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Date:         Thu, 8 Oct 1998 05:46:38 -0400
Reply-To:     Bulley-Hewlett & Associates <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Bulley-Hewlett & Associates <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Temperature Sensative Sliding Door
Comments: To: Bryan <bryan459@PACBELL.NET>,
          "Vanagon@VANAGON.COM" <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>

I have the same problem with my 87 Westy. Looking forward to the replies. Bryan Wil Barker wrote: > > I have an '85 Westy and as I live in NJ this is the time of year when > the temp starts to dip into the 40's [F]. Pretty much as soon as the temp > drops to 49 degees the sliding door will not close easily from the inside. > I must get out and close it with two hands (one at the front and one > pressing at * the back). What's up with this???

Being anal-retentive isn't easy, but I find ways to make it easy...case in point:

Upon purchase of our 1982, the sliding door mechanism was crapped up with 16-years of grease, dirt, and sand from around the world, (PO had van in 30-35 countries). This gritty crap made the door noisy and difficult to slide, which I couldn't stand. Disassemble the whole works to clean it? NO WAY!

As you know, there are three surfaces to clean, the top slider, bottom slider, and rear slider.

The top is a breeze. Using WD-40(r) as a solvent, spray the track and use a disposable rag to remove ALL of the old grease. ALL of it. Clean the little nylon sliding block by passing the rag around the back of the block, holding both ends of the rag, then using the rag like you would to shine shoes. Depending on how worn your little block is, you may choose to disassemble the slider, and rotate the block 90 degrees to present new wear surfaces, or replace it entirely. Don't leave any WD-40 on the track.

The rear and bottom sliders require two things: Simple Green(r), and a hot-water pressure washer. I hope you are fortunate enough to have both available in your town. We have a coin-operated "Wand Wash" a block down the road; I've seen similar businesses everywhere that water copiously falls from the sky (not CA, AZ, Antarctica, etc.)

The rest of the procedure is obvious: saturate the sliders and track with Simple Green; allow a few minutes for it to dissolve the grease. With the door fully open, pressure-wash the entire bottom slider, using a variety of angles and paying careful attention to clean away every speck of grease. You will need to crouch down quite low, and point the tip upward to wash the upper portion of the bottom slider. YES, you can do this without wetting the interior, you just have to be careful. If you have difficulty being careful, bring along a friend to hold a towel like a curtain across the bottom of the door.

Move the door slightly forward (toward closing) to clean the very back portion of the sliding rail.

Follow the same procedure for the rear sliding rail and mechanism. Again, spray off every last molecule of old grease from the mechanism and rail. This will get little flakes of crappy old grease on the side of your van, but simple washing will remove these.

Whole procedure took Six minutes, at a total cost of about $3.50, Simple Green, WD-40 and $1.50 at the Wand Wash included.

Now that the rails and mechanism are immaculately clean, use your choice of lubricants on the rails. I used two applications of Slick-50 Teflon spray, allowed this to dry for a day, then followed with a Lithium grease spray which dries to a paste. The door slides smoother than butter now. You will be amazed. If your sliding mechanism has a lot of rust, you may consider soaking it for a few days in WD-40 prior to this procedure to loosen up some of the rust, so it washes off.

Best of luck,

G. Matthew Bulley Principal Bulley-Hewlett & Associates Communications for Organizational Development www.bulley-hewlett.com (888) 468-4880 toll free


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