Releasing camping table in the sliding door

[powysjune]

Has anyone tried removing the inside panel on the sliding door? The catch that holds the camping table in place keeps sticking. Thanks for any advice!

 

[Corradobrit]

Spray some silicon lubricant into the aperture. Works great for loosening up the sliding cupboards too. A little goes a long way.

 

[powysjune]

We had already used WD40 - is that the same thing? - in the aperture and have managed to get the catch to engage so the table is back in the door. But it’s still not right and feels like it will keep sticking, so just wondered if there is an easy way to remove the inner door panel to see what is happening? Thanks for your quick response anyway!

 

[WelshGas]

We had already used WD40 - is that the same thing? - in the aperture and have managed to get the catch to engage so the table is back in the door. But it’s still not right and feels like it will keep sticking, so just wondered if there is an easy way to remove the inner door panel to see what is happening? Thanks for your quick response anyway!

WD40 is not a lubricant as such. Silicone spray or Dry PTFE spray is.

 

[Pieter4x4]

Removing the door panel is easier than I throught. As long as you have the right tools. The positions of the fasteners, etc have been covered in this forum before. I put a spacer between the front and rear parts of the bracket holding the table catch and it is sliding smoothly now.

 

[dspuk]

We had already used WD40 - is that the same thing? - in the aperture and have managed to get the catch to engage so the table is back in the door. But it’s still not right and feels like it will keep sticking, so just wondered if there is an easy way to remove the inner door panel to see what is happening? Thanks for your quick response anyway!

WD 40 is a water displacer (the 40 is the number of experiments it took to get the mixture right).

It will give the illusion of lubrication but wears off quick.

Silicon PTFE spray (WD make one) is better.

 

[powysjune]

WD 40 is a water displacer (the 40 is the number of experiments it took to get the mixture right).

It will give the illusion of lubrication but wears off quick.

Silicon PTFE spray (WD make one) is better.

Bought the spray and squirted lots through the aperture onto the catch. It still sticks in the up position (not holding the table) though.

 

[dspuk]

Bought the spray and squirted lots through the aperture onto the catch. It still sticks in the up position (not holding the table) though.

View attachment 120708

One imagines it's something else then. As you have no details in your profile hard to say much more. No idea how old the van is.

If <3 get the dealer to fix. >3 take to a local mechanic or take the table off, close the door and have a good look at the mechanism, taking the trim off if you can.

 

[powysjune]

Removing the door panel is easier than I throught. As long as you have the right tools. The positions of the fasteners, etc have been covered in this forum before. I put a spacer between the front and rear parts of the bracket holding the table catch and it is sliding smoothly now.

I can’t find the forum posts about the position of fasteners to take off the sliding door panel - can you provide a link? And what tools do you need? Thanks!

 

[Corgimajor]

Make sure the legs to the picnic table are well and truly housed into their stowage position (I was surprised at just how much of a thump is required to get them locked in on our table). If they aren't fully located then it could possibly be putting outward pressure on the sliding door stowage release mechanism - hence why it is feeling stiff to release. Worth a check.

 

[owen_h]

I have this morning just done this job. My latch was not returning to the locked down position under the spring and needed to be pushed down to lock the table in place.
First thing if you have an electric door, turn off the auto close, thinking about it now I should probably have also disconnected the battery in case the last 'soft close' bit activated when I didn't want it to.
To take the card off you start with 4 Torx (T20 I think) screws at the bottom (where the edge of the table sits).


Then starting bottom left start prising the card away from the door. I used a trim tool (like a pry bar but smaller and in plastic) to start off. Once the first popper is released you can get your fingers behind and work your way round. I found the last bit (top right) the most tricky as not much space available.Also need to manoeuvre the overlap between the door card and window surround trim.
Card off you can see the yellow plastic clips:


The table clip mechanism consists of a plastic sliding plate:


That activates a metal latch on the door:




Other photos I've seen the latch looks slightly different and is bolted to the door rather than riveted which mine is.

On the metal part I cleaned out some of the old grease which seems to have hardened over the years and re-greased. Manually worked the catch until it moved freely and the spring inside returned it to the down position. The plastic plate was also not sliding smoothly so sprayed some silicon spray around.that.

Refitting the card was awkward to get it started and the door card located into the window surround and 4 metal clips on the upper edge. (sorry no photos of these).

Hope this helps

 

[California Dreamer]

We had our sticking catch replaced at the dealers (warranty) quick job and no problems since.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[powysjune]

I have this morning just done this job. My latch was not returning to the locked down position under the spring and needed to be pushed down to lock the table in place.
First thing if you have an electric door, turn off the auto close, thinking about it now I should probably have also disconnected the battery in case the last 'soft close' bit activated when I didn't want it to.
To take the card off you start with 4 Torx (T20 I think) screws at the bottom (where the edge of the table sits).
View attachment 121091

Then starting bottom left start prising the card away from the door. I used a trim tool (like a pry bar but smaller and in plastic) to start off. Once the first popper is released you can get your fingers behind and work your way round. I found the last bit (top right) the most tricky as not much space available.Also need to manoeuvre the overlap between the door card and window surround trim.
Card off you can see the yellow plastic clips:
View attachment 121092

The table clip mechanism consists of a plastic sliding plate:
View attachment 121093

That activates a metal latch on the door:

View attachment 121094
View attachment 121095

Other photos I've seen the latch looks slightly different and is bolted to the door rather than riveted which mine is.

On the metal part I cleaned out some of the old grease which seems to have hardened over the years and re-greased. Manually worked the catch until it moved freely and the spring inside returned it to the down position. The plastic plate was also not sliding smoothly so sprayed some silicon spray around.that.

Refitting the card was awkward to get it started and the door card located into the window surround and 4 metal clips on the upper edge. (sorry no photos of these).

Hope this helps

Thank you so much for the instructions and photos. We followed them and have just managed to remove the door panel, clean and free the table catch and put everything back together (didn’t even need the spare fastening clips I had ordered). This forum is brilliant!

 

[Perfectos]

I have this morning just done this job. My latch was not returning to the locked down position under the spring and needed to be pushed down to lock the table in place.
First thing if you have an electric door, turn off the auto close, thinking about it now I should probably have also disconnected the battery in case the last 'soft close' bit activated when I didn't want it to.
To take the card off you start with 4 Torx (T20 I think) screws at the bottom (where the edge of the table sits).
View attachment 121091

Then starting bottom left start prising the card away from the door. I used a trim tool (like a pry bar but smaller and in plastic) to start off. Once the first popper is released you can get your fingers behind and work your way round. I found the last bit (top right) the most tricky as not much space available.Also need to manoeuvre the overlap between the door card and window surround trim.
Card off you can see the yellow plastic clips:
View attachment 121092

The table clip mechanism consists of a plastic sliding plate:
View attachment 121093

That activates a metal latch on the door:

View attachment 121094
View attachment 121095

Other photos I've seen the latch looks slightly different and is bolted to the door rather than riveted which mine is.

On the metal part I cleaned out some of the old grease which seems to have hardened over the years and re-greased. Manually worked the catch until it moved freely and the spring inside returned it to the down position. The plastic plate was also not sliding smoothly so sprayed some silicon spray around.that.

Refitting the card was awkward to get it started and the door card located into the window surround and 4 metal clips on the upper edge. (sorry no photos of these).

Hope this helps

Great post to assist others, Haynes Manual esque.

Gold star