House door hinge

Recently noticed that the pin on lower house door hinge will rise up about an 1/8” over several openings and closings. When it happens the door becomes slightly out of alignment. Pin is easily pushed back in again but won’t stay but for a couple of cycles.  I recently removed and cleaned it, hardened grease but nothing changed.
Contacted PC, had not heard of it before and said the door came as a unit, so I will need to contact the vendor next.
Has anyone else run into any similar issues with the hinges?

Bob and Michelle,

That is "A First" problem of that type.

I just came up from the garage, studying my own door.

On the under-side of both the top and the bottom hinge is the head of a bolt with a serrated lock washer.  Is your bottom hinge bolt missing?  It looks like if it comes loose, it would drop down on the ground.

If all that is in-place, the second thing worth a try is this.  Using a hammer and a punch, hit the stem of the pin in "just the right place" to make it slightly deformed or out-of-round to provide a pressure-fit requiring you to tap it in.  The pressure point must be where the pin and the part of the hinge bracket are not supposed to move independently of each other, but rather be as one piece together with no movement.

General-use hinge pins often have a knurled section to "bite" into the hinge to prevent it from backing out.
Here are a few examples.



Deforming the pin with the punch would in-concept accomplish the same.

But before trying anything like that, first see if the supplier can provide you with parts of, or a whole new hinge.

Recently noticed that the pin on lower house door hinge will rise up about an 1/8” over several openings and closings. When it happens the door becomes slightly out of alignment. Pin is easily pushed back in again but won’t stay but for a couple of cycles.  I recently removed and cleaned it, hardened grease but nothing changed.
Contacted PC, had not heard of it before and said the door came as a unit, so I will need to contact the vendor next.
Has anyone else run into any similar issues with the hinges?

Ditto. I noticed it while camping, that the door striker was misaligned. Adjusted it up. The later, its out of alignment AGAIN.    Come to the conclusion that my hinges are loose, and allowing the door to lose alignment. Mine have bolts through them top and bottom, so different from the pins you describe.

The pins you describe are similar to door hinges, and Ron D is correct in the assessment that the pin is moving with the 'wrong' part of the hinge.

In residential door hinges, the 'house' (or jamb)  side is locked to the pin, and the door side rotates on the pin. USUALLY the house side has 3 spots the pin contacts, and the door has 2, so the house side 'wins' and the pin stays straight.  The hinge below is shown with jamb part to the right, door left.



If the pin rotates with the door, often it works its way out. I see it often when 'hinge mount' door stops are installed on a door, but the original pin is used -



MANY times this results in the hinge pin not locking into the jamb side, and rotating with the door. Slowly lifting out until the hinge is not supporting weight, and either the door gets misaligned, or the center hinge gets overloaded and starts to bind.  (My dentists office recently had this same problem, with two LARGE doors in the lobby. Noticed it while I was waiting... I showed them how to tap the pins back in, and advised getting the PROPER hinge stops, not the add-ons)

You are having a similar problem it seems, the pin is rotating when it should not. So.... the rotating part must be cleaned and lubed, with maybe a but of cleaning and deburring of the non-fixed part of the pin. And the 'locking' part of the pin must lock again to the fixed part of the hinge.

Any chance of posting a picture of the hinge? Especially when the pin is 'lifted' ?

Any chance of posting a picture of the hinge? Especially when the pin is 'lifted' ?

Yes, that would surely help.

First thanks Ron and and Volkemon for responding, and yes the pin is rotating, which it should not be. Just spoke first to Carole at PC and a Pat at Liftco who manufactures the door.
He was concerned, no immediate solutions,  said he would check units on line that he was currently working on for any ideas.
He basically told me what I knew, number one it’s a bear to unscrew, as the bolt has a carriage bolt type top, vice grips work,  the bottom piece is a 1/4” x 28 fine thread bolt  that screws into the  SS main bolt.  All held in place with a lock washer and and flat SS washer and every thing torqued down as much as possible.
I am I currently away, without the RV, when back will post a picture and take it apart again.
Barry if you’re reading this another vendor and phone number for your master list.
Liftco, 574 266 5551

OK...

II suppose many things can be called a 'pin', but I was under the impression that your hinge had a pin that was a 'drive fit' , similar to a common door hinge.

It sounds like you are describing a sex bolt/barrel bolt set up. Similar to this idea:



If so...if that is rising, I would imagine the bolt on the bottom that holds it down is unthreading?  Or does it have a gap that allows the upper half to rise until the bottom bolt stops the upward movement?

How does the misalignment manifest itself?  The edge of the door contacting the frame, or the strikeplate/latch alignment changing making it difficult to close? (Mine is the latter)

Now having same problem with my door.  Was a fix ever found.  Removed my door to replace refrigerator,  once bottom nut removed was able to tap pin out.  Pin has a barrel type bushing around it half way down which i believe is the problem.  Top one was worn, bottom one seemed ok.  Guess I'll call liftco to see if hinge can be replaced. Miu

We’re still living with it. My current fix, which isn’t very practical is to push the pin back into place on a regular basis.
When I called liftco they were of no help said had never heard of a problem. Hopefully you will speak to someone of more help, if so will be interested in their fix.
Bob at PC suggested replacing with a SS bolt. May give that a try prior to this winters travels.

My upper hinge pin also rotates, but that’s not causing it to move vertically.  Both the upper and lower pins have bolts in the bottom.

A simple solution would be placing a wave (spring) washer on the bottom of the pin, held in place by a flat washer under the bolt. Use blue Loctite instead of tightening the bolt enough to cause the wave washer to bind on the hinge.

https://www.mcmaster.com/fastening-joining/leveling-and-wave-washers/single-wave-washers-7/

Cal, is there enough threaded length to accommodate a nylon lock nut?  They are sold in stainless steel at most home improvement centers.

This might be pointless idea....but have you considered using Loctite thread locker on the bottom part of the pin?
I've had good in using Loctite to stop screws from constantly working loose.
https://www.loctiteproducts.com/en/products/specialty-products/specialty/loctite_threadlockerblue242.html 

I have a new 2020 2351.  On my first trip, the house door was getting hard to close.  I kept looking at the latch, trying to find a problem.  After reading this discussion I checked the hinges on the door.  The bolts into the door were all loose.  I put some locktite on them and tightened them up.  Thanks for the help!

The bolts into the door were all loose.  I put some locktite on them and tightened them up.  Thanks for the help!

I had that same problem with my refrigerator door hinges.  Loose hinge bolts start to pinch the door vertically.  The door should swing freely.