Sliding door won't stay open and locked

[daveyjo]

One of the two hallway sliding doors accessing the bedroom on my 2005 HR Scepter (the roadside door) can't be fully opened.  At the top road side edge of the door It looks like a 2x4 board has descended down from the ceiling by several inches, and it is perpendicular to the ceiling.  When opening the door, it stops several inches before being fully open - when it hits the 2x4.  I can't reach or touch it as it is way inside and at the top of the pocket for the door. I am stymied.  Anyone have a clue as what/how to deal with this??  Maybe it is some broken special device to keep the door open?  Maybe the 2x4 is supposed to descend into a hole in the top edge of the sliding door?  The little locking pin at the bottom edge of the door doesn't appear to have anything to do with this issue except I can't slide the door open enough to use it.

Dave Jones

2005 Scepter

[lake49068]

A picture would sure help.  I've had a door trolly failure and it was an interesting process to access and replace.

Adam

[daveyjo]

I'll post one next time I am at the coach.  Thanks.

Dave

[daveyjo]

Well, I finally got to take a picture of the issue.  I was wrong about something hanging down and preventing the door from opening fully.  See attached photo.  What the issue appears to be is that the screws holding the track to the ceiling are hitting on the roller mechanisms somehow and blocking the door from sliding/rolling.  I tightened the screws I could reach, moved a block of wood that kept both sliding doors stopping at the middle, and moved the problem door so it was right in the middle of the doorway.  Now I can't get the door back in it's compartment.  The sliding mechanism holding the door to the track appears to have some adjustment level but I haven't been able to position it to allow the door to move.  Does anyone know what the mechanisms are called?  I was hoping I could google the mechanism and see some instructions for it
.  Or better yet, does anyone on the forum know how to fix the door slider?

[lake49068]

Dave, can't help yet but perhaps over the weekend.  My coach is getting it's annual inspection/service and I should get it back later today.  Will inspect my sliding door, retrieve the spare trolly from my spare parts box and follow up.  Thinking the trolly adjusting mechanism may be the problem. 

Adam

[daveyjo]

Thanks.  I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

[jacwjames]

These are called pocket doors and all look about the same,  Here is a link to a common one.

https://johnsonhardware.com/200pd-pocket-door-hardware

The latch that you say rotates 180 degrees is what holds the trolley onto the door hardware that is fastened to the top of the door.  There is a shaft that slides into the mount on top of the door.  Each of these are adjustable up/down.  There are instructions in the above link to give you a better understanding.  You can also do a search on the internet on how to adjust a pocket door and there will a lot of videos out there. 

You may have to remove the piece of trim that is on either side of the pocket door, this will allow better access to reach the assembly.  The shaft has a nut on it that you can rotate to lift or lower the door for both clearance and alignment, there is usually a special wrench that comes with the system that fits the nut but it is also bent so you can reach up and get it onto the nut.  Not sure what options you have without this wrench other then completely removing the door to be able to adjust each of the nuts, not the best solution as it may take multiple iterations to get it adjusted right.

To remove the door rotate the latch until you can see that it has cleared the shaft.  You will may have to use a pry bar on the bottom of the door and lift it slightly and then used a screw driver to move the trolley away from the shaft.  Do the same on both of the trolleys.  This will free the door and you should be able to slide it out of the opening. 

FWIW, Ask me how I know this stuff, I installed 7 pocket doors in the new house we just built.  

 

[lake49068]

Great info from jacwjames!  Especially since I didn't get the Neptune back today.  Fired it up, saw a red warning light, shut-er down and gave them the keys back.  Will watch this thread and if I can help sometime next week, will chime in.

[daveyjo]

Thanks for the info.  Once I had the name "trolley" it was easy to Google and find pictures of them (sliding door trolley) and I now understand how they work.  Took the door off the track and out of the way.  Turns out one of the rollers was somehow jammed, but using a screwdriver on the bracket holding the rollers, it popped back in place and started working OK.  So I guess the problem was that one roller was out of alignment and wouldn't roll.  It now rolls, but the 3 roller assembly now has one slightly bent roller support arm.  It looks like a LOT of work to install a new roller assembly, so I am going to just reinstall the door and see if it will work before trying to remove the trim so I can replace the assembly.

Once again, thank for the help!

Dave Jones