Thanks to Ernie/Spare stuff to carry

[sfedeli3]

Hi Scott,

The hinge had a few tears in it at the end and some hidden ones
that I could not see on the inside. I've been replacing them
one-by-one as they've failed and figured it best to take some
proactive steps before we left Ernie's. Detach the air springs from
the door and let them hang from the compartment opening mounts. Cut
the old rubber and separate the door from the mounting strip first.
You will need 2 people to do this. You have to remove the small screws
that hold the upper part of the hinge mount on the coach too. These
can be really tough to get out- so be sure to soak them down with some
PB blaster the night before.

Once the door is off, it's usually easier to simply cut the rubber
longways several times until you can pull small strips of it out with
a pair of needle-nosed pliers. Usually, there is a lot of corrosion
between the rubber and the aluminum strips, so it's really hard to
pull out all in one piece. There are small Phillips-head screws at
each end of the rubber that need to be removed too. Once the rubber is
out of each side of the track, I usually clean all of the corrosion
with a dental pick and small slotted screwdriver. I coat the new
rubber hinge material with silicone grease (plumbers grease) and it
will slip in relatively easily. I've found that re-mounting the door
works better when you drill out the holes slightly on the aluminum
mounting flange so that the screws will tighten into the coach's
metal. Otherwise, you end up pushing the door away from the coach when
you try to tighten the mounting screws. Remounting the door is a two
or three-person job. One will have to sit on the ground with the
screwdriver, tightening the mount and the other two have to hold the
door slightly open, but tightly against the coach so that you can
reinstall it firmly.

Shane Fedeli
85PT40
Hershey, PA


--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Scott Forman"
<scottforman75@...> wrote:
>
> Shane,
>
> How did you manage to ruin a ruber hinge? More importantly, how did
> you get the old one off? I have one the is ripped, have the new
> rubber for it, but cannot separate the hinge from the bus to switch
> it out.
>
> Scott Forman
> 86 PT38
> Memphis
>