Basement door "hinge" broken

[Navl AV8R]

Have a 2003 Pace Arrow and one of the doors (third door aft) under the dining table has a problem. The rear 12 inches of the horizontal trim piece that the door hinges on pulled loose from the side of the coach. It appears that the trim piece should be held against the side of the coach by hidden fasteners (screws?) but they appear to be broken off.

The result is that when the basement door is closed, the horizontal trim piece pulls away from the coach by ~1/8" and the holes in the side of the coach that should be holding the trim fasteners are visible.

Any one have an idea of how to fix this problem?

[GBBucket]

I've got the same problem with my 94 Pace Arrow. Does anybody have any experience with this? I'm reluctant to drill new holes and add additional screws without knowing more about it. I'd appreciate any input. Thanks

[Midniteoyl]

Can you please post a pic or two to give me a better idea of the problem? Mine are not like you describe..

[ga traveler]

Fleetwood used steel screws on these hinges. Replace with stainless and you will cure your problem. I think they are about 3/4 in. long. Take a good one out and measure to make sure. This is common with fleetwood.

[FRR2EYW]

The screws are hidden behind the horizontal trim piece. Same thing happened to me. Just make sure that if the hole is stripped out you pack the old hole and use a slightly longer screw if possible.

Is this another example of a controller telling a pilot what to do???

Thanks for your service.

[SarahW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GBBucket I've got the same problem with my 94 Pace Arrow. Does anybody have any experience with this? I'm reluctant to drill new holes and add additional screws without knowing more about it. I'd appreciate any input. Thanks

Howdy fellow Houstonian and welcome to the forum.

[GBBucket]

Is there a necessity to remove the metal trim piece to get to the old screws? Any knowledge on what the screws are going into? Can I drill new holes through the metal trim and add additional new screws?



I'll take vectors from anybody with the big picture who is dedicated to keeping me out of trouble.

Thanks

[FRR2EYW]

On my 2003 Arrow the screws went into the floor of the coach. If that is the case with yours, adding a hole between each of the existing ones should work just fine. The other option is to just pack the existing holes and reuse them.

Retired last New Years eve. After 33 years I had no more vectors left in the headset.

[GBBucket]

I was initially considering putting larger screws into the existing holes, but the metal strip covered the heads of the screws holding the hinge to coach. That is is why I consdered drilling new holes and adding new screws to hold both the metal strip and hinge to the coach. FRR2EYW did you remove the metal strip to repack the existing holes?

[Midniteoyl]

It looks like only every other hole was use in the first place, correct? Then simply use the other holes.. If not, I see no reason why you couldnt drill some yourself.. I would, however, glue the trim piece to the wood with some Epoxy and use stainless screws..

[FRR2EYW]

Repacked thru the holes. I did use stainless to prevent the problem from reappearing.

[GBBucket]

Thanks to all who helped me with this. The hinge is repaired. As it turned out it had been fixed once before. The every other hole apperance was infact the previous repair. What appeared to be the empty holes were actually the original steel screws which had rusted. The other screws were this previous repair which were self tapping screws of insufficient diameter and had broken (failed in tension) or pulled out. I just drilled out the appropriate holes, put in bigger staineless steel screws and the door hinge is firmly attached again. I couldn't have ventured forth with this without the guidance from those of you who have been here before. Thanks!

[Midniteoyl]