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Spent 8 hours on a 'simple' door lock adjustment that should've taken 30 minutes

It was a 90s Otis traction job in an office building, and the door lock was dragging. Everyone at the shop said it was always just the roller guides, so I started there. After adjusting everything by the book, the drag was still there. Turns out a tiny piece of the sill header had warped over decades, creating a bind the lock arm was hitting. Had to file it down maybe an eighth of an inch. Anyone else run into a bind that wasn't where the manual said it would be?
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3 Comments
brian_smith6
Man, that sounds like a classic case of the building itself fighting back. I read a forum post a while back where a guy had a similar ghost bind on an old hydraulic. He chased his tail for hours before finding a warped door panel bracket. Those old jobs just settle and shift in ways the manual never planned for. It’s always that one tiny piece of bent metal you never think to check. Total respect for sticking with it and finding that warped sill.
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sarah818
sarah81816d ago
Totally. Reminds me of a buddy who spent a whole weekend on a sticking window, only to find a single nail head had popped up in the track.
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hart.sage
hart.sage16d ago
My buddy had a bind like @sarah818's story, just a loose screw under the carpet.
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