How To Remove Jeep Jk Doors

by Scott Ammerman
Torque Senior Correspondent

Note: This refers to removal for Wrangler JK doors. For those with 2022 or newer Wrangler JL vehicles, check out our Wrangler JL Door Removal Video.

When I bought my start Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, 1 of the things I fabricated sure to check out was for any signs of abuse or heavy off-road driving. It's not as if I was limiting myself to a pristine-only example — but some of the Jeeps I looked at in my search were VERY clean. Nearly also clean to take ever been used for what many people would consider their intended purpose. I certainly wasn't planning on paying a premium price for a garage kept, suburban mall crawler.

When I finally found the just I liked, and took it home, my Rubicon showed no signs of off-pavement activeness. Information technology sported the factory hard top, and while the freedom panels showed the usual "knock around" dings, the superlative itself had non been removed in a long while. If at all.

All 4 door hinges were very tight and the doors had to be slammed to fully close considering of the added resistance. I assumed this was just normal bushing wearable, but when I tried taking the doors off for the first time, I found them to exist quite stuck. In fact, there was a amend than average hazard this was the starting time time anyone had e'er tried to remove them.

At this point, the Jeep was almost eight years erstwhile and had survived winters with salt brine applied to the roads to proceed ice at bay. This brine seems to arrive every scissure and crevice you can imagine and destroys untreated metal.

No matter how much effort was applied to elevator off the doors, they wouldn't motility even a fraction of an inch. Even with two people tugging on the rider side forepart door, it only lifted upwardly about six inches.

Since the hinges are sealed at the lesser with a torx nut, that wintertime alkali solution actually seeps in and never leaves. Even afterwards beingness saturated in penetrating oil overnight, the hinges remained stuck. Now, you may remember my situation is regionally unique, only the reaction that causes the corrosion actually started happening as soon as your Jeep was assembled at the manufactory and is called 'Bimetallic Corrosion'. This is the same thing that causes alloy wheels to stick to the metal hubs of some cars, even with all the lugs removed. So fifty-fifty if your Jeep is a few years one-time, yous might exist surprised what kind of attempt it takes to remove the doors when you want.

Here's how I finally got them off, rusty pins and all. If your doors are stuck, yous should definitely upgrade the bushings with the Quadratec Delrin replacements for JK Wrangler and JK Unlimited. As I am writing this, it has been more than three years since the final Jeep JK models rolled off the assembly line, and most of the door bushings on even the latest produced models are in really bad shape.

Delrin is a very tough substance when compared to plastics, which most less expensive replacement bushings are fabricated of. While plastic injection molded replacement bushings may look the same, the durability is non fifty-fifty close. I've seen some come out of the package cracked from aircraft, which would be nearly impossible with Delrin units. As a bushing material, Delrin is very durable, and won't corrode again like the factory versions. With the weight and outdoor temperatures these bushings are going to exist subjected to, Delrin is the chemical compound you want for a lifetime of apply. Plastic or vinyl will piece of work in the short term, merely will eventually require replacement once again.

Over the years, I take replaced more than than a dozen sets of door bushings for friends and colleagues and this method has worked every time. I have noticed that with larger sliders or steps, sometimes in that location isn't enough room to get a hammer to strike upwardly with actually stuck lower bushings, and so we have found a new method that works on those and I'll illustrate that later in the commodity.

Ane twenty-four hours not long ago, my friend Don Bray and I removed eight doors' worth of bushings from our JKUs at the Western Montgomery Career and Engineering science Center in Royersford, Pa. He owns a 2022 Wrangler that is primarily garage stored, with less than 30,000 miles on the odometer. Mine is a 2022 with over ninety,000 miles that is kept exterior. If you lot look at this pile of used bushings, you'd be hard pressed to determine which vehicle these came from. The amount of effort required to remove them was similar besides. Then, once y'all get your bushings out, information technology would be in your all-time interest not to re-use them and instead upgrade to Quadratec Delrin replacements every bit before long as you tin. Unless yous're really a fan of swinging a hammer around, and balancing heavy objects on a wobbly jack, this just a practiced idea.

Information technology is worth noting that all this hammering to get the bushings out, equally well as replacement of worn components, may cause your door hinges and/or strikers to need adjustment following this procedure. As the original hinge bushings wear out, sometimes your door strikers have to be adjusted to adapt for the sag. This adjustment is normal over the vehicle'due south life, and is by no means a defect in this product. Additionally, if at whatever time you take to force the bushings into your door hinges, or they don't slip easily over your door pins, cease and correct before adding those doors. Delrin bushings are fabricated to a very tight precision fit, and your door hinge parts must exist cleaned to the signal that they work with them smoothly.

What you lot will need for the bushing installation:

Quadratec Delrin Bushing Kit (for two or four door applications)
T-45 Torx socket and driver
Rat tail file (or chain saw sharpener)
White lithium grease
A hammer for driving out the erstwhile bushings (ball peen suggested)
A scrap of cardboard (nosotros used an empty German beer six pack holder.
Bluish painter's masking record

Recommended, but not required: A Mopar paint pen in your Jeep'due south body color

Additional items for dealing with stuck doors:

Penetrating oil (PB Blaster, WD-xl, Liquid Wrench or like) with nozzle tube
A clean rag for dealing with oil overspray
Hydraulic floor jack
2x4 wood slice approximately 24-inches long (longer might be required for lifted Jeeps or smaller jacks)
Additional strips of medium grit emery textile to remove rust
A second person for the final removal step

The 24-hour interval before you commencement this process, remove the T-47 nuts from all the door hinges. Spray oil up within each hinge from the lesser, and in the seam between the upper and lower halves. Work the doors back and along several times and requite them another quick spray. Leave the swivel nuts off, your doors aren't going anywhere.

