H3 main door lockout issues

[sawdust_128]

Main door intern&#97.jpg

Over the past 2 years, I have had some issues with the front door latch mechanism and the solenoid driven dead bolt on my H3. Recently, with really bad weather comming, I grabbed the door release handle, yanked and it came off in my hand. No, it did not open the door.

On a couple of other instances during cold weather, the dead bolt would not slide open when using the key pad. I remedied this several times with cleaning and lubing. But, that's not the whole of the story.

Lets deal with the broken release handle first. I made a call to Dandy Dave Wishnoff at Liberty. Not because I thought the Dave would know what to do, but because he would know what it was I needed. He promptly asked me did I have Vince's phone number? To which I respond "Yes Dave, it is in the bus, that would be locked in the bus." So Dave gives up the numbers for Scott and Vince. I get a hold of Scott first and he tells me to knock a hole in the pot metal door handle casting. I take the more elegant approach and drill a few pilot holes first. Get enough of an opening in that bad boy on the left side and you can reach right in there with a pair of needle nosed pliers, grab that linkage bar, lift it up and voila, home sweet home.

If you look at the picture, in the bottom right corner, there is a partial circle around some components. Using what appears to be a black, round component as a reference, just below it, you can see the edge of the cut-out in the exterior handle housing. To the right, is the vertical linkage bar you grab and lift to release the door latches. I received a new latch from Prevost today and have started the install.

Much thanks to Dave, Scott and Vince, true gems. And Frank, they did not pay me to say that.

Now let's talk about the nagging issue of the "sticky" deadbolt. I have lubed it several times, I have cleaned it several times and the faulty performance resumes. I spent time looking at this mechanism and I believe I found the culprit.

In the center of the picture, I have circled a fitting on the throw bar for the manual deadbolt throw and the solenoid deadbolt throw. This fitting ties the throws to the deadbolt. In my situation, the top screw (seen inside the circled area) was loose enough that it would allow the deadbolt to slip. When it slipped, the bolt was binding on the "Bolt Guide"

So, the solution:

Tighten the screws with locktite. Clean every part of the deadbolt mechanism with a solvent to remove all old sticky grease, polish off all the rough edges caused by the binding using emory cloth and relube with a dry lubricant. To be completely honest, just tightening the screws improved the performance of the deadbolt dramatically.

Hope this helps someone.

[Alek&Lucia]

Ed,

Please post photo of the outside metal door handle casting where your made the entrance hole,

Alek

[pwf252]

Geez, you gotta be impressed with the labeling job!!!!!!!!!

[PLSNTVLE2]

Great post Ed.
I think I will pull my door panel and do the maintainence today...

[sawdust_128]

Here's the update and the rest of the details.

This is the cleaned and reassembled door opener mechanism and deadbolt assembly.
cleaned assemled&#46.jpg


From the outside. looks good as new.

installed..jpg

Here's the before. This also shows where to drill and where not to drill. Stay to the left

where to drill..JPG

In this picture, you can see the linkage that has to be lifted to release the door latches. Stay away from the center ot the handle assembly. I'll address this in a bit.

IMG_6475..JPG
What's not right. When the new assembly arrived, all looked good. I reassembled the door and hooked up all of the linkages and when I started testing, nothing worked. Bad feeling. When I checked, I found that one of the linkages was now about 3/8 inch too short. Disassembled everything and found that this supplied steel plate (lableled !) in the next photo was different than the original. A small difference, but enough to cause a misallignment of the linkages. Swapped this for what was on the back old handle , reassembled and everything worked fine. See, this plate is in the center of the handle and in case you need it, you don't want to have drilled holes in it.
important..jpg

Just a couple of other points:

There are two door latches. One is mid-door at handle and lock height, the other is art the top corner of the door. The linkages that service these both must be well cleaned and lubed in order for the opener mechanism to work correctly.

Another issue, when you do this, examine and replace the linkage clips (black clips in the next image). I had two which were very loose and one was damaged. I don't know if this contributed to the failure of the door handle or was a result of the failure of the door handle. Either way, they need to be checked and replaced if bad.
Clips..JPG

[aggies09]

Ed,

I just want to say thanks for going the extra mile on the post. This will turn out to be most helpful for those with lock assembly issues. Interesting post.

[wayne]

Ed, What a great post!! Thanks for going into such detail for us....we greatly appreciate the time you spent on this!!

[GDeen]

Ed - another thanks for taking the time to let us ride along in detailed fashion.....

[sawdust_128]

Wow, I guess I made the Texas contigent happy. Good deal and thanks for the acknowledgements. It will all be worth the effort the first time someone else is able to avoid that horrible sinking stomach sensation when your coach becomes possessed and throws you you.

Tony and Jenny, when will you be singing "Nothin' could be fina than to be in Carolina in the mornin'"? I'm out here at the edge of the earth at Cape Hatteras. Wonderful?

Wayne and Jill, where have you taken the "Magic Bus" lately?

Godon, aren't you and Jennifer supposed to be singing the second verse after the Aggies crowd? Are the Carolinas still in you plan?

Wish you all were here. Tomorrow, pier fishing from the Rodanthe pier. Mullets in the 25 - 30 lbs range, blues, croakers aka drum, blow toads and flounder just starting. Lately, I spend the day fattening them up lunkers for others to catch.

Blow toads aren't pretty, but they taste good. Here's a picture.

Blow toad..jpg

Reminds me of how I feel if I accidently eat oysters. Matter of fact, that looks a lot like the TN crowd after 13 or 14 dozen oyters each. I think I'll name this blow toad Roger Foster.

Looking forward to the summer and seeing all your smiling faces here. Just remember, come mid July I am plannning to go north to Newfoundland and whale watching. I just hope the Dr.s cooperate this time.

[rfoster]

Metal shavings: BITE ME!

That damn thing looks like the pollen particles in my nose and throat feels.