Tale of the Door Lock

gator67 · 05-13-2011, 11:24 AM

The lock release, when I pulled the black handle on the inside of the door, started to feel strange lately, but I didn't think much of it. One morning, I went out to get the newspaper and when I returned, the door would not open from the outside. I got out my ladder and crawled through the, fortunately unlocked, driver's side window, to get into the RV. I tried the handle from the inside, but that didn't open the door either. I removed the cover from the handle and pushed the lever above and behind it with a screwdriver, and that released the door. Afraid to remove any other parts of the door for fear of what would spring out, I called a mobile RV service. He removed the deadbolt lever from the door, then the big panel. What I saw is the picture below. What happened was, the cable secured by the circled clamp had released it's grip, and the cable loosened, and no longer disengaged the lock to open the door. He pulled back the cable, tightened the clamp, checked the door locks, and left.

A couple of of days later, it was like the movie "Groundhog Day". I went out to get the paper and when I returned, the door would not open. I repeated the previous procedure... ladder, window, driver chair, unsuccessful pull of the door handle, removal of the handle cover. I saw that the cable had slipped again, but now I knew what to do. I removed the deadbolt lever and removed the big cover. I realized that the clamp securing the cable had bent a bit (don't know how) allowing enough slack for the cable to slip. When the RV service guy was there before, he suggested that they should have put a screw at the bottom of the clamp, as well as the ones at the top. So, I drilled a hole in the bottom of the clamp (at the red spot) and inserted a bolt with a lock washer. When I went to put the door back together, I couldn't get the dead bolt mechanism lined up and after several unsuccessful attempts, I regressed to my backup plan... which was panic, and try to get a hold of the RV guy again. Fortunately, he was right down the street, and came within 10 minutes. He got the deadbolt mechanism aligned (it seemed so easy when he did it!) and got the door back together. Everything worked... except the pos-A-loc wouldn't engage. I remembered from a diagram, and he knew, that there had to be just a tiny bit of slack in the cable. So, he loosened the cable in the clamp just a hair, and all seems to be working

Old Scout · 05-13-2011, 04:02 PM

Interesting--not sure why adjsuting the pos-i-lock cable would impact on the door handle not opening the lock. Would be more incline to adjust one of the two link rods [above or to the right in yr picture] so the handle moves the locking mechanism further--but what ever works.....

Algoma · 05-13-2011, 04:33 PM

I am also confused as that cable has nothing to do with the door lock. That clamp being loose would stop you closing the door as it would not release the pos-a-loc cam but it doesn't do anything else.

gator67 · 05-13-2011, 05:55 PM

I think the explanation is at PTL Pos-a-loc Cable Adjustment. Near the end it says:
Note: If pos-a- loc does not catch when door is in open position then the cable is too tight.

Algoma · 05-13-2011, 06:56 PM

Worse than that, if the cable is too tight you may not be able to open the door as it restricts how far you can pull the door handle. This was your original issue, but if the clamp was loose I would have expected the cable to loosen not tighten. However with that tight curve in the cable it is possible that that is what happened.

I must remember to leave a window unlocked!

Old Rv'er · 05-14-2011, 01:31 AM

Glad I don't have the Pos-a-lock, and guess that is why it was not used on later units. Don't know if the still manfacture it, and other Manf's use it or not.

However, when we took delivery of our unit, the door would not lock with the dead bolt. The Dealer tech said a new lock, I took it home and disasembled it, and all it needed was to be moved up a little on the door. Once I did that it worked fine.

Algoma · 05-14-2011, 06:27 AM

PTL Engineering made the doors and can still supply all replacement parts. I recently replaced my Pos-a-loc with a new one due to a damaged cam.

gator67 · 05-14-2011, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Algoma

I am also confused as that cable has nothing to do with the door lock. That clamp being loose would stop you closing the door as it would not release the pos-a-loc cam but it doesn't do anything else.

Guess I mis-spoke a bit... it's actually the door "catch", rather than the lock I was having the problem with.