Hey my 96' blazer's drivers side door has it hinges and pins coming loose and there is a lot of play within the door, not to mention the interior panel is coming lose and shakes when i drive. I went to a dealership and they said this was common among blazers. True or False???

 

True. it's common among GM's in general. They use brass bushing in the hinges to buffer the hinge pins. They are designed to wear out so the hinge itself doesn't get worn. Problem is that GM has a history of designing their door to be bigger than what the hinges can deal with (I've had 3 75 Grand Prix's that had this problem chronically). The hinge pin sets can be picked up at Autozone for I think $6. It's not expensive but a bugger to fix because you have to remove the tensioner spring to get the hinge pin out. It's covered here extensively.

 

do you think this is simply the pins or the door hinges as well?

 

It depends on how long has the problem existed. If the bushing are just worn the hinges should be ok, if it has been like this for years it is possible that the holes in the hinges could be worn also. I have seen that happen a few times at the dealership I work at. Good luck.

 

First off, is it a 2 door or 4door. The 4 door, with smaller doors will have less of a chance of the hinge holes being worn. On my 95 the bushings were totally gone when I got it and the holes hadn't worn yet. But after a year and a half I already see one of the bushings starting to wear.

 

Any blazer you see you can wiggle the door up and down. the pins aren't big enough and you should just weld.the doors shut, shave off old handles and pretend your in the general lee even though didn't come in orange.

 

those door pins are so annoying . I changed 2 on my pops truck and they went bad again ......

 

Changed mine last night. Royal pita when its just you and no one else.

 

*Moving to Paint, Body, & Interior*
Yeah... It's not a problem with the pins, but lack of maintenance (lubricating the hinges) that causes the bushings to wear out prematurely. Once they start to wear, it just compounds.

If the holes are worn from lack of maintenance, you can replace them all you want and they'll wear out prematurely. Each hole needs to be round and properly aligned with the rest of the holes before the bushing gets pressed in. This is either accomplished by welding & re-reaming the hole or by replacing the hinges. On some that aren't too bad to start, I have successfully used JB weld to support behind the bushing and had it last, but once they are real bad (>1/32" worn out of round), that won't work.

A door dolly (or anything that can mimic one) helps greatly. Even a cherry picker will make this job MUCH easier.

 

I just replaced mine on my drivers side, it really is not that hard but you have to have a helper to balance the door on a jack. If they wear out too bad your door will start leaking if it rains hard. Mine did.