Loose exterior door hinge bolts

[JoeGillis]

i have a 1978 30' Argosy which has 2 hinges on the entry door. 3 of the 4 machine screws which attach the hinges to the door frame are loose. I have tried to tighten them but without success. I was told that the nut on end of the hinge screw is only held in place with a dab of caulking and if it works loose, may turn when trying to tighten the screw. I have thought of drilling a small hole on the inside of the paneling by the door frame to gain access to the nut from the inside. Once the nut is tightened, a plug of the same hole size could be used to close the hole. I'm not sure of the interior frame structure and don't want to do damage that would create other problems. Does anyone have any experience and suggestions with this problem?

[74Argosy24MH]

From my experience with a 74 motorhome:

There is a nut and a toothed washer on each screw, nuts and bolts were steel, and fairly rusty. The nuts were very tight against the door frame and were covered with sealer, I had to dig them out. The vertical rivet lines should tell you how close the next rib is, mine only had about 5/8" working space between the frame and rib.

These are some of the screws I hoped would break but they never did. Soaked them with WD40 for a couple of days. Mine were too tight for a socket, some were so tight the frame held them for the first few turns. I considered bending a wrench but there is not enough room even then. There was just enough room to get an open end wrench at an angle and barely grab the nut.

John

[74Argosy24MH]

A picture now that there is some light. Left side is the rib, right side the door frame. You can see how tight the space is. Only the bottom screw has a nut in this picture and it is tight against the frame.

John