Sliding Door

BobW · 08-23-2007, 09:02 PM

Anyone know how to get the sliding door out of it's pocket? Ever done this or watched it done?

maltruck8 · 08-23-2007, 09:51 PM

If you are talking about the bedroom pocket door. From the bedroom, the board over the door has two wood plugs rubber glue holds them. under them are the screws that hold the board. Remove them and you can get to the door hangers. There is a small plastic piece that you can move and get it down easy. If it has fallen down in the pocket. Take off the cold air return vent on the kitchen side if there is one. It is held on with 4 screws. Hope this helps, if not ignore me. Jim

BobW · 08-24-2007, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maltruck8

If you are talking about the bedroom pocket door. From the bedroom, the board over the door has two wood plugs rubber glue holds them. under them are the screws that hold the board. Remove them and you can get to the door hangers. There is a small plastic piece that you can move and get it down easy. If it has fallen down in the pocket. Take off the cold air return vent on the kitchen side if there is one. It is held on with 4 screws. Hope this helps, if not ignore me. Jim

Helps alot. This door has been in, and out, of the shop for 1.5 years now. DT is sending out new door. The dealer just keeps adding more drywall screws to the top metal rail. I need to get the door out, plug the holes and add new panhead screws.

Motor31 · 08-24-2007, 08:34 AM

The door is suspended from the rail on a couple of nylon mounts that have a small lever. Moving the lever allows the mount to drop out of the track. It's about a 90 degree movement. You'll see it once you get the wood trim away from the track in the passageway over the stairs. In our rig that piece of wood is in the bedroom side of the door. It sounds complicated but once you see it you will find it's pretty simple.

Those same nylon mounts are also adjustable to level the door in the track.

The track is only held in with screws. In our rig they used a total of 4 small 1" long screws. The door fell into the basement on the first day we moved. The solution was to install about five 2"+ screws so they had more support in the roof support. So far so good.

BobW · 08-24-2007, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Motor31

The track is only held in with screws. In our rig they used a total of 4 small 1" long screws. The door fell into the basement on the first day we moved. The solution was to install about five 2"+ screws so they had more support in the roof support. So far so good.

You don't know how thick the wood is that the aluminum track screws to, do you? Seems like 2" screw are too long if the wood is 3/4" thick.

bstark · 08-24-2007, 07:36 PM

As Mike has said, use longer screws of perhaps a larger diameter as well. I believe on mine that you're not just going into the wood but into an aluminum crossmember as well and the little short guys just don't cut it.

There is a wooden door stop screwed up into the channel that you must remove to get to the screw at the inboard end of the track to replace it with a longer one as well.

It is possible to remove the door (with spousal help) by doing it all through the cold air return grill. Undo the nylon lever for the truck that's closest to the opening and slide door partially closed with your spouse holding the latch side of door from dropping then get a grip on the other side of the door with your left hand and having already undone the nylon lever ease the door hanger out of it's truck and allow it to drop slightly to rest on the bottom of the cavity, then get down off the ladder and zip over to take the door from your wifes hands.

The thing with the door closing by itself while travelling can be addressd by removing that piece of wood with the metal cup for the door's safety pin and drilling the cup right through and then remounting that piece with 2 screws, again, of a longer type. Now your latch will go right down into that cup and all of the jouncing in the world won't lift the door enough for the latch to escape the cup.

BobW · 08-25-2007, 12:52 PM

Thanks bstark. So far I've got the door loose and it's laying on an angle part way into the basement. I tried to take the door out because there going to replace it anyway and were going on a week long trip before the door arrives. The problem is getting the door out completely. It doesn't look like there is enough room to slide it out. Do I need to take the kitchen cabinet apart?

bstark · 08-25-2007, 07:34 PM

Bob: On mine it was possible to carefully close the door while it was separated from it's track and then pull the bottom end towards the kitchen and walk away with it. If you cannot get enough clearance to remove the door completely that way then it may be necessary to remove that trim piece at the top bedroom side and take the door out then but it should be a walk-in-the-park the other way.

Worse case scenario, you may have to go into the 'basement' and lift the door up to slide it closed but if you have the cold air return grill removed above the pantry, you should be able to lift the door enough to ease it closed and out of it's cavity and pitch it to the nearest dumpster from there.

While the door is removed would be an excellant time to re-do that latching pocket at the bottom of the cavity that the safety pin on the door goes down into by drilling it straight through so that the pin can get a good purchase and stay seated throughout rough roads perhaps even provide additional screws to fasten the small wooden block that the cavity piece is fastened to for added strength.

Good luck Bob.

BobW · 08-26-2007, 12:10 PM

Thanks again bstark. I just can't see this door ever coming out without accidenty dropping it into the basement before our trip. So, I attached the trucks back the way they were and slid the door back into it's home. I'll keep it in place with the curtain rod while traveling and let the local joker do the job. By the way, have you ever see such a great job of wiring down in the basement area?

bstark · 08-26-2007, 08:38 PM

Bob: They build em fast to qualify for the end-of-week bonus and that means leaving the wires laying on top of tanks and other nasty stuff. Troubleshooting is made that much harder when the wires just run helter-skelter but I guess a challenge is good for older minds like mine anyway.