BROKEN LATCH PREVENTION - Double Mirror Bedroom Sliding Rear Closet Door FIX - SEA or Shower Enclosure of America

[Tom Cherry]

Over the years, in my 2009 Camelot, I have replaced the latches on the rear closet doors…maybe 3 times.  Yesterday as we were putting in the hanging clothes and getting ready to leave, my “trained and sharp eyed” DW, made one of DREADED COMMENTS.  SOMETHING is wrong with the ROAD SIDE door.  You need to LOOK at it.

Bottom line, yes, it had resistance at the very end of the travel…maybe starting 12” from closure.  I gently closed it and said…you’re RIGHT.  Got to the CG and after our beach walk, I got our a high powered LED tactical flashlight and started looking.

Bottom line….there are TWO issues that I found.  One was an old one and fhe other the REAL CAUSE of the latch failures.  

The failures come from the constant VIBRATION normally occurring in the Motor Home. We have 70K on it and have been “out” over TWO TOTAL YEARS since we bought it new….that is twice the average MH usage.

Monaco used, and this MAY NOT BE AN ISSUE FOR YOU, very short mounting screws for the upper aluminum track where the overhead rollers run.  NOTE…over the years, I periodically tighten the adjustable roller hanger (hex head) mounting screws. 

BUT….my issue was now obviously an assembly defect.  On MINE, there are two mounting screws at the ends….or there are only two screws holding the aluminum track to the header or frame of the closet opening.  They are about 6” from the end.  You must look under and up and also get inside the closet to see them.  ONE was missing!  BINGO, it hit me….I found one of them a few years ago and had “kept it” in a small jewelry box in the bedroom.  I used a #2 Square Drive bit and started to tighten the other….it FELL OUT.  Totally stripped out.  I used my old trick of driving in a large toothpick and snapping it flush.  NOPE, hole is fully stripped out.

I rummaged around in my “box of screws” I carry.  Found three “deck screws”.  The original screws were maybe 1/2” long and had a round washer style head.  My deck screws were maybe on size smaller, but were 1” or so long.  I also kept looking and found that there was another smaller  PREDRILLED mounting screw hole on the aluminum track.  It is on the outside edge in the “vicinity” of the two screws.  I drove in a deck screw into it.  The track was sagging or pulled down about 3/16 of each end.  Once the deck screw was tightened, the track was now firmly against the header.  I then used 2 more deck screws, in the two “angled” holes.  Sort of tight and the Square Head drive would have worked better, but I didn’t know if I could find 1” X 6 SH deck or wood or tapping screws. 

On the other end, I used a combination of a deck screw and the original screws, which still had good wood.  It is now tight….

THEN….IT HIT ME.  The door latches or the striker plate on the vertical side of the frame were MISALIGNED.  Each time I had installed a new striker plate, I did it correctly per SEA.  You engage the striker plate to the spring loaded door latch…and shut the door.  There is a piece of double stick tape on the back of the stricker plate.  Use a screwdriver or knife blade and hold the striker plate TIGHT and open the door.  THEN drive in the screws.  In the past, I had glued in a small dowel or a few toothpicks and predrilled the pilot hole to center.  

NOW…today I will remove the plates and reinatall the strikers as the lathes do NOT align…

OK….ONE FINAL “FIX”.  The CURB door is the one on the inside and the ROAD door on the outside. On my frame, the ROAD frame is too narrow to get the back screws engaged.  I had installed a 1/2” thick wooden extension….so that the frame where the striker is mounted is wider.  Painted black…you never notice it.  Yours may be OK, but my frame was too narrow.

FWIW, you can STILL buy the OEM latches and strikers from SEA.  Just GOOGLE Shower Enclosure of America. Traico Marinoff is the parts guy….he is great…

Pictures are not necessary….just use a flashlight and look up into the track on each end.  If you see holes and no screws….BINGO.  Your track MAY have the a screw in the smaller hole on the outside edge of the track…or not.  I now have THREE screws securely tightened on each end and the track is tight against the upper plate or header….

 

 

[MyronTruex]

I am sure these latches have been suggested before. Since replacing my broken ones more than once, one of this mounted mid point has served me well. 

As a side note. My bottom track had square headed screws about three inches long where they were near impossible to remove due to the slide hiding them. Once finally removed so I could access the smaller of two engine covers, I used long drywall screws and drilled straight down, versus along the front edges where the square heads were. Now when I need to access the engine covers, the closet doors can be removed easily.

Another mod for the closet is a motion detector. That place is darker than a sack full of black cats. The little dome light that you have to turn on is useless so some led strings are in place. Now when we open the door the closet lights up nicely. Dreambaby Sliding Glass Door and Window Child Safety Locks - Model L806

[Tom Cherry]

2 hours ago, MyronTruex said:

I am sure these latches have been suggested before. Since replacing my broken ones more than once, one of this mounted mid point has served me well. 

As a side note. My bottom track had square headed screws about three inches long where they were near impossible to remove due to the slide hiding them. Once finally removed so I could access the smaller of two engine covers, I used long drywall screws and drilled straight down, versus along the front edges where the square heads were. Now when I need to access the engine covers, the closet doors can be removed easily.

Another mod for the closet is a motion detector. That place is darker than a sack full of black cats. The little dome light that you have to turn on is useless so some led strings are in place. Now when we open the door the closet lights up nicely. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UAEWNC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yes, that would work.   But the problem is not in the latches, but in the upper track where the rollers that support the sliding glass doors drops down on either end.  Thus the doors will stop sliding “freely” in the last 8 - 10” of travel.  That caused the OEM SEA latches to be in a bind or not aligned.

After fixing the track where the doors are hung or supported yesterday, I the realigned, which is easy as you just “click in the striker” and shut the door.  Mark the edges and open and removed the “closed striker” and then mount it within the score lines.

All is well now.  But until you rehang or tighten and make sure the upper track is secured at the ends to the top plate, the doors will be ratchety or hard to close….

ALL FIXED NOW.  That latch is cool….but the SEA OEM latches are built tough…but misalignment due to a sagging or drooping roller carrier track will eventually break them