Hi All,

Last week when opening my 940 driver's door there was a sharp snap
and suddenly there's no door detent, and a piece of busted 7MM
steel rod bent in a U turn on the floor.
I started looking around for a replacement hinge and found
mostly used ones at high prices and a few new ones at extremely
high prices.
Lucky for me, my friend sent one from his parts car. It needed
TLC including solvent and MMO to free a stuck pivot pin and
stuck cams. Packed with grease the hinge seemed to work fine in
the vise with a pair of vise grips for a lever. I let the pivot
soak all night with MMO. After cleaning up the grease and
spraying clean with brake cleaner I found that the 7MM rod had
severe wear with the most wear from the rivet head that holds the
cams. Next was from the cams, and the least wear was from the
bracket that holds the cams. UGH! I'd say that the rivet head
cut a slot about 20% of the way through the 7MM rod.
Then I checked the cams and they had at least 3/32" slop with the
rivets. The cam clearances went to heck.

So door hinges are like people, living on borrowed time.

Can Hinges be repaired?
There is some good news, www.swedishcarparts.com offers a spring
1355200-S claiming it fits 200 series, but looking like the same
spring in the 940. Maybe its the same hinge in the 7/900's ?
The rivets are a simple job for anyone with a lathe and I'm not
certain what metal rod to start with, certainly not soft steel.
Something that will wear well against the cams, and can be staked.
The wear might be at the rivet shoulder, or maybe there's
wear on the cam ID? That would be bad news to duplicate the cams
likely precision castings.
The rivet is staked into the frame. It looks like a SS compression
washer under the head of the rivet and that should be changed with
a rehab. Do machine shops have husky staking machines?

Meanwhile How to Lube and extend the life of your hinges.

My Volvo trained tech friend told me to keep greasing the hinges
and he did this for me this spring. But he was working on new cars and
now they are thirty, forty years old, and over 200,000 miles Volvo's are
just getting broken in, unlike junky Fords that are lucky to reach
100,000 before "Found On Road Dead". But TLC is needed more than ever.

If you cover the cams with grease the rivet shoulder and cam ID's
are begging for lube and will grind themselves up as explained above.
The rod should only be contacted by the cams.

Proposed method to lube hinges, subject to review by resident wizards:
Clean the old grease off the cams and surroundings.
Spray with brake cleaner, I'd be afraid of the mess compressed air
would make. With the door open insure that the cams turn free,
if not, do a Mystery oil soak or WD4 the world best solvent, until the
cams turn free, whatever it takes, maybe some days.
Just a few drop at a time, wiping up any extra, also MMO on the Pivot pin.
After the cams turn free, clean up and put some heavy oil on the rivets,
the top of the cams, and the pivot pin.
I wonder if pivot that pin will pop out easily with a hammer and punch?
Then you could wire brush and grease before reinstalling a happy pin.

Then put grease (Mobil-1 Synthetic or Wheel bearing grease?)
on the face of the cams that contact the 7MM rod and pack under the
head of the rivets to seal the compression washers. That will help keep
salt spray and elements out of the Rivet shoulder and cam ID.

Machine Man where are you? Maybe you'll volunteer to turn the rivets?
I'd like your opinion on what you think, and have pictures to send you,
or anyone else that wants them, and might be able to post them.

Comments? Bill