donor door compatibility

[rentalrider]

Probably a stupid newb question, but will the doors off an '84 j truck fit a '79 cherokee chief 2-door? I've gotten conflicting opinions. and for what it's worth it's a widetrack, 2-dr and has what appears to be round latch bars (if that makes any sense). Thanks in advance. ;)

[1983 j10]

the doors are the same just the internals changed.

[rentalrider]

when you say internals, what do you mean? It's manual crank, etc so I'm assuming you mean the door latch. How difficult to switch over? I'm looking to get these donor doors to save from having to fix the others. Not wanting to get into gutting these to make them work but if it's an easy fix, I'll do. OR... could i switch over the latch plate on the truck side? Thanks again.

[Ristow]

the latch changed significantly. in '78/'79.

[1983 j10]

they arent too bad to change the internals in like the door latch is pretty easy if thats all your going to change.


when you say internals, what do you mean? It's manual crank, etc so I'm assuming you mean the door latch. How difficult to switch over? I'm looking to get these donor doors to save from having to fix the others. Not wanting to get into gutting these to make them work but if it's an easy fix, I'll do. OR... could i switch over the latch plate on the truck side? Thanks again.

[rentalrider]

could i change the truck side? sounds like it would be easier.

[Ristow]

the latch bolts in differently,and the post changed,and also bolt on differently. it's not a direct swap in any way.

[1983 j10]

on the truck side right not the door

the latch bolts in differently,and the post changed,and also bolt on differently. it's not a direct swap in any way.

[Ristow]

both.

[1983 j10]

ok but you can change the latch in the donor door to make it work on the truck.


both.

[goldhammer]

Most all 79's had the later style lock assy's. They are probably both the "horseshoe on a stick" type latch. If so, it is jst a matter of changing the window regulator if the doner had power windows and going to manual or vice-versa.

The older style had a caged gear type setup that is radically different that the later stlye.

[Knuck]

The doors and latches both changed as Ristow mentioned. They are not interchangeable as far as I know. If you have a 79 and down rig I would hunt up a pair of pre 79 doors. Same goes for 80 on up. My son put a set of Wagoneer doors on his j20. They went on with no issues what so ever.

[Songman]

I'm not changing the internals of the door. I am just going to install the 87 GW latch onto the 79 J10 pillar post. Seems to be the easiest way. The 79 latch has one bolt at the top and two at the bottom. The 87 has one at the top and one at the bottom. Easy enough to redrill and change. I spent quit a bit of time comparing the two vehicles yesterday and that seems to be the easiest way. If you want you old truck to be original, then you have to change the door internals.

[Ristow]

the changeover is kinda cloudy. i have a '79 here with late latches. worth looking at the donor vehicle,may be a match.

[JeepBountyHunter]

A guy on here with the handle kimbrough..I think this is right been a long time, did a write up that I can't find ...might be cached on one of my older puters...but with some work, you could fab in the newer style latch assembly, but best way to go about it is finding donors that come from the same style. I had this dilemma with a 79 Cherokee Chief once...it was essentially what seemed to be a 'repapered' 78 model that had the first generation style latch assembly...
Good luck.
Aaron

[1983 j10]

you should be able to take the latch out of the door you are replacing and bolt it in the new door.

[JeepBountyHunter]

I don't have door's here to compare, but I believe and iirc the bolt pattern changed...around the center hole the latch bolts up to...
Same thing on the post side...

you should be able to take the latch out of the door you are replacing and bolt it in the new door.

[1983 j10]

i have a door from a 77j10 and one from a 88gw and the latch holes look the same.


I don't have door's here to compare, but I believe and iirc the bolt pattern changed...around the center hole the latch bolts up to...
Same thing on the post side...

[Songman]

I'll take pictures of my two tomorrow to post. I assume the 79 J10 to be early style and the 87 GW to be late style. You could change the guts of the door but I like I said, unless you just want to keep your truck original style, there is no reason to. The pillar on the truck and the GW are shaped identical. People can do it how they want but I am doing it the easy way and just changing the latch on the pillar. Of course, I am using the late doors on purpose for all the power goodies, plus I am using the rest of the GW interior so I need the door panels and everything to match anyway.

