My hinges are f'ed, I cringe every time the wife slams the passenger door shut with all her strength (why can't the get their head around lifting it while shutting it normaly?). So being one of those that prefers to fix than replace, I Googled the problem and came accross this thread on another forum
http://forums.lr4x4.com/topic/39388-greasable-slop-free-rebuildable-defender-hinges-10-minute-mod/

I had a spare hinge so I set about trying it out. Knocking the pin out I found there to be no wear in the pin but wear in the door half of the hinge only. As I drilled this part to 7.9mm, the bushes spun and came out. There was no mention of bushes in the above topic. The hole they were in is 8mm, the shank on the cap head is 7.9mm, when mated up there is in my opinion too much play. Maybe some hinges dont have bushes?
Either way, I'll turn up some new bushes at 9mm o/d as the hinges on my doors are worse than the spare I tested on. Providing my pins are still good it'll be a quick easy fix.

Planning on doing it Friday afternoon, so I'll get photos

Good man

I cant get the images up of the original thread so your photos will be very helpful.

I think there might be a link in the to another thread with photos, I know I've seen some somewhere…

Bushes made

So I made a start this afternoon, and straight away I ran into a problem - the spare hinge I used as a test is bigger than mine, all I can assume is that its from a newer model? Its not much bigger, but the bolt holes are slightly further apart and the hinge pin is thinner and longer.

I didn't let that stop me, I took the door off, removed the hinges and knocked the pins out. I drilled out the centre hinge section to 9mm to suit the new bushes, which took out any oval shaped wear in the casting. It was at this point I discovered the hinges were different because the pin wouldn't fit through the new bushes.

I took the bushes back out and re drilled them to 7.9mm on the lathe. The original pin was too worn to reuse, and not having time to make, knurl and harden new pins, I went with plan B.

I drilled the top part of the other half of the hinge to 7.9mm and the bottom half to 6.4mm then tapped it to M8.

Using a stainless M8 x 80 cap head, I cut the head off and cut a scewdriver slot in the end, then cut the threaded end to length so it didn't stick out the other side of the hinge. Greased it all up, reassembled and jobs a goodun, like new, no play and shuts perfect :-D

So that being said, my hinges didn't have bushes, which makes me think the test hinge was a newer design. So, in theory you don't necessarily need bushes unless your hinge is really badly worn, just drilling to 7.9mm might be enough.

Also, another thing to considder when drilling/tapping is make sure you drill the 6.4mm first, going through both the top and bottom in one go to make sure you get them lined up, then drill the 7.9 in the top half, then tap from the top like I show in the photo, again to make sure it stays lined up.

Just looking on ebay for a reasonable tap and die set. Unlike the one i got from machine mart which is sh1t, could you recommend one from the bay?
Cheers.

do you have a cromwell tools or similar youd be better buying the ones youd use, ie 6,8,10,12 mm

nothing like that here but will google them.Thanks

As James says,

Buy what you need, a good quality set of taps will cost a lot.

There are a few places on the bay that do sell good quality taps, but individually. Other wise if you can ind a local sshop to you that stocks individual ones then try them, the cheapo sets are only any good for chasing threads .

Cheers

They are on the bay,

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/CromwellTools

Cheers

I would recomend machine taps, they are stronger and cut easier than a normal straight fluted tap. We use WNT taps at work, but anything like this will do. Looking on ebay I see there are 2 noticeable difference in price on taps, the cheap ones are cheap for a reason. As said above, just buy what you need and buy the quallity ones.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/HSS-E-Tap-D...%3A9c41d84a1590a78674459fdfffbaeaa5%7Ciid%3A7

Another tip from my experience is try and avoid using ratchet tap handles, you end up going too fast applying unequal pressure from doing it one handed and snap them.

Starrett or Presto taps are amongst the better one, and they used to be reasonably inexpensive.
I've been giving mine welly sonce the late 1960's and they are still OK.