PSA: Found a weird trick for stubborn door operator adjustments in a 1970s building downtown

The service manual was useless, but the old super said to check the cam follower arm for a hairline crack, and sure enough, that was it. Anyone run into a similar fix on those vintage Dover units?

3 comments

3 Comments

finleybutler2mo ago

@olivia_barnes97 nailed it, that's just how EVERYTHING made before 1990 works now.

troy_butler71d ago

Ngl, those Dover units from the 70s are actually pretty solid once you figure out their quirks. I've worked on a handful and the cam follower arm cracking is pretty rare in my experience, most of the time it's just the adjustment screws backing out from vibration. The pot metal thing is real though, gotta be careful not to strip anything.

olivia_barnes972mo ago

Classic. The one thing the manual doesn't cover is the part made of 50 year old pot metal. You'd think they'd have a page that just says "check if it's broken" with a picture of the whole unit.