Wagon hatch hinges revisited

[marty]

I guess it must've been lost but I remember some posts about manufacturing stronger hinges since they are no longer produced by Chrysler.  I had my drivers side break, found another used one and, after just a couple of months it started to crack.  I've since removed my struts so I don't break this hinge and then be in real trouble.  Has there been any further progress on replacement hinges?  I would go for stronger ones even if they did not look like the originals.

[txjeeptx]

I remember this being discussed, but don't know if it went anywhere. If I had a wagon hinge to look at, even a broken one, I bet I could fabricate a decent replacement from steel, and even contour it with some grinding to look on the outside like it was factory. Could even take it to the chroming shop. Could get fancy with bronze lined hinge points, I'd have to see what I'm up against with regards to having room for something like that. I'll try to get one from a guy here in SATX that bought trapperjack's wagon, or, if you find that tach and have a broken hinge, send em my way.

[thereverendbill]

if needed i will donate a pair to the cause and even ship them

[txjeeptx]

Yer right, I'd need a left and right side to be able to see about making some, since they're side-specific, right? I'm not set up to weld stainless as of right now, but that is an option for material of choice for new hinges, if they look like they'd be relatively easy to do. Milling precisely placed holes is no problem, but it is time consuming. It'd be realy cool if I already had the CNC table I want for a plasma torch.

[thereverendbill]

you are correct they are left and right.  I have a pair in the parts room that someone drilled 2 holes and bolted them through the roof.  don"t ask me why someone would do this but I picked them up anyways for a "just in case" set

[txjeeptx]

Hmmm, bolted them through the roof, that's a strange one . . maybe they stripped out the threads in the hinge? They have threads in them, right? Or lost the original bolts and used what they had around?

[eaglefreek]

I wonder if it would be worth it to have the factory hinges cryogenically treated.   

[txjeeptx]

Are the factory hinges cast or forged? And out of what? I bet they are the same composition as our exterior door handles, which develope fatigue cracks and eventually fail. I doubt cryo-treatment will help prevent the fatigue failure of this material, whatever it is. I'm pretty sure its non-ferrous, parhaps an alloy of aluminum and zinc, a type of "pot metal", probably proprietary to AMC.

There is a soldering rod that can be used to repair pot metals. Check out their videos. I've never used it.
http://www.muggyweld.com/potmetal.html

[thereverendbill]

Hmmm, bolted them through the roof, that's a strange one . . maybe they stripped out the threads in the hinge? They have threads in them, right? Or lost the original bolts and used what they had around?

nope, they still had the bolts and nuts there, my only guess is that the hinge was leaking cause of a bad gasket and they thought it wasn't tight enough and must have gotten a new drill for christmas.  So now there is 2 1/4 inch holes drilled in a flawless hatch hinge.   

I was also wondering if a wagon could use the same style hinges as a SX/4 with light modification   

[rollguy]

I would like to see these made of billet aluminum.  If someone here has access to a mill, it could be done pretty easily.

[Taylor]

About a year after I bought my Eagle as I opened the hatch the left hinge broke and the right hinge cracked. If I hadn't caught the hatch it would have broken too.
I fabricated two new ones out of heavy strap hinges. I bent them to align the pivot points, they are close (about 90%) but not 100% exact.
I bent the hatch portion of the hinge to match the contour of the hatch. Also I used 2 2" rubber plumbing fittings cut in half as gaskets.

[greymarooneightytwo]

I bet if you had just given those a nice layer of rustoleum acrylic enamel they wouldn't have rusted like that...

I think that's what I'm going to have to do too, I can't find replacements either.

Thanks for the idea!

[BenM]

I wonder if having them printed (http://www.shapeways.com/) out of stainless steel would work? Pot metal isn't very strong to begin with, and you could really beef these up if you wanted to.

[greymarooneightytwo]

Sounds cheaper than getting some machined, I was quoted a few hundred dollars from a local place here in Alaska.

[carnuck]

The PO of my Eagle put screws in to hold the originals together. I picked up a used pair to put in but I planned to fill them with epoxy to keep them from cracking first.