Morryde hinge/gate reinforcement issue

[wandererr]

So I installed the morryde gate reinforcement bracket and added the spacers under my morryde hinges (had those previously). During the install I added the limiting spacer that came with the gate reinforcement. Not even 24-hours post installation and my limiter bracket popped out on the body side. Tried calling morryde but they're closed for the day...

Just my luck.. not a happy camper

 

[Beowulf]

Pics?

 

[wandererr]

Of gate limiter/stopped pulled out? Not much to show. Had to remove it to close the gate as I was out and about. Glad that I had the right sized torx with me

 

[billiebob]

Pics .....

 

[lloydrage]

I think Jeff designed this didnt he? @jscherb he might be helpful but yes pics are a must

 

[wandererr]

The pic would be of a tailgate without the hinge stop (the curved bar that prevents it from wildly swinging back) installed.

 

[jscherb]

I have not heard of any instances where a reinforcement kit properly installed with the hinge stop has caused a problem with the stay rod. I've had the kit with the stop on mine for years and there have been no problems. MORryde may know more than I do though.

The stay rod can be pushed back into place using the tailgate as a lever to exert the necessary force. The screwdriver is used to keep the stay rod centered in the opening, without it the rod will hit the nylon side guides in the opening, which will prevent the rod from going in. It takes a pretty good amount of force with the screwdriver to keep the rod centered while you're gently but firmly closing the tailgate. Don't rush closing the tailgate, when the rod is properly centered and there's enough force from the tailgate, the rod will pop back into place.

 

[wandererr]

so...... reached out to morryde - they asked for some pictures of how the hinge looks installed: I sent those in. It's clear that the spacer is too "Shallow" and allows the gate to overextend. I'm really not a happy camper as something is busted inside and after I pushed the stay back in, there is griding and popping noise when I'm at about 15degrees before the gate is closed. I'm more or less pissed cause I have the storage/kitchen area built out inside and I'm not keep on removing it in order to get to the damn plastic that covers it up on the 2012......

 

[jscherb]

so...... reached out to morryde - they asked for some pictures of how the hinge looks installed: I sent those in. It's clear that the spacer is too "Shallow" and allows the gate to overextend. I'm really not a happy camper as something is busted inside and after I pushed the stay back in, there is griding and popping noise when I'm at about 15degrees before the gate is closed. I'm more or less pissed cause I have the storage/kitchen area built out inside and I'm not keep on removing it in order to get to the damn plastic that covers it up on the 2012......

The spacer isn't too shallow for an undamaged stay rod so it may be that your stay rod was out of spec in some way before you installed the reinforcement. Jeep did a poor job engineering the stay rod, they've even published a TSB on the problems it has.

If you need to make the hinge stop less shallow, put a 1/4" lock washer under the body-side screw and on top of the hinge stop. The washer will raise the screw head slightly and act like a thicker spacer. (It's an 8mm bolt but a 1/4" lock washer will have the correct thickness and the locking function will make the screw secure even though it's a flathead screw.

 

[wandererr]

Everything was good till I installed the new bracket for the gate and spacers under hinges.

The way I see it, when I stalling the spacers under the hinges, the geometry of the movement has changes as the hinge rotation point got moved out

 

[wandererr]

Morryde engineer that is most familiar with the hinges is not in because he's at the tradeshow (I'm guessing SEMA) so they'll have someone else look at it.

The more I think about it though, I shouldn't have been too much of a surprise to me, because the spacers are give or take about a quarter inch (I didn't measure, just eyeballing now) which shifts the tailgate hinge pivot point away from the tailgate resulting in a different travel arc for the gate stop. Yes, some folks have not had any issues after install, I'm just the lucky lottery winner.....

When you look at these pictures, at full open I still have room in there before the spacer is reached.

Problem is that I now have a fully built kitchen / storage there and can't get that plastic trim piece out to get to the other part of that mechanism body side to get it fixed/replaced.... kinda pissed altogether.... while doing an install to potentially prevent a problem I created one.

 

[jscherb]

Morryde engineer that is most familiar with the hinges is not in because he's at the tradeshow (I'm guessing SEMA) so they'll have someone else look at it.

The more I think about it though, I shouldn't have been too much of a surprise to me, because the spacers are give or take about a quarter inch (I didn't measure, just eyeballing now) which shifts the tailgate hinge pivot point away from the tailgate resulting in a different travel arc for the gate stop. Yes, some folks have not had any issues after install, I'm just the lucky lottery winner.....

When you look at these pictures, at full open I still have room in there before the spacer is reached.

Problem is that I now have a fully built kitchen / storage there and can't get that plastic trim piece out to get to the other part of that mechanism body side to get it fixed/replaced.... kinda pissed altogether.... while doing an install to potentially prevent a problem I created one.

Thanks for posting the photos, they point out an issue - the hinges come with a short pieces of rubber u-channel that go over the end of the hinge leaf to prevent metal-on-metal contact when the hinge is full open. They also add a little bit to the limit of swing of the hinge and they fill in that gap you mentioned. I don't have a photo handy of the hinge with the rubber channel, so I drew it in orange on one of your photos.

If you don't have the rubber pieces that originally came with your hinges I'm sure MORryde would be happy to supply new ones.

Hopefully you'll be able to reinsert the stay rod using the technique in the video I posted so you won't have to disassemble your kitchen to get access to the trim panel.

 

[wandererr]

When I reinstalled the stay rod, it makes popping sounds inside the body all the way through closing movement.... Sounds like something is busted inside

Don't recall a rubber piece, plus a rubber piece wouldn't do much with the gap there.

 

[jscherb]

When I reinstalled the stay rod, it makes popping sounds inside the body all the way through closing movement.... Sounds like something is busted inside

Don't recall a rubber piece, plus a rubber piece wouldn't do much with the gap there.

It is a fairly thin piece, but MORryde has sold thousands of the reinforcements and since you're the only case I've ever heard of this happening and you say your stay rod is not bent or out of spec, it's the best suggestion I have. Sorry I can't be more help.

 

[wandererr]

so I'm talking with folks from Morryde and here's my findings so far:
1. The rubber piece would do squat for me as for one rubber compresses and wears out and at time would allow for more and more travel
2. I took a protractor and the hinge allows for opening of 15degrees past 90 (total angle of opening is 115 degrees)

Looking at the design, I wonder if the hinge shouldn't have been loner on the "butt" end so that it makes contact with the stop. Or alternatively the stop should have been "wider" to reach out to the hinge. From the looks of it about 1/8" would be needed on either or to prevent what happened.

It's possible that the fact that my hinges from Morryde are about 7 years old vs the stop and the tailgate bracket was just purchased and in meantime hinge specs changed a bit (but end longer? hole in the hinge in a slightly different position shifting the pivot point.... many factors could apply here)

Overall, I'm not happy.... Kudos to Morryde though that for the time being they're looking into this, question is what will be the end game resolution.