Sliding Door - removal

[steves]

My sliding door came off the rear inside slide hanger. Anybody know how to remove the door and re-hang?

[tanner1070]

Steve...I just went through that last week. At the top of the door are two hangers. There is a mechanism that rotates to release each hanger. On mine, because the trim on each side of the pocket door hangs down about 5 inches and prevented me from actually being able to see, I had to rely on touch. The rotating release will rotate approx. 180 degrees. The door should drop down. In my case, I had to use a block of wood to knock on side of the trim out a couple inches to allow the door to have enough clearance to come completely out of the pocket. Not sure if they are all the exactly same, but I hope you don't have to do that. The hard part was putting the screws back into the pocket door track. I replaced all the screws with hex head self tapping screws with some wood glue on them. I also added several extra screws for additional support. The self tapping screws easily went through the track and I could put a little more torque on them. Several MOC members had suggested I have a socket welded to the end of a 3/8" X 4 foot steel rod. Then using a drill motor to drive them in. Don't worry if they go in at an angle, they are solid and there is plenty of clearance to the top of the pocket door.installation. There is no way to get an arm or anything else into the pocket door space. Good luck. Don

[tanner1070]

Steve...I just went through that last week. At the top of the door are two hangers. There is a mechanism that rotates to release each hanger. On mine, because the trim on each side of the pocket door hangs down about 5 inches and prevented me from actually being able to see, I had to rely on touch. The rotating release will rotate approx. 180 degrees. The door should drop down. In my case, I had to use a block of wood to knock on side of the trim out a couple inches to allow the door to have enough clearance to come completely out of the pocket. Not sure if they are all the exactly same, but I hope you don't have to do that. The hard part was putting the screws back into the pocket door track. I replaced all the screws with hex head self tapping screws with some wood glue on them. I also added several extra screws for additional support. The self tapping screws easily went through the track and I could put a little more torque on them. Several MOC members had suggested I have a socket welded to the end of a 3/8" X 4 foot steel rod. Then using a drill motor to drive them in. Don't worry if they go in at an angle, they are solid and there is plenty of clearance to the top of the pocket door.installation. There is no way to get an arm or anything else into the pocket door space. Good luck. Don

[steves]

Thanks for the good explanation. My front hanger is OK and I'm trying to re-engage the inner mechanism but the slide in the track keeps moving and as you said it's working by feel. We're on the road and I may just wait until we get home to try again to fix.

[Flymutt]

I had this happen and not only did the rear roller come off the door, it fell down to the floor at the rear of the pocket area I went to a local RV shop, got a new roller assembly and ended up removing the bedroom-side trim (about a 3" board) at the top of the door in order to access the track. It also helped to loosen the track screws that held the track to the ceiling. Best of luck!

[steves]

Thanks for the tip. Before it came off the one hangers, it was hanging crooked. I suspect the track has to be re-supported as well.

[Flymutt]

There is adjustment in the hanger-wheel but it's a trial and error type thing. I got mine to close tight at the bottom of the door with less than a 1/8" gap at the top and called it a day. Not perfect but my rig is a 2005 3475 so I've allowed for some "personalization". Hope you can get yours fixed without too many bruised nuckles. It can be a frustrating fix.

[steves]

Yep frustration...know what you want to do but hard to get access to work on it.