Hatch hinges

[ralley]

There is a large opening bin with a locking cover on the outside of the 345/350, just behind the driver's side front wheel. On mine, the front hinge is supported by a pneumatic piston which holds the hatch open and keeps it from putting knots on my noggin.

The rear hinge is unsupported, and sticks. Have tried copious amounts of WD 40, spray silicone, oil, kerosene, etc, etc, etc. Nothing, so far, works.

1. Can the hinge pin be removed to lubricate it? How?

2. If/When it eventually fails, how is the hinge attached to the hatch door? Because of the depth of the hatch door, and upholstery of the hatch door, there are no visible fasteners.

Thanks,

R

[ralley]

OK, Folks. I know there are a bunch of 345's, 350's, 360's and 370's out there with external hinges on this storage hatch door, and some of them are sticky. Because the door has a key lock, somebody, sometime MUST has lost the keys, and had to get in there SOMEHOW. With so many ways to screw up making learning opportunities, surely someone has some knowlwdge of these hinges??

[noiva]

Originally Posted by ralley

OK, Folks. I know there are a bunch of 345's, 350's, 360's and 370's out there with external hinges on this storage hatch door, and some of them are sticky. Because the door has a key lock, somebody, sometime MUST has lost the keys, and had to get in there SOMEHOW. With so many ways to screw up making learning opportunities, surely someone has some knowlwdge of these hinges??

Ralley,

Just so happens I finally got the lock off my 370 storage door yesterday so I could take it to a locksmith to have keys made. (There were none for that compartment when I got the coach.) That was no big problem, but I did get to look at the hinge. It's held on by 3 large rivets on each side of the hinge. Can't get it apart from the outside, so keep putting lube on that thing until it works freely. The rivets for the coach flange are just under the rubber gasket where the hinge attaches to the coach. They're fairly easy to get out, but the door still has to be open. The other 3 for the door side are behind the door liner. The liner is held on by a series of 1/8" rivets, all of which would have to be removed to get to the hinge rivets. The door has to be fully open to do this also. The way the hinge pin is driven in from one side only, with no hole on the other side, makes it impossible (virtually) to ever consider taking it apart without the door open.

Hope this makes some sense.

Best,

[ralley]

Yeah, it does, thanks. I will keep juicing it until it either works or fails. For a day or two. If I can't get positive result, I may try to drill a couple of horizontal holes the depth of the hinge to but not into the pin, and see if I can get positive lubrication by injecting the holes with a mixture of kerosene and oil.

It's already sagged visibly, so I have to lift the hatch just slightly to close the RH side. I'm trying not to have to completely disassemble the door (read: drill out all those rivets) to re-rivet the hinge until I have no other choice.

Thanks,
R

[noiva]

Originally Posted by ralley

Yeah, it does, thanks. I will keep juicing it until it either works or fails. For a day or two. If I can't get positive result, I may try to drill a couple of horizontal holes the depth of the hinge to but not into the pin, and see if I can get positive lubrication by injecting the holes with a mixture of kerosene and oil.

It's already sagged visibly, so I have to lift the hatch just slightly to close the RH side. I'm trying not to have to completely disassemble the door (read: drill out all those rivets) to re-rivet the hinge until I have no other choice.

Thanks,
R

Any chance it's loose at one or both sets of 3 rivets that hold the hinge on? If so, I can tell you that drilling out the rivets for the inside cover is not that difficult. I had to do that to get the lock out so I could get a key made. Took about 15 minutes. Easy to re-install. If your sag is on the door side, that might be worth doing. The coach side (top) 3 rivets are already exposed if you push the gasket out of the way. Your could drill out the old rivets, and fix the whole thing with new ones. Just an idea if the sag is caused by those hinge rivets.