Questions and Answers
Dakota Door
Q. I am having problems with my 1990 Dodge Dakota 2 wheel drive A/C, P/S. The door on the drivers side is very misaligned and has a large gap at the top (and rain comes in.) Is there any way to realign the door myself or will it have to go to a auto body shop? If I can realign the door what is the procedure or how can I do this?
Thank you.
A. You can probably do it yourself, the key is patience because it can involve a lot of trial and error. Now I'm going to assume the door misalignment is not due to an accident or major rust or rotting.
What you need to do is look at the hinge pins. There are hard plastic bushings that the pins go through. If these bushings are worn out, they will cause the door to droop. Lift the door up and down and see where the movement is, if any. If it is in the hinge pins call a Chrysler parts department and see if those bushings are available separately. I know some are and some aren't. If they are, then just replace the bushings. If not, you will need to replace the hinges.
Okay, let's assume the hinge pins and bushings are okay.
To adjust the up and down position, loosen the lower hinge to body bolts and lift the door up a bit. Tighten the bolts and try it. look at the door gap and you can judge if it need to go up some more. Look on the passenger side and measure the gap between the back of the door and the body and shoot for the same gap on the drivers door. If loosening the bottom hinge makes it worse, try the upper hinge or a combination of both.
Like I said, it's an easy adjustment, but it will take a lit of trial and error to get it right. If you have to replace the hinges, scribe a line around the old hinges before you remove them so you can place the new ones in the same exact position.
