S1 Trailgate

BATES · Post by **BATES** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:06 pm

:cry:Hi My trailgate on my 65S1 FHC has never closed properly since I bought it, Ihave tried for two days to aline it ,but it is allways out some were .Cutting washes in half to pack out the hinges has made it much better,but it is now rubbing the hinge side body,and still will not click shut.I finaly removed the hinges and layed it in the opening,[it does fit ok]I can now see I have run out of up movement on the bottom hinge. Imay be able to elongate the holes a bit , but the only way to get it right is tocut and bend the bottom hinge and the weld it up ,are the two hinges the same ?.has any body any idears ,Thanks for you help .Gordon.

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:51 pm

No, No, NO!!! Cutting the hinges will be a disaster ( they should be alloy anyway) . If the trim is still on the side panel of your car , you may not be able to see that the hinges attach to a captive plate in the sidewall which has about 1/4 inch / 6mm of movement at right angles to the plane of the tailgate i.e. broadly in a slightly backwards of vertical plane . It is not uncommon for the captive plates to become rusted/silted sufficiently to restrict the movement . The first thing I would do would be to squirt lots of wd40 into the captive plate areas so that it infiltrates between plate and inner side wall, and then work the plates using two of the bolts as handles until they will move without "stiction"

The hinges are both the same, part number BD 20261 , but note that there are shims available to fit between the hinges and the door , which are .036" thick P/N BD 23163 , and you use as many as are required , and separate shims between the hinges themselves and the body, also 36 thou thick , BD 23164 . Again, use as many as are required . I have a feeling that you may be short of the shims which affect the lie of the door in both planes

23163 alter the door position in the vertical plane when shut, and 23164 move the door progressively to the right

BATES · Post by **BATES** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 5:54 pm

Thanks for your help, I have 23164 1 will get some 23163 Cheers Gordon.

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:11 pm

Gordon : I should also have said that it is perhaps a more effective way of setting the tailgate to lie inside the car with the gate shut and all the fastenings finger tight , and then with the help of an outside assistant to move the door whichever way is necessary to square it up in the aperture . It's a bit uncomfortable, but you eliminate the problem which is always present with the gate open that gravity tends to affect the position before you can tighten the fastenings

ChrisC · Post by **ChrisC** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:09 pm

Yup both the solutions above work and I agree that the shims are all important. It is actually quite suprising how much difference they make.

The hinges are definitely alloy and they not supposed to have any side-to-side play in them. You can buy them new - but they are very slightly different in the look (well different to my originals anyway)

I probably have a spare one somewhere if you need it.

BATES · Post by **BATES** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:32 pm

I have a friend comeing round the weekend ,I will let you know how we get on .Thanks Gordon

BATES · Post by **BATES** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 7:57 pm

I am getting there ,we packed 3/6 of shims between the bottom hinge and the tailgate,it now clicks shut and sills with the new rubber seal,with out rubing the body hinge side.It never did that before .I will mark it up ,and see if I can get the gaps better, if not I will leave it at that. Thanks for all your help and offers of parts. Cheers Gordon.

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