Below is the detail for modifying the tie bar in the rear of the Mercedes Sprinter/VW Crafter/MAN TGE rear door hinges if your doors open round onto the side of the van (270degree).
The 270degree hinge has two pivots in it. This means that as the door opens the hinge face changes its position in relation to the door skin as the door opens. If you had 180degree hinges on your van then the hinges would only have the outer pivot on the hinge and no modification is required.
By removing the tie bar in the back of the hinge, the wheel carrier bracket locks the inner most set of pivots and the door only opens on the outer pivots.
If you bolt the wheel carrier to the door with the tie bars in place, you won’t be able to open the door without breaking the carrier or the door skin.
You need to cut the red line with a grinder. Once the red has been cut, you can swing the two halves out and cut them off short as shown in green.
Above is a photo of a hinge with the bar removed.
Fitting is as follows:
Remove the tie bars (you do not need to remove the doors to complete this modification. With the bars removed be careful when opening/closing the door because you can actually get it to hit the light unit until the carrier is bolted on.
Hang the carrier on the hinges and carefully close the door. With the door closed you then need to drill through the hole that goes through the door skin.
If you are fitting your wheel carrier to a MWB with 270 doors then you will notice the sliding door side rear door has a larger than normal stopper on the rear door. This will interfere with the wheel carrier and needs replacing for the standard short type. There are a few methods of doing this - you could either buy and replace with the small one, cut the long one down if you have access to a bandsaw, or it is possible to swap the stoppers across the rear doors so the large stopper is on the right hand side.
Sprinter 906 part number for the small stopper is: a9067601228
Please note this guide is not applicable to Sprinter 907 2018+ models. Those 270 degree hinges need replacing for 180 degree versions. We have listed that information in another blog post.