Door Catch Rehab

[500 MJ]

I spent the evening rebuilding the door catch from my '90 MJ. The pin and bearing had come out of it recently and it was just not doing its job anymore, time for me to do something about it.

 

I've tried to get new door catches from the junkyards but all of the ones I seem to find have issues. Either the brackets are broken or they have lost their bearing and pin like the one I have. I finally broke down and got a pair of Cherokee rear door ones that were in good shape from Geonovast this summer. I thought they would be the same part but they weren't. The catch strips are different between the two styles, so I set out to just swap over these strips and all my problems would be solved...

 

Here is a shot of what I started with. This one came out of the MJ, in two peices...

 

 

Here is the 4 door Cherokee rear door catch assembly that I cannibalized.

 

 

I first removed the pin I stored on it, I found that long nose vice grips work the best for this.

 

 

Punching out the dowel pin that holds the bearing. This is the pin that I lost from the one on my truck. I used a 3/16" pin punch for this step. It fits perfectly.

 

 

 

Tapping the catch strip out from the assembly.

 

 

This is how the "bearing" (more like a wheel) rides on the catch strip.

 

 

Cleaning up the Comanche catch strip.

 

 

Here they are:

 

Comanche/Cherokee front door on the left, Cherokee rear door on the right...

 

 

 

An exploded view of how things go back together.

 

 

Putting the catch strip and bearing back in the bracket can be a pain. You need to hold back the spring on the bracket with a screwdriver to get the bearing perfectly centered with the pin hole. Using an awl (or scribe) helps to center everything.

 

 

 

 

Once everything is lined up, drive the pin back in. You can see the standard screwdriver blade shimming back the spring and inside bearing to allow things to line up.

 

 

All back together and ready for another 20 years :thumbsup:

 

 

Here are the tools I used:

 

1/4" Blade Standard Screwdriver

3/16" Pin Punch

Scratch Awl (Scribe)

Claw Hammer

Grease - pick your type

Wire Wheeled Angle Grinder - Safety Glasses and Ear Plugs

4" Bench Vise

 

I also show a 10mm Wrench and the 6LN Vise Grips in the photo because they were used to remove the door catch assembly from the door.

 

Overall it was way easier doing this than I thought it would be. Pretty simple if you have a good vise to hold everything. It took me about an hour to complete the first one. Good Luck!

 

[Automan2164]

:eek: Wow even the tool list!

 

Nice job Brent!

Rob L. :thumbsup:

[Geonovast]

If you're bored, feel free to rehab my red MJ.. :D

[MiNi Beast]

I need pics , I can't read what I understand. 

 

[500 MJ]

On 5/21/2021 at 4:09 PM, MiNi Beast said:

I need pics , I can't read what I understand. 

 

 

First you would need to be able to understand things, that always helps. 

 

I'll see what I can do to pull photos from Facebook and reinsert them in the original post... you may have to wait until the upcoming weekend for me to get that chance.

[MiNi Beast]

No big rush. Was a good reference and thought I get you out of the wanted ads.