How to Change a PlexiDor Large Spring

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:54:07 PlexiDor Support Welcome. This is plexi door pet doors. We're going to be showing you how to change these spring on a plex, a door, pet door. All right. Here pictured you see the printed instructions that come with your replacement spring kit and the parts to the spring kit divided into two into the components that are in the bag of spring kits, springs, tooth washers, pivot pin screws, spacers, nylon washers, shoulder washer, the nylon spacing tube, the bent arms, and the pivot pins. 00:00:54:09 - 00:01:13:00 PlexiDor Support Some of the tools that we suggest that you have on hand for this are a pair of vise grips, a Phillips head screwdriver, a flathead screwdriver, a 516 nut driver, and, quarter inch nut driver. 00:01:13:03 - 00:01:36:21 PlexiDor Support In order to change the springs, your first going to have to remove the pet door from its installation, either in the household door or household wall. It should remove simply by using your Phillips head screwdriver and unscrewing the four installation screws that are right on the face of the frame. Should be able to unscrew those and remove the entire pet door from the installation hall. 00:01:36:23 - 00:02:01:26 PlexiDor Support Sometimes installations, have been done and a bead of caulk has been added around the edge of the frame. If that's the case, just to use a dull knife or a utility blade and release the cork so you can pull the pet door out of the frame, go here we're showing the backside of the pet door frame where there is the spring mechanism. 00:02:01:26 - 00:02:30:04 PlexiDor Support There's one on the left side and one on the right side. Each of the spring mechanisms is covered by the spring hood cover. And now we need to remove the spring hood cover in order to get to the spring mechanism. Just use your flathead screwdriver to unscrew. That should unscrew very easily and lift right off, exposing the entire spring mechanism. 00:02:30:07 - 00:03:01:00 PlexiDor Support All right, now, before we go further and change the parts, we want to clean the door clean along all of the surfaces. And we're also going to clean around the the spring mechanism itself. Now's the time to do that, because it'll make it easier for you to see what's going on. And you don't want to put the new parts in with all the grime and grit that was there previously to clean the door, you can use warm, soapy water and dawn, you can use, Wd40 to clean the metal parts. 00:03:01:02 - 00:03:26:09 PlexiDor Support Wd40 is a cleaner. It is not a lubricant. We are going to lubricate after we clean. So WD 40 is only to be used for cleaning, not for lubricating. If you use it alone, you will cause the metal to dry out and brake prematurely. So, now as we look at the spring mechanism, this one here, you can see the door panel has no tension whatsoever. 00:03:26:09 - 00:04:00:21 PlexiDor Support And that's the pretty sure sign that your spring has broken. And if you look closely here, you'll see that the spring tail right here is indeed broken. It has snapped off with age in use, so we know right away that's the problem with this spring. So we're going now. We're going to change this spring. So I've got my 5/16 nut driver and I'm going to use it on the pivot pin screw here and unscrew it. 00:04:00:24 - 00:04:22:11 PlexiDor Support And then once it's loose I can remove it by hand. You see the screw goes all the three all the way through the spring assembly and into this panel. It screws into this panel. So I unscrew the whole thing comes off it. Once you see how that fits together like that. And now we are going to put on the new parts. 00:04:22:18 - 00:04:42:16 PlexiDor SupportYou do want to go ahead and discard all of the old parts and use all new parts. As provided in your spring kit. That way you're going to get the greatest longevity out of your new spring. All right, now that we have the spring assembly off, I want you to look at the edges of this vertical plate here. 00:04:42:18 - 00:05:07:09 PlexiDor Support Sometimes over time, the vertical plate will develop grooves, making the edges rigid. And that can, over time, where on your new spring tail, causing it to to snap prematurely. So if this edge is grooved or rigid, you're going to use some, sandpaper and smooth down that edge. You should be able to smooth it back down to nice and nice and smooth and, back to new. 00:05:07:15 - 00:05:29:17 PlexiDor Support So look at that before we put the new spring on, because now is the time to smooth it out. If it looks like it needs it. All right. Now I'm taking the pivot pin. And this pivot pin fits down in this hole. And I want to show you if you tilt your panel out you'll see that the top of the panel has, a rectangular opening. 