2006 Safari 23' with broken Dometic freezer door springs

[Goal15]

Have searched the threads and haven't found this answer, so i will put out the broad appeal.

While dewinterizing, i decided to be a good spouse and sanitize the interior of the Dometic RM 2551 prior to the camping season.

As I was doing so, i opened the interior freezer door and first one and then the second spring carrier pin broke out of the plastic spring carrier, leaving me with a door that has no spring to stay closed

found a repair video and the supposed part numbers to do the replacement, but there is a hitch.

in the video, the repair guy at RVPartsnow.com removes two screws from the bottom of the door to allow him to remove the door to get to the spring assembly.

My particular model does not have screws on the bottom of the freezer door, but does have a very small hole coming out of the spring assembly on the vertical side surface of the freezer door.

I found a mention on line of someone using a small nail punch to push that spring assembly in to make the repair, but thought I would ask anyone here if they have experienced this.....

of course its a Sunday afternoon, so AIR Forums is my tech support desk of choice....

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. am going to have to order parts anyway but thought i should figure this out before i do, otherwise it could end up being a trip to the RV service center, which I would hope to avoid.

Thanks
Dana

[Goal15]

Yes, pushing through the tiny hold with nail punch did the trick, the door comes off and you can see how the spring guides line up with the door. now to order the replacement spring carrier.

[Goal15]

Got my parts through local AS dealer,,,, had a dickens of time getting it back together because this particular model of Dometic doesnt have screws in bottom of door as shown in the repair video from rvrepair.com. so if anyone ever runs across this, save yourself some time and aggravation. put the freezer door on to the spring carrier that is on your right when you are facing the freezer compartment... then use a screwdriver to push the spring into the carrier in the refrigerator wall on the left and the door will slide on and springs will be making the door close instead of vice versa.

[nsbcpa]

Thanks for the info...I have the same issue.

Question, when you slide the door pack into place is this done with the door in the closed position?

[Goal15]

Yes, as close to closed as you can get it and still get it into place... probably about 95 percent closed. Otherwise the springs won't provide the tension you want in the right direction....

what it really ended up as was about an hour of trial and error and lots of "gosh darn its".. Fortunately DW was in the house packing while most of that was going on.

for some reason when i tried to do the left (when looking at the freezer) spring first, even using the same angle as above, when i then connected the right spring, it didn't put the right torque on the spring.

I'm sure there is an RV repair guy out there with a better way to do this but it seemed like a relatively small job to spend labor money on.

D

[farrelc]

I have a Dometic RM2451 Ser. Number 62700081 Refrigerator with a Freezer Door Not Closing. I replaced all of the spring components on both sides including; the Spring Casting, Spring and Bolt.


To remove the door from the hinges (this one did not have screws as others have described), I used a stiff putty knife between the door and cabinet (with cloth against the cabinet) that I twisted to slide the door to the right to disengage the door flange cross from the bolt cross.


I installed the new Spring Castings, Spring and Bolt into the cabinet, I lubricated both the door crosses and bolt crosses with silicone spray to slide together easier (If this is a mistake, let me know). To Pre-load the springs I turned the right spring casting, so facing it, it was at about 4 or 5 o'clock and the left spring casting was about 7 or 8 o'clock.
With door almost straight up (again to pre-load the springs) I slid the right side hinge cross into the right side bolt cross, then the tricky part, I inserted the putty knife against the left side bolt cross and positioned the freezer door hinge cross against the putty knife (shoe horn style) and then slid the left hand door cross along the the knife blade until the bolt and door crosses lined up and removing the knife, allowed them to fall into place.
I then used a screwdriver to rotate the spring castings to the 12 o'clock positions which pre-loaded the springs so the door closed.
The spring parts cost about $60.00 so it might be prudent to buy all at once to avoid a return trip if you live any distance from the RV shop. It turns out that it was the Spring Casting that had failed.
These parts are expensive, the door I saw listed for $100.00 +.
Key word is work carefully, but my observation was the door is pretty tough.