Loose blind cassette

[moorlandrover]

Yet another newcomer seeking help with a problemThe toilet blind cassette in our Lunar Roadstar 620 has worked loose. Fixed with self tapping screws in the wall surrounding the window. Given that there is not leeway for repositioning it how is it best to fix it back into place on the vehicle wall?

[cronkle]

If I understand you correctly the holes that the screws go into in the wall have become enlarged and will not hold the thread.

 

If that is the case then you may be able to do one of two things.

 

The first would be to fill the hole with something to make it a tighter fit for the thread--a broken off match-stick would be the classic although there are probably more appropriate things that can be used.

 

The second solution might be to fix some new 'wood' around the window, like a gasket, to fix the cassette to. This would only need to be a 5 or 6mm thick and it would be fixed to the wall with screws away from the points where the cassette is currently fixed so that when you fix the cassette back in place they do not foul each other. Fix the cassette back into position onto the gasket. It would, obviously make the cassette stand out from the wall by the thickness of the material used.

 

If I have got the wrong end of the stick please feel free to ignore all of the above.

[Basil]

If you are refering to the 'normal' type of Seitz cassette then it is not screwed to the wall but screwed to the outer window. If the screws are pulling out of that, then the plastic self tapped thread has been stripped. If that is the case I would remove the inner cassette from the window and find a suitable filler Araldite or Plastic Padding or some sort of plastic repair compoundthen when set redrill the mounting hole and refix the inner cassette.

If it is of a different type and is screwed to the wall then I would use a type of fixing made by Plas Plug that you fit into an enlarged hole and then fit the screw that comes with it to expand the metal claws inside the wall. These come in various lengths to suit the application.

 

Bas

[Derek Uzzell]

moorlandrover:

 

Cronkle's 'matchstick' ploy is the first thing to try. Clean up the existing damaged holes, then glue some not-too-hard wooden plugs into the holes, then (once the glue has THOROUGHLY dried) re-drill the screw-holes.

 

Another method would involve removing a larger area of the wall surface (let's say a 1" circle) surrounding the existing hole, then wriggling in a small piece of thinnish glue-covered plywood through that aperture and holding it in contact with the rear of the wall until the glue has taken hold. Then glue into the aperture a piece of plywood of the correct size and thickness to bring the wall surface back to its original level, after which the screw-hole can be re-drilled.

 

Builders' merchants will carry a wide variety of screw-holding fittings designed for surfaces with cavities behind them. Trouble is that the insulated sandwich-construction of motorhome wall panels and/or their often painfully thin inner facing may make such products unsuitable or unsightly.

 

[Basil]

Derek Uzzell - 2008-07-27 7:56 AM

 

Builders' merchants will carry a wide variety of screw-holding fittings designed for surfaces with cavities behind them. Trouble is that the insulated sandwich-construction of motorhome wall panels and/or their often painfully thin inner facing may make such products unsuitable or unsightly.

 

Whilst I would agree with most of this type of fitting not so with these Plasplugs ones that is why I suggested them as due to their design they give widely dispersed grip that will hold anything in a motorhome and are small enough to be hidden by anything that you are trying to attatch. You simply enlarge any hole to 8mm and insert the metal anchor and when you screw the supplied metal screw in it clamps to both the front, to stop it turning, and the back over an area of about 15mm (the back only) making it virtualy impossible to pull out with normal and most abnormal use.

I always keep a pack in the motorhome for any repairs to pulled out screws and have even used them to re-attatch a 'room divider' curtain rail that the teenagers pulled out of the ceiling, the fittings that that clips into are large enough to hide the fixing. I have also used them to reattach the exterior door plastic lug that holds the door in the open position after that pulled out, that gives an idea of how discrete and strong they are .

Incidently I have just been outside and got one of the packs and the exact description is Plasplugs Cavity Anchor (Hollow Wall Fixings) M4x25mm for boards 2-5mm thick Extra Strong Ref MSA381.

They are brilliant for this type of situation and somewhat more permenant than a matchstick, try em.

 

Bas

[moorlandrover]

Thanks for the ideas. The 'matchstick' solution was tried while we were touring in France but only proved temporary - it had to be repeated a couple of times. I like the idea of the ploasplugs but also take note of the caution. Will investigate further and see if either the plugs or ply/glue solutions might work.