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Steele · 02-04-2020, 01:40 PM

I’ve know there was a problem for awhile now and actually replaced one but today while sitting with my chair under the passenger side slide on my DSDP 4018 I looked up and most of the little black screws were missing. Well I grabbed the screwdriver and went around to check the tightness of those that were left before I got the drill out to put in the new ones.

Lo and behold every. single. one. of them was broken off!
They are the 1 inch self tapping black square headed screw that the whole house seems to be put together with. I removed them and they were snapped off at various lengths and quite rusted but I wouldn’t say that’s what caused them to fail.

My thought is that whom ever put them in over drove them. Once the tappers go through the angle iron and a little strand board there’s another piece to metal. As the guys on the line attach the trim to the slide they have to go thru both and just over drive the screw.

So I got out a 9/32 bit and drilled new holes just to the side of the old holes since there a broken screw in there and ran in some new 1 inch #10 self tappers.

Interesting the bedroom slide screws were all fine so I’m thinking the guy who trimmed the kitchen slide had his full share of Wheatie’s that morning. I did replace them just in case.

Next time I’m feeling ambitious I’ll look at the FWS [emoji12][emoji3]!

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John

CaptainGizmo · 02-04-2020, 06:14 PM

Welcome to MY world where, since the first day, I’ve replaced, drilled out, EZ-outted, and found probably nearly a hundred broken screws!

Hint: don’t inspect your bay door strut plates!

Those guys have no concept of a clutch, impact drive, or self-drilling screws.

powerboatr · 02-04-2020, 09:15 PM

not just newmars, my damon had almost the same thing happen rusted or broken or missing

did exact same thing to fix em

Winepress · 02-04-2020, 11:08 PM

That is a result of the slide not coming in square. Tweked slide will shear of the screw heads.

CaptainGizmo · 02-04-2020, 11:12 PM

Nah. There are broken heads everywhere.

lostinfla · 02-05-2020, 04:52 AM

I've found more than a few screws in various locations loose or missing. The entire row of screws between the windshield and front cabinets/tv way up above the front shades were loose by a few turns. Must have been break time.

twojayhawks · 02-05-2020, 07:42 AM

I have replaced maybe 20 on the under side of the slides because I noticed they were not tight & likely over driven when installed. I found zero broken screws though. I just stayed with the existing holes & upsized the new screw. I also ditch the self tappers & used stainless.

dav-cle · 02-05-2020, 01:22 PM

Well another job to put on the to do list !

Mr JP · 02-05-2020, 01:34 PM

I had the same thing on my kitchen slide. I just drilled new holes and installed some new screws.
JP

Steele · 02-06-2020, 12:19 PM

Always comes in square and even. But will have slide checked at the factory in June and thanks for your comment!!

woodosgood · 02-06-2020, 03:49 PM

Here’s a photo or two that might help describe the location of the screws I replaced on our kitchen slide. Both of the non-full wall slides have these screws. I replaced all the broken ones with #8 self tapping machine screws 1” long. I drilled new holes next to the old ones. The blue line indicates the location of the screws. All of the screws on the kitchen slide were broken off at different lengths.