Rear tailgate door help...

I just purchased a 1989 mercury colony park. I am new to station wagons and would like some advice. My tailgate door sags down so in order to close it you have to pull the door up and then it will latch. How do I fix this? I was thinking bushings and pins but cannot find them online.Any ideas?

 

I assume this is when you open it as a door, not as a tailgate? The market for bushings and pins is too small for manufacturers to bother. Unless you can find an available door hinge kit that matches your tailgate hinge pins, you will have to find something generic. McMaster Carr sells bronze bushings in a wide variety of sizes. If you can find the right size, you're home free. More likely you'll find one that's slightly oversize and will need to turn it down. You'll also likely have to ream the I.D. once pressed into place. I had this same problem with the hinges on my Custom Cruiser. The tailgate is just too heavy and the bushings and pins wear quickly.

 

I had that problem on my '83 CP and my brother's '83 CS. Joe's right, there just are no kits, but if you can get a pair of pins, you can likely have bronze bushings made, which will entail supporting the gate (either by a cherry picker or by a high-lift jack) to do the bushing change-out.

Suggestion, though: when lifting the gate, hold the hinge end of the handle to lift it. All it takes to break that handle is to slam it once good and hard while holding it. Suggestion 2: if the handle does break a '6'-sized vise-grip on the remaining handle end works pretty good. But after mine broke, I just dropped the gate instead of swinging it out.

 

Thanks for the reply's.I just bought it off from ebay from alabama and am new to station wagons. I wanted one so my kids could have the same experience I did when I was a kid.

 

There is one other thing you can try: using shims to bring the gate more level. It's a stopgap, but done right, it can reduce the wear and tear on the right side strikers and latches until you can do the hinge pins and bushings.

 

Before paying to have bushings made, check McMaster Carr and MSC. You can likely find something that works.

 

You can make your own bushings from bronze bushing stock. You don't need a lathe. Check the stock in your drill press and machine it down with a coarse file that has a safe edge. I make muzzleloading gun parts like this all the time. You'll also need a set of calipers for measurement purposes. It's just like turning a table leg on a wood lathe.

 

What you need is a few pages from the shop manual showing the doorgate details. There may be an adjustment you can do. Oh,OK,I found it. I have it right here,from the "Been there,done that" file. I have had four Crown Vic Wagons '85/'86/'88/'89,don't ask me why. I could copy these and send them to you,if you'd like. I wouldn't want to work on the doorgate without these. There are 10 pages. If I were you,I would use the doorgate as a tailgate until you can fix it. And be very gentle with that handle! it is fragile. Let me know if you want the manual pages.

 

Yes,if you could please. You can send them to,timothyverburg2003@yahoo.com

 

No,I could only do snail mail at this point in time. The copies are ready to send.

 

If you could please that would be much appreciated.Thanks

 

You could email your actual physical address to me at: velociamator@gmail.com. Then I could put the documents in an envelope and mail them to you.

 

Documents sent!

 

I received them.Thank you very much.Its much appreciated.

 

Hopefully,there's an adjustment you can make.