[ricbee]

The latch was changed in the middle of the'79 model year,I have seen'79's with either the round or claw style.Never seen an'80-up8 with round,or'78 or earlier with claw style.I have owned(and scrapped)a few'79's,as they were VERY popular around these parts in those days.

[Songman]

I still have some daylight so figured I would go on out and snap a couple of pictures. I put a cloth tape up for scale. Wish I had taken a little more time and lined it up so it would be the same in both pictures.

This is the door latch comparison. The holes are close but will have to be modified to work.
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo182/Songman64/Cars/Jeep%20J%20truck/door.jpg

This is the pillar latch comparison. Again, the holes are close but will take a little bit of modifying. But I would rather modify holes for these two bolts than have to take the inside of the doors all apart and modify the door latch. I have a feeling the top bolt hole is the same.
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo182/Songman64/Cars/Jeep%20J%20truck/pillar.jpg

It looks like a pretty straightforward swap to me. As I said earlier, the shape of the pillar is the same. Once I remove the latch from the 87 GW, I can make a template and then just make the new holes in the pillar of the J10. Easy peasy.

[JeepBountyHunter]

Songman...I went back in time to something cached from 2002...but couldn't find all the pic's...or the write up..but your on the right track, I'll post the scattered remants from that old post below...the pic's that I have left that is..
I still have some daylight so figured I would go on out and snap a couple of pictures. I put a cloth tape up for scale. Wish I had taken a little more time and lined it up so it would be the same in both pictures.

This is the door latch comparison. The holes are close but will have to be modified to work.
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo182/Songman64/Cars/Jeep%20J%20truck/door.jpg

This is the pillar latch comparison. Again, the holes are close but will take a little bit of modifying. But I would rather modify holes for these two bolts than have to take the inside of the doors all apart and modify the door latch. I have a feeling the top bolt hole is the same.
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo182/Songman64/Cars/Jeep%20J%20truck/pillar.jpg

It looks like a pretty straightforward swap to me. As I said earlier, the shape of the pillar is the same. Once I remove the latch from the 87 GW, I can make a template and then just make the new holes in the pillar of the J10. Easy peasy.

[JeepBountyHunter]

Okay this is all I have left of another member's post about modifying older style door latch catch on the pillar side with a 79 and up style door catch. (It shows that some new holes are needed to bolt a later style latch onto an earlier style ...thanks to songman above we can see that a similar mod is needed on the door side...but it all depends on what your swapping...
Hope I get these in the right order and a thanks to the member who did this originally, I don't have the write up but I think, it was Kimbrough???

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a140/JeepBountyHunter/untitledfasd.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a140/JeepBountyHunter/untitledfasd.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a140/JeepBountyHunter/untitledfafaf.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a140/JeepBountyHunter/untitledfffsddd.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a140/JeepBountyHunter/untitledss.jpg
Songman take it from here...

Aaron

[rentalrider]

Well, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. I appreciate all the input here but I'm happy to say I was mistaken. New to the FSJ world I was calling the latch I had the "round style" as the horseshoe opening was round. (all stuff you don't have to think about with cj's :rolleyes: ) I'm happy to report (Rick, sorry about that) I was mistaken. After looking at pics, it's the later "horshoe on a stick" that i have. Much appreciated gentlemen... saved me a bunch of time, money and energy- none of which i have much of. :thumbsup:

[JeepBountyHunter]

Hey no problem, it's what were here for...and yeh...sounds like you have a direct swap there..
Good luck.

[Songman]

I still have a week or two before I get ready to make the swap. I am still cleaning and disassembling now. Hopefully things will start going together soon.

[mud89]

Most all 79's had the later style lock assy's. They are probably both the "horseshoe on a stick" type latch. If so, it is jst a matter of changing the window regulator if the doner had power windows and going to manual or vice-versa.

The older style had a caged gear type setup that is radically different that the later stlye.

I had a look to the parts catalog 74-80 :
- it seems that the latch type changed during 1979, and so all the 1979's don't have the same type of latch
- the change occured at the same time for the trucks and the cherokee