The side by side 24-hour interval, kickoff by finding a hard and almost completely level surface to park. Since you will be removing your door cheque straps, a very slight uphill angle isn't a terrible idea either to go along your doors from contacting the body. Open up the door and position the jack underneath, with the wood block set between the door seal and the outer console — this spot is strong plenty to lift the door, but yous don't want to elevator more than necessary to foreclose sail metal damage.

Important: Reinstall the top hinge torx nut a few turns past hand to proceed the door from moving too much.

Lift the door with a few pumps from the jack, just enough for constant upward pressure level. You should give this step some fourth dimension to work, the worst door on my Jeep took about thirty minutes to get any type of gap in the hinges. Information technology will very likely have several steps to become the door pins fully out of the hinges, so exist patient.

Once your hinges get-go to have a picayune bit of a gap, soak them in penetrating oil in one case again. This is the best opportunity you've had then far to get oil into the upper role of the bushings. Later well-nigh x minutes, let the jack downward and movement the door dorsum and along. The gap will disappear as the door settles back downwardly, but don't worry. Elevator the jack up once once more, and requite it some more time to work. After a few minutes, you should meet the pins get a little higher upwards in the hinge.

Go on spraying the hinges with oil and repeat this process every bit needed. Some doors may take longer than others. When the pins elevator upwardly enough for the torx nut to limit upward travel, move on to the side by side door. Do the last removal step when you have someone available to help.

After all your hinges are loose, and you lot have an assistant, scroll all the windows down. Remove the door check straps and wiring plug (the rear door plugs are accessed through the rectangular door on the B-pillar). Remove your torx nut from the upper hinge. Open up the door 90 degrees to the body, and set your jack and wood block upward just like in the previous steps. Brace the door by the inside handle and the upper part of the door frame, and accept your assistant lift the jack slowly, i pump at a time. Keep in heed, the pins may release quickly with a pop, so be ready. If the swivel binds during this step and the jack is lifting up the body of your Jeep more than than a few inches, let the jack downward, re-oil and move the door back and forth.

In one case removed, set each door down somewhere you can work on it without it beingness scratched, interior panel downwards. Feel free to accept a victory lap around the neighborhood before working on cleaning upwardly those rusty door pins!

Each of my door hinge pins in my old JKU looked near this bad. The Delrin bushing kit comes with plenty emery cloth to install bushings on about doors… but if yours were stuck, boosted emery cloth volition be needed to remove all the rust pitting earlier installing the bushings.

One time the hinge pins are cleaned upward enough to remove all the rust, test fit the bushings. It is essential they fit on smoothly with simply slight resistance.

Once the bushings slide on, motion to the body side hinges. Tape the scrap cardboard under the hinge you're working on to continue your Jeep from being damaged past all the hammering you're most to do.

Insert the bushing removal punch in the lesser of the hinge, and tap upward until the bushing pops gratuitous out of the height of the hinge.

Annotation: Sometimes the body side of the hinge can shift while hammering the sometime bushings out, especially if they are as stuck every bit my bushings had been. The torso was painted with the hinges attached, then y'all can usually see if in that location was much movement. If the pins don't fit flush in the hinges once y'all're done, you lot may need to cheque that adjustment.

In one case all the bushings are out, clean up the inside of the body hinge with the circular file. Again, nosotros're looking for a slip-in fit with trivial resistance. You may demand to spend several minutes per hinge on this step, but don't strength a bushing in or you could terminate up with stuck doors once more. These bushings are fabricated to very tight tolerances, so spending time to clean everything up right will make it perfect once you're ready to install the doors.

If yous have a vehicle with totally stuck lower bushings and running boards/sliders that stick out:

Using a small precipitous chisel, it is possible to catch the edge of the bushing top and bend it into the butt of the hinge.

Then the aforementioned tool can exist used to strike these bushings downwards, making them come out the bottom instead.

Once all the bushings slide hands into the body side hinges, grease the door swivel pins with white lithium grease. This grease will not only brand installation and removal easier, but will besides prevent rust. Merely spread a light coating on with your finger, just you may want to reapply every few times you remove your doors to keep everything working every bit intended.

With all the upgraded bushings installed, my door removal has gone from incommunicable to "buttery polish".

Also, once the new bushings were installed, those doors might not quite line up any more as the hinge tolerances have been restored to normal. A quick aligning of the door striker could be necessary with a T-45 torx chip. In my case, the latch was moved slightly upward to proceed the door from having to exist slammed hard to fully close.

This might take a couple of tries, only the time spent is well worth the try. I noticed the striker worked all-time when adjusted slightly lower than the direct center of the door latch — yous can get a proficient look with a flashlight with the door virtually completely closed.

Related Manufactures:

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Source: https://www.quadratec.com/c/howto/how-remove-those-stubborn-jeep-doors