DIY Repair: Lincoln Mark III Door Hinge Spring Replacement

I have a 1971 Lincoln Mark III. I had a difficult time finding some springs for the door hinges. One spring on the drive side was missing, so the door would swing closed and wipe out just about anyone in it’s way. I couldn’t find anyone really well documenting this so I figured I would. Let it be known that the spring that is on the Thunderbird of the same year, does work. I went with Ecklers on this - their part number is EK-66-70328-1 which coincidentally was sticker over one MAC’s Antique Auto Parts. Same parent company or something - you can dig around and you can take my measurements and buy a kit of 6+ from McMaster Carr or you can just give Ecklers the business. I did go with Ecklers. Here are the measurements of what I received.

You’ll note a couple of things. First, with your door open you’ll see panel in the door hinge area obstructing your access to the springs and such. I recall my grandmother mashing my fingers ones upon a time, so these are probably in that general area for that general reason. Pop the 2 screws off and you’ll get a better view of what you’re working with.

Next, you’ll notice that the spring is much longer than where you plan on putting it. Take 2 zip ties of decent girth and put them on opposite sides of each other - inside of the spring you’re about to install. Before you move forward - time to put safety goggles on. B-) Now put your spring in a vice and squeeze it down - tighten it until you get to a point where you think this will fit. No vice? No problem. You can probably get away with vice grips, but please be careful. The spring is strong.

Now you should tighten up the zip ties and very gingerly make your way to the car. You will be getting the spring into position for the spring such that when you let the zip ties loose, the spring will spring into it’s forever home. I recommend using a tool to hold this and if you have a small pair of snips, or a razor, cut the zip ties and get excited for some boing!

I greased mine up with the grease that I had - probably less than ideal, but this is good now!

I hope this helps someone out there. I’ll try to keep these up just for the record - I know how difficult it is to cross reference parts for this car. Next up, suspension coils - since rockauto looks like they’ll be out indefinitely…

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