How to adjust a patio door ?

[Robert J.]

I have a patio door in our house. It has two sliding glass doors inside a larger frame.The doors (panels) are removable. It is an older type made about 1960 ish. There are no lock parts available at the local Lowes.

The problem is this. The glass in one of the double sliding doors is slipping inside it's aluminum frame. I took the door down yesterday and it appears that the bottom aluminum frame is wider at the bottom than the top, which indicates it has slipped out of place somewhere. There are what appears to be adjustment screws on the top and bottom but the only seem to adjust the height of the door when in the larger door frame. If I disassemble the frame for that one panel, in order to secure the glass, will there be any surprises in there ?

Nothing appears to be broken and it looks fine but it is apparently coming apart. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[jim]

i am in a similar fix.. got a house i had built in 1971.. the plastic spline that goes around the glass is similar to what goes around the glass in the windows around the whole house, but its bigger in the patio door.. i tried to get some to put in the area around the glass, but cannot... i did get a lock(new handle with key lock in it) at home depot.. i had to grind down the metal from a 1/2 in. thick piece to a

3/8 in. think piece... friend at work put it on a commerical grade floor grinder and made it thinner, looked like it was made for the door after he was finished with it... you might have to make some parts for the old patio door if you need them and cannot find them on the net... do a search for patio door glass, etc on or i went through alot of sites and finally gave up on the spline when a local old time glass guy told me that he has it listed in his catalogs, but cant get it as they dont make it anymore(the spline).. i hope he is wrong,but i would like to prove it by finding it....

[Terry]

I agree you may have to find or make parts for a door like that. We have double-double sliding glass doors (that is two outer and two inner doors in the same door box with a four inch space between.the two sets of doors. Each ,single thickness glass, door (four of them) are quite heavy and there has been a problem (over 33 years) with, a) Wearing out of the wheels within the base of the doors that run/slide on the tracks. Therefore the doors would drop and would not align or mesh together properly. b) Snow, tree leaves and other debris get caught in the tracks, where the doors enter into the side parts of the door frame and mesh together in the middle. his also caused wear and clogging. Constant cleaning out of the debris required. Also maintenance/adjustment and on occasion making replacement wheel assemblies and level adjustments have been required. With ours it is possible to disassemble the door to get at the wheel mechanisms and the edges of the glass to install new moulding that holds the glass in place. It's tricky and the single piece of glass in each door is heavy and has sharp edges. If one was to break the glass it would probably cost $50 each, or more? Also some of the original aluminum screws broke off (Ah!). Have used stainless screws for all replacements. Terry.