Had a thought last yesterday when noticing that I need to do both of my front door hinge pins and bushings.

Has anyone ever done or heard of or even seen someone else put actual bearings in place of the brass bushings in the door hinges?

I'm sure the holes would have to be opened up a little bit, not going to find a ball bearing as thing as the brass bushing. Maybe a unitbit could be used to open the holes up enough to slip a bearing in, and then the center of the bearing would just have to be the same diameter as the pin.

Any reason car manufacturers don't used bearings other than just the extra cost of manufacturing? In theory, it seems like it would just last longer so long as what's used is a half decent stainless steel sealed bearing. A normal steel bearing would rust up pretty quick, and going all out with a ceramic ball bearing would probably be a bad idea, I think the weight of the door would eventually deteriorate the ceramic ball bearings inside.

But it was just a though. Any insight anyone?

 

That is a good idea, maybe could weld something like a short piece of pipe on the hinge to set the bearing into with a Allen set screw to hold the out side of the bearing in place.

 

Well I was thinking maybe just using a bearing that has a flanged side on it, let gravity do the holding in part, same way the factory bushings do (aside from being tapped in, but the bearings would also be tapped in)

IF I can find a needle bearing that's sealed and has a flange on it, there might not even have to be any drilling since they're so much more thin! I have brand new hinge kits to be installed, I might pop one open and take a micrometer to the bushings and see what I can dig up on the interwebs. I searched but didn't come upon anyone doing this yet on any S10 or Blazer, and I just find that odd...