00:05:29:17 - 00:05:50:20 PlexiDor Support It matches the shape of the top of this pivot pin. That pivot pin will only fit in there one way, and that's how it turns the panel in and out. So make sure it fits in there. Then position your panel underneath the hole and go ahead and set your pivot pin down into that slot and then turn it. 00:05:50:21 - 00:06:10:20 PlexiDor Support Move it right to left to see if you feel that it's nice and seated. Okay, so I have made that in there and it's well seated. Now I'm going to get my I'm going to get my other parts. Okay. So now I have the shoulder washer. You see the shape of the shoulder washer. This is the next thing that goes on. 00:06:10:23 - 00:06:18:04 PlexiDor Support Put it over your pivot pin. Slide it down. 00:06:18:07 - 00:06:43:20 PlexiDor Support And seated into the hole. Then we use our nylon tube spacer. It slides right over the pivot pin. So the next thing we want to do is take the bent arm, the internal tooth washer and the pivot pin screw and assemble them together. But the the internal tooth washer on the pivot pin screw and put it through the top of the bent arm. 00:06:43:20 - 00:07:17:12 PlexiDor Support Like that and set that aside. Now we're going to charge the spring. So now using a pair of needle nose pliers I think it's best used needle nose pliers. You can use a rag and grab the spring tail with your fingers. But it's a strong spring and I don't recommend it. I think that's more frustrating. So grab the top of the spring, tail the top Springdale, grab it and lift that Springdale up and over the vertical plate so that you position it in front of the vertical plate. 00:07:17:14 - 00:07:52:15 PlexiDor Support And that's called charging the spring. Now the spring has tension. Now we take the, preassembled pivot pin screw with the internal tooth washer and the bent arm, and we're going to slip it down the spring assembly into place. You can tighten it down a little bit. And now you want to use your vise grips and clip your vise grips to the back of the vertical plate. 00:07:52:17 - 00:08:12:17 PlexiDor Support Have it tighten it down, put it in place and tighten it. Because whatever position the panels are in, when you do your final tighten of this screw, that's the position the door is always going to want to swing back to. So it's important that the vice grip holds those dead on straight. And it's not dead on straight here. 00:08:12:22 - 00:08:22:25 PlexiDor Support So it okay. 00:08:22:27 - 00:08:46:25 PlexiDor Support And I'm holding the vice grip in my hand as I tighten down, because you'll feel it start to move and you want to not let it move. Because that will change the, position of the panel for where it's going to snap back to. 00:08:46:27 - 00:09:08:24 PlexiDor Support Okay, now that I've tightened it in place, I want to check to see that the panel is truly secure and swinging back to the right position. You want to check the panels independently. So to do that, I'll open the other panel and keep it out of the way. And then I will swing this shut and make sure that it swings right back to the center of the frame as I want it to. 00:09:08:24 - 00:09:37:26 PlexiDor Support And yes, that's perfectly, perfectly centered. So that's a well changed spring. That's nicely centered. So spring is all set. This tight is good to go. We need to apply or apply a nice layer of grease on the spring. The grease is really important. It lubricates it waterproofs and it insulates. So it's going to protect the spring from use heat cold and water. 00:09:37:28 - 00:10:10:10 PlexiDor Support So what I'm using here is an axle bearing grease a nice thick one that's water resistant. You might find it easier to find white lithium grease, which is also an excellent choice. And just. Paint your spring all around to protect it. And that should be good to go. And truthfully, if you, If you grease your springs once every other year, you're going to really increase the life of your spring. 00:10:10:10 - 00:10:27:16 PlexiDor Support But most people are not going to touch that spring until it fails. Failure of a spring is somewhere between 6 and 10 years of life, so you can get longer out of it. If you grease it. The other, lubricant you want to use is three and one oil. 00:10:27:18 - 00:10:39:01 PlexiDor Support And the place is to use the three and one oil. As long as you've got the door out, use a little three and one oil on your lock. 00:10:39:03 - 00:10:43:07 PlexiDor Support Use a couple of drops. 00:10:43:09 - 00:11:16:19 PlexiDor Support Around that pivot pin screw. And down here at the pivot point. So now I'm screwing back on the spring hood cover. It's a very tiny screw with very small threads. Don't, don't tighten it down too hard or you'll strip the thread. And after it's in place, make sure that that the spring hood cover does not touch the top of your, pivot pin screw, or it will cause the door not to operate properly. 00:11:16:19 - 00:12:00:04 PlexiDor Support If it does touch it, just leave it off. It's not needed. After the initial installation.