Door hinge "Gottcha"

I just ran into a "Gottcha" on the door hinges, one of those things that can be easily overlooked.

The hinges on my right door were installed (by the original builder) in reverse, and I also found the same thing on a buddies plane.

Take a good look at the detail on page 45-06, drawing of the door hinges. The hinges are built with a tilt to the axis of the hinge pin, and the correct installation is to have the lower side of the tilted pin aimed at the other hinge.

Like this;



It would appear that the idea here is to counter the misalignment that will be induced by the curvature of the canopy cover. If the hinges are installed in reverse, the misalignment is intensified instead of mitigated.

Like these are



For those of you who are still building, or removing the doors to do a safety catch, be sure to check for the hinge alignment, and correct it if needed while the door is off.

My plans are a revision "0", so this may have already been addressed------not that there is an error in the plans, just that the direction are not clear----the hinges are designated "L" and "R", instead of front/rear. Actually best would be "front right" "front left" ETC.

Even though my right door is set up incorrectly, it appears to be functioning well, I can not feel any binding----but I can sure see the hinge pins are not on the same axis as each other when I look at it. My guess is the structure is flexing enough to allow the needed movement?? As can be seen in the photos, the door side of the hinge is not accessible without damaging the upholstery.

One of those things that can bite you when you get a partially completed project

Thanks for the heads up I will be watching for this. I should be getting my finish kit in a couple of weeks.

Mike, take a good close look at the door top edge looking outboard from opposite side as you slowly open it. Is it flexing the top of the door as it cycles? I fooled with those quite awhile before I had the geometry fixed in my head. Seems like if they're backwards either the screw holes will start working or the flexing might take out the epoxy bond on the door top. Not sure, but they seem so different that I can't see them working right when wrong. Right? Vans oughta hit em with a letter stamp like RF or LR. Would solve a problem and save us cumulative hours of wiggling hinges. Im sure everyone does it.

aerhed said:

I fooled with those quite awhile before I had the geometry fixed in my head.

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Boy aint that the truth.

Confusion reigned supreme there for a while, till I finally tried to understand what the desired result was from doing the hinges skewed. Bingo, lights went on.

aerhed said:

Vans oughta hit em with a letter stamp like RF or LR. Would solve a problem and save us cumulative hours of wiggling hinges. Im sure everyone does it.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure it is a fairly common thing to do, which Is why I posted this warning.

Yes, determine front right, left, and rear right, and left at the start of the install----would make life easier. We can do that ourselves, mark with a sharpie and carry on.

Mine

I checked my plans, page 45-06 and saw that they were labeled Rev 0, 1/14/05. The hinges are shown pretty clearly such that the hinge pin itself is essentially level, with the part of the hinge attached to the cabin top sloping fwd (the fwd one) and aft (the aft one). I think what you are saying is that this is the correct way to install them. I agree with you in that the plans are worded poorly. They should refer to fwd left and aft left rather than just left and right. I had to think it through when I installed them, but the drawings were clear enough that they helped despite the poor wording. I don't know if they changed the plans before I rec'd mine (Fuse kit rec'd late 2009) and just did not change the Rev#/date.

douglassmt said:

but the drawings were clear enough that they helped despite the poor wording.

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Yes, they are. That is how I figured out the correct way that they should have been installed.

Just trying to give folks a heads up.

Good catch

Yep. Definitely a good catch because the indications on the dwgs are pretty subtle. As good as the Van's dwgs are, you have to look pretty close to see it. A guy could go either way if he wasn't aware of the two possibilities.

Another good deed brought you by VAF!