment, F-350 Crew Cab
NOTE: Loosen the hinge-to-door bolts for lateral adjustment only. Loosen the hinge-to-body bolts for both lateral and vertical adjustment.
Determine which hinge bolts are to be loosened and back them out just enough to allow movement.
To move the door safely, use a padded prybar. When the door is in the proper position, tighten the bolts to 19–25 ft. lbs. (25.5–34.5 Nm) and check the door operation. There should be no binding or interference when the door is closed and opened.
Door closing adjustment can also be affected by the position of the lock striker plate. Loosen the striker plate bolts and move the striker plate just enough to permit proper closing and locking of the door.
you might check to see if the hinges are worn out.
Grab the rear of the door and lift up. otherwise, it sounds like the window frame needs to be bent in.
When i worked In the body shop we would sit in the seat with door slightly open, put our knee againts the rear of the door, grab it at the top and pull in real hard untill the window frame bends in.
You can adjust the door latch by aligning the male and female portion of each. This can be adjusted by loosening the screw and aligning it. And finally when aligned, tighten the screw. Unless otherwise if the door hinges are loose, such that the doors are misaligned, then, you have to replace the door hinges. Or put a bushing at the door hinges to keep it aligned. This will correct the defect.
The door pin bushings are worn out,replacement of the pin and bushings will align the door back up.Some people to get by will loosen the hinge bolts,and put washers behind the hinge between the door and the hinge on the bottom hinge to lift the door up.
Remember that there is a little play in the hinges, even new ones, enough that just a slight degree of play at the hinge axis will result in several fractions of an inch movement at the latching end of the door. The key here (assuming the lower hinge is still mounted at factory height with respect to latch) is to adjust the angle of the hinge's axis such that the latching mechanism is 1/2 inch higher than the stiker plate BEFORE tightening down the hinge's mounting bolts, then when you remove your support holding up the latch end of the door it should sag back down approx 1/2 inch and line up perfectly with the latch plate. I used to do this on an old '79 Monte Carlo I used to have and even being the smallest of the Monte's, it still had fairly long, heavy doors for back then even and could get the doors to shut/latch perfectly. I own a VUE now-a-days and its door's are featherweights by comparison so they should be fairly easy to adjust and you shouldn't have to tighten the @#$% out of the mounting bolts during the adjustment, just make sure you tighten them good when the alignment turns out correct upon final inspection.
If your adjustment sags again after shutting the door a few times, then you didn't tighten down the hinge mounting bolts enough and will have to go through the adjust procedure again making sure to tighten things up better the 2nd time around.
I don't think the problem is the door latches. Sounds more likely that the hinge pins are gone. You say you have to lift the door and slam it. When the hinge pins go the door will sag and you will need to lift it up to align with the striker pin on the door frame. Get a new set of hinges for your truck.
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