Tailgate hinge

[Johnzi10]

The passenger side hinge on my 89 has lots of slop.I have the team Wagoneer hinge kit. I’m just replacing the one hinge pin for now. My tailgate has the window and regulator out. I have the hinge cover off. As I look at it, it seems I should just drive the old pin out with the tailgate in the up position? Or do I have to remove the tailgate to service the pins? I’m appreciative of any ideas or experience.

[SJTD]

Edit: Deleted post. Bad info.

[threepiece]

It has been a while since the last time I worked on a SJ tailgate. As I recall much of the weight of the open tailgate is carried by the torsion springs not the straps. Since the springs are anchored to the hinge they are loaded quite heavily when the gate is open. Caution should be used. Understand where the stored energy is and how to reduce and/or control it before you remove them.

[sirrus]

I haven't changed the hinges myself, but here's what TSM says about it (by the way, 89 TSM is available on oljeep site, so you can grab yourself a free PDF copy):







As threepiece already noted, torque rods are under considerable tension when tailgate is open - if you try to remove them in open position you're going to get injured. With rods removed, straps might be enough to support tailgate, but I'd add something else just to be safe

[SJTD]

Oops. You guys is right about the springs. I fergot the spring is held down by bolts through the hinge. Just did this too.

[Johnzi10]

Sirus, thanks for the proper procedure! Finishing rust treatment underneath except for the coffin.Then on to the tailgate rebuild, wipes,lift bar,channels,Durango wiper, relay from you, as well as the hinges. Now I’m a little scared!

[Laredo Matt]

I'm getting ready to reinstall my tailgate not that everything has been rebuilt ... two questions for the thread

1. does anyone have any good pictures of their torque bars installed I could use as a reference? As many pictures as I have, I realized all of them showing the tailgate in the lower position don't have a clear image of the torque bars. Everything kind of blurred together with all parts being color matched, dirty and not the greatest lighting in the garage when I pulled the tailgate off last year.

2. I just realized I'm not sure where my torque rod brackets are (as noted in image above). Any suggestions on replacements if I can't find them. They should be out there somewhere in one of bags or boxes but have consolidated all tailgate related parts when i started rebuilding it and haven't come across them yet.

TIA

[Laredo Matt]

good news, I managed to find the brackets.

Not sure where the notched star washers go. They were in the bag that had the brackets and hinge mounting bolts so I assume they are either for the three bolts on each side that don't hold the bracket since there are 6 or ? Any pictures or suggestions are helpful.



Took a stab at bracket placement and things seem to line up with the torque rods.

Passenger side bracket mount location



Rod placement in tailgate and alignment. I think this is correct per TSM image but wanted to get some feedback





About 95% sure this is correct (bracket placement and rod direction) but I'm working on it alone so hoping to get it right the first time and not have to do multiple installs to figure out. The tailgate is already heavy and difficult enough to do once along let alone multiple times

TIA .... again

[SJTD]

The sketch I made at disassembly and how I installed it has the spring coming from the passenger side body hinge on top. That picher seems to show it the opposite. Mine's an '84.

I installed mine by myself. I installed the hinges on the gate first. Used a cart to hold it, installed the three bolts on each side, closed it and installed the spring clamps. I had drilled 1/8" holes through the hinges into the body and gate before removal to align the hinges at installation before tightening the bolts so it was aligned pretty well before I closed it.

Good thing is you should be able to install the three bolts per hinge and if you have to change the springs the hinges can stay in place.

The washers and springs are on the straps on the sides I think, #42 or #45 in the picher. I didn't use them and made some spacers so I'm not sure.