 The needle roller bearings are well past their use by
date. As the original roller bearings were only made for Toyota ( I tried unsuccessfully
to obtain the same ones at various bearing supplies all over the world) and these have a
outside diameter of 19mm, the only needle rollers available with a 10mm ID have an OD of
15mm, with the rollers only a fraction of the size of the original. It would have required
a sleeve to be made to take up the clearance from 15 to 19mm, so I have made the bushes
out of Phosphor Bronze which is the best material you can get for the job, with the pins
as required made out of 4140 steel. The actual bearing surface area of the needle rollers
was only approx. 10mm in length, whereas the bronze bush has a total length of approx.
24mm so is a much bigger surface area.
The bushes are reamed internally for an accurate fit and are an interference press
fit into the hinge body. The bushes also have a flange which takes the thrust (weight) of
the door.
You will notice one of the pictures has a set of feeler gauges inserted, this is to
measure the gap and the bushes are equally turned down so that there is minimum clearance,
no slop, for a good finish.
Finally there are grease nipples fitted at all 4 hinge bushes but they will only
need a shot of grease once a year as they have been packed when being assembled. I turned
a spiral groove in the bushes to allow the grease to move up around the pins, but until
they wear in a little, the grease is hard to pump in. I will rectify this on the next lot
of bushes and increase the size of the groove. The grease gun fitting required for these
is a needle type end fitting
This is the grease gun fitting needed to maintain the hinges. Tecalemit concave
connector Part # HF 4034 at $15.79 +GST available at CBC Bearing Supplies in various areas
in Australia.. This connector screws straight onto the end of the extension of your grease
gun. Best if the extension is rigid not flexible.
When fitting a hinge the wiring loom has to be disconnected. I thought it was easier to
remove the plugs from inside the firewall rather than remove the loom from the door. I
used a block of wood on a trolley jack to support the door. The hinge bolts allow
adjustment to get the door to line up and close perfectly. Below is a pic of another
project Daryl is working on - inscribed EMV buttons in English - not stickers- but
actual engraving the buttons so they light up at night.
I have also attached a photo of an EMV surround which I have renovated by taking
the buttons with the Japanese writing out, sanded the writing off, repainted the buttons,
engraved the English words on them, given them a clearcoat matted down to remove the gloss
and refitted them to the surround. Very permanent. Works very well at night with the back
lighting.
Daryl's car: UZZ32 #402 |
