I don't know what you call this part but our closet as two accordion style doors that meet in the middle. One of the doors was getting stuck. I removed it and found that the part shown in the picture below is some kind of guide with a spring that is supposed to ride in the track above it. It is stuck and won't move freely up and down. I tried spraying it WD-40 but that didn't help. Is this part replaceable and if so, what is it called and how do you remove the old one?
David, On bi-folding doors, there are two pieces at the top of the door. The one in the pic is the pivot. Usually the post goes into a metal bracket inside the track. The pivot is usally glued into the top of the door. You might be able to remove it with a pair of pliers. All of the hardware for bi-folding doors are usually replaceable. Just check your local hardware store and tell them you're looking for bi- folding door parts.
If I=92m looking at what I think I=92m looking at then that part is not sup= posed to move freely up and down but is supposed to move up and down when y= ou turn a nut that is probably under that plastic ring which probably doesn= =92t belong there.
The OP stated accordion style doors thus I think that he means those vinyl type door that actually move together and apart like an accordion and NOT bi-fold wood doors.....just a guess.
The reason I know it's supposed to move up and down is because the pin on the other, functional set of doors does move freely up and down. There's a spring inside to push it up with some moderate force.
What you have in the picture is a bottom pivot that goes on the bottom; the= top pivot is spring loaded and move up and down the bottom pivot is contro= lled by a nut. Someone may have placed a bottom pivot on the top. Remove it= and place it on the bottom. It should come out when you pull on it; you ma= y need to pry it out with a screwdriver.
That's the top pivot pin. It is spring mounted. The pin, spring and plastic collar are all one unit. It should be a press fit. Grab the plastic collar with pliers, pull and twist. It should come right out. It can be replaced at any hardware store. It does not ride in the track. It sits in a pivot hole near the end of the track.
That is true for the bottom pivot but not the top. The top pin is spring loaded and does indeed move up & down freely. The plastic ring *does* belong there because it is the top of the casing for the pin.
If worse goes to worst you can drill it out. Before doing so, pick up your new pivot and socket at any hardware place so you'll know what size hole you'll need for the new pin and socket. Not likely you'll be able to purchase just the one, they are usually bagged into a hardware set, not expensive.
You should be able to get the old one out, though. They are just a nylon piece pushed into a hole in the wood. Tried prying under the cap with a screwdriver? Is the cap big enough to get a purchase with vice grips? Try sticking needle nose pliers into the hole, opening them and turning.
The whole thing should be removable from the wooden part of the door. Usually, you pry it out with a screwdriver. Now by "whole thing" I mean the pin that is stuck and the bushing into which is is supposed to move up and down. The pin is NOT supposed to come out of the bushing section.
Once the part is removed, you may be able to free the pin. My first choice would be to slather it with Liquid Wrench or (better) PB Blaster available at the auto parts store.
If one of these penetrating oils won't loosen the pin, that the part to the Big Box or hardware store and say "Gimme one like this."
I bought a new one. I could not find an exact replacement. The pivot pin itself was the same size but the part that anchors into the door was much bigger so I drilled out the old one and hammered in the new one. The problem now is that the top of the door is rubbing the top of the frame as it starts to close which is why I removed the whole thing to begin with. If I move the sliding link part a little toward the middle where the pivot pin is inserted, then it doesn't rub. However, this makes the doors extend too far to the center and then they hit the doors on the opposite side before they are fully closed. I think somehow the frame has either swelled or something is not square any more. Also, the bottom pin is adjustable but it's screwed in as far as possible to give the maximum amount of clearance at the top.
The top pivot pin fits in a hole in a (usually) nylon slug within the track. That slug (fixture) is moveable; it will be held in place by a small bolt or bolts either at the edges of the fixture or in the central area. Loosen the slug and slide it as needed to square up the door.
NOTE: it can take some fiddling because you need to be able to close the door, move it and the slug, then open the door again so that you can tighten the slug. The hard part is not moving the slug again when opening the door. The trick is to loosen the slug just enough so that you need a fair amount of force to move the door and it when adjusting.
In your particular case, try moving the *bottom* pin. The bracket it fits in isn't infinitely adjustable like the top one but has some way of adjusting the pivot position; usually, a serrated slot. Moving the bottom pin closer to the wall will drop the outside corner of the top. If moving the bottom pivot drops the top too much and it touches the other door, adjust the top pivot again. As I said, it takes some fiddling.
It may be that the *OTHER* door needs to be adjusted. Your goal is to get each door top parallel to the track and an even reveal in the center where they met when closed. When that is done, the reveal between the doors and the walls at the pivot end may be skewed, can't help it, the walls aren't plumb and/or the track isn't level.
Adjust the evenness of the door tops by turning the bottom pivot up or down as needed. Ideally, raise them to just below the track edge so that they can't jump the track. The door bottoms may wind up at slightly different heights, can't help it, the track and/or floor are not level.
Worst case, remove the doors and trim as needed. If the doors once fit the space, that should not be needed.
Yesterday, after hours of shifting, adjusting, and pushing, I realized that the bottom pin is exactly as you described. I kept thinking that the bottom pin fit into the hole in the bottom plate. It soon became apparent (if you call a few hours "soon") that this was a dead end. That's when I repositioned the bottom pin into one of the serrated slots. Next, the problem was that I could not just put the top pin into its respective hole and slide the doors into the track. Even pushing the pin all the way down didn't give it enough clearance. So I had to tilt the doors to the side while pushing on the pin and then slowly line everything up. It took a few tries to find the correct positioning of the bottom pin and if I ever have to do this again, I will pay attention to where the bottom pin lives before I remove the doors!
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