Patio glass door roller repair - help needed

[orangetrader]

I have a pair of aluminum glass doors in my patio. One of the doors does not roll right, very easy to go off track and sometimes have to push real hard. spraying WD40 on the track did not help. So today I removed the door and looked at it's bottom - yuck. Some dead roaches a lot of junk. I cleaned them out of the channel and then examined the rollers - they seem to be in good "shape" but had rust on them. I sprayed more WD40 on the rollers, the track, and put it back after the cleaning - not any better.

So I think I need to replace the rollers. But I cannot figure out a way to remove them. There is no visible screws or bolts from the outside. I tried to look inside, but with all the grease and dirt I cannot see into it clearly especially with that yucky "mini brush" thingie attached to the bottom of the channel. I then tried to shove a screw driver inside and poked around and the roller will "rotate" out by 90 degrees - still attached to the door but showing most of the wheel. But nothing exposed indicate how I can remove them.

There is a screw on the side towards the bottom of the door, I removed it, but nothing seem to come loose. I hope the roller replacement does not mean removing the entire bottom channel and detaching it from the glass panel?

Can someone help? I am not sure I provided enough information to indicate what type of doors I have or are they mostly the same?

Thanks in advance,

O

[Murray Peterson]

"orangetrader" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

That's the height adjustment for the roller, which is probably the only thing you need to adjust to fix your problem.

[orangetrader]

I think I just made things worse. After I removed the outside screw I placed a flat head screw driver into the channel and pried it loose a bit. The vertical channel yielded about a half inch from the bottom channel. I saw another screw hidden inside the channel. Not sure what that's for. So I unscrewed that too. The roller did not come loose so that screw was for something else. But I tried to screw it back and it went in a little and will not yield anymore. Whatever it was screwed on to either came loose or things are no longer aligned whatever it was aligned to. I have no idea.

Now I tried to screw the vertical channel back to the bottom, it will not go all the way in because the inside screw is sticking too far out (it won't go in further no matter now hard I twist the screw driver) and it is in the way.

I am not sure what I should do. Help!!!

O

[orangetrader]

Well the first screw I removed was at the bottom of the frame on the outside. It is what I think held the frame together. There is a slit below that and inside of it is another hidden screw. I then removed that too and nothing came off. Now I cannot put it back to it's original location. That screw I believe is the height adjustment screw I now have removed it totally such that I can't screw it back in (will not go back in fully) and I cannot even screw the outside screw back in place since this screw is sticking out half way.

O

[Joe Bobst]

Many glass shops are capable of dealing with sliding glass doors. They have to be able to diassemble and reassemble to replace glass. Call a few in your yellow pages and see if they can help you. Good luck.

Joe

[effi]

wouldn't use wd40, maybe triflow with teflon, etc.

[davefr]

I know on some doors such as Pella, the roller assemble is simply press fit into the frame.

Spray some silicone spray into the cavity, bend a coat hander and wrap it around the roller and use the claw end of a hammer to lever it out.

Go to the door manufacturers service center to get a matching set of roller replacement. There are also online suppliers. Just do a google search.

I wouldn't try and salvage an old worn out roller assembly.

[orangetrader]

Well looks like I have managed to remove the height adjsutment screw and not able to put it back in, and now the roller is totally useless. I am not able to remove it still, and have no idea how it can be removed. May be it cannot be without removing the entire bottom "molding", but I don't want to loosen the glass molding attachment.

The brand is "Yale Orgon" does that help?

O

[John‰]                      Â]

[Harry K]

Looks like you are down to what someone else suggested. Load up the door and take it to your local door/window shop. NOT a big box store. You want a shop that actually knows what they are doing.

I was sure that I also had to replace the rollers last week. Being just out of hospital I called a local handiman type, he came out and spent an hour cleaning gunk out of the track and from under door. Rolls easy now, no new rollers needed.

Harry K

[effi]

their home page

if you can get it back together, may be able to remove the rust from the rollers with steel wool, fine or finer grit, to great effect, also clean tracks with steel wool, then coat with spray triflow with teflon, or lubricant of your choice

[Terry]

"orangetrader" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

We had to cope with a similar repair. Our six foot wide is an assembly of four door units (the two outer sliders are interchangeable with the two inner). Each sliding unit is quite heavy. Keep track etc. clear of debris (leaves, twigs, dead bugs, bird seed from outside bird feeders, snow, ice etc) in all seasons; a thin bladed knife and a shop vacuum are best. Several times over 34 years necessary to do maintenance of the rollers (ball bearing wheels about one inch in diameter). Finally several bearings corroded. At least one of the doors 'dropped' and began scraping and damaging the track. It was necessary to partially and carefully disassemble the each door from around the glass; remove the bottom section and tap out and rebuild the eight roller assemblies. Not having identical roller wheels available some modification involving fairly straightforward metal work was involved. Scrapes and gouges in the track were sanded out. Have since seen some repair 'kits' which comprise new wheels at a local building supplies outlet, at a cost IIRC of around 12 to 14 dollars per kit? I think that if suitable I would need eight kits for our application (So parts cost about $100 to $120? Plus self labour). Presumably four kits would be needed for a two door unit? The height adjustment is a sort of sloping wedge/slot in the roller bearing wheel assembly. It's operated by a screw located in the edge of each door unit and is somewhat pretty tricky to repair and readjust after reinstallation. The height adjustment is important in order to get the doors to line up correctly with the door box and where each pair of doors meshes together when closed. If tools and spare materials and/or a suitable workshop not available it may be necessary to contact a window/door or suitable 'glass shop'; suggest that a small family type business are more likely to have the time, know-how/experience and tools rather than a 'big' outfit which basically sells only one or two brands of doors/windows.?

[Harry K]

Looks like you are down to what someone else suggested. Load up the door and take it to your local door/window shop. NOT a big box store. You want a shop that actually knows what they are doing.

I was sure that I also had to replace the rollers last week. Being just out of hospital I called a local handiman type, he came out and spent an hour cleaning gunk out of the track and from under door. Rolls easy now, no new rollers needed.

Harry K