Anyone replaced their door hinge bushings?

I need to replace the door hinge bushings on my driver's door hinges on my 95 Ram 2500 SLT standard cab. I know I could find better hinges but I don't want to get into all the trouble of taking apart the ebrake and dash to get the hinge assemblies out.

I'd like to remove the door and rebuild the hinges "on the truck". I just did this on my 73 Chevelle SS and it went fine, however the spring location is different, and such that my spring compressor tool (looks like a skinny rectangular clamshell) doesn't fit within the space to get the Dodge spring off. I've already tried with the door removed, and fender still on, with the upper hinge in the "wide open" door position, and still can't fit the compressor tool.

Has anyone done this type of hinge rebuild "on the truck" and have any pointers, especially with getting the coil spring removed to facilitate the replacing of the pin and bushings?

Ok, I didn't find any Dodge specific tools, but was talking it over with one of the guys who works at the Pep Boys and he mentioned something like some snap ring pliers, or something like that, then led me to the oversized 90° pliers, and I thought "hmm that just might work"... Well, it did! I was able to use those pliers to get the spring out. I tied the spring to the plier arms with lock wire for safety in case it slipped (it didn't). Getting it back in was a little tricky but basically if you get the spring started in the area, you can use the same pliers to squeeze it down a little while knocking it into it's final home with a hammer. I ended up buying 2 bushing kits from the store since there was not one kit that had both bushing sizes (both the I.D. and O.D. of the bushings are different when you look at the upper hinge assembly, and the factory pin has 2 different diameters. I put it back together with new bushings along with the factory pin. Works great!

... and the final step of getting the spring back in after replacing the bushings. NOTE: the easiest position of the hinge is when it's in the fully closed position. Especially if the fender is still on the truck, like mine is.

Awesome work man. I've never thought of rebuilding the hinge like that. Thanks a ton for posting your work on here.

Thanks! If you decide to do it, I did notice that there are rebuild kits online for both straight and tapered pin hinge designs, so knowing what you have might allow you to simply order the correct kit online. Since I was buying the stuff "on the fly" at the parts store yesterday I was at the mercy of what they had in stock so I had mix and match to get the right bushings doe my tapered pin design hinge.

Yea you can buy both straight and taper kits on rockauto for something like 10$, That being said I need to do it to mine and don't know if it matters or what difference it would make using the straight/ taper.. any insight ?

Charles, you need to know which design you have so that you get the rignt parts. The tapered pin design uses 2 different diameters on the pin, so there's a larger bushing for the bottom of the hinge assembly and a smaller one for the top of the hinge assembly. A straight pin design uses the same diamter top and bottom.

I suggest take your's apart, and see what design you have so you can order the correct kit.