If miilworkman's suggestion does not work, you may still be able to take it apart in the way described and replace or shorten the spring.

We had these. God they were a pain. Yes, if you push down on the ball, the ring can be screwed down tighter, to let the door open more easily, or unscrewed a little to grip a little more. If you unscrew it enough, it will come apart on you, though I don't remember having much of a problem with that.

One of ours, the door had a *lot* of expansion and wound up having to be adjusted every few months or it would either become so loose it would drift free, or would become so tight my wife couldn't open it.

Thanks all. I will try millworkman's suggestion.

To confirm: I need to depress the ball WHILST turning the inner most ring with a screwdriver pushing into one of the two slots clockwise or counter clockwise??

You need a screwdriver blade that spans both slots, and then you would likely screw it clockwise to set it deeper and reduce the force needed to open the door.

You should be able to screw the ball into the barrel to make it work easier. If not you can recess the plate into the top at the door jam.

This post was edited by stash-hdy on Wed, May 29, 13 at 19:12

Posted by kudzu9 (My Page) on Wed, May 29, 13 at 17:15
You need a screwdriver blade that spans both slots , and then you would likely screw it clockwise to set it deeper and reduce the force needed to open the door.

What do you mean by this? I visualize it as having 2 blades into both slots at the same time?!!! LOL!!

On ours, if you depress the ball, it takes enough presure off the ring that you can hand tighten / hand loosen it. No screw driver is needed. I suspect that somewhere out there there is a special tool for tightening or loosening it, but you won't find any screw driver anywhere that will span both slots, and it would have to be cut out in the middle to depress the ball.

I think that the first time I adjusted it, I had to use a screw driver in one of the slots just to get it to free up, but after that, just hand adjust. I think that I was sometimes able to just push down flat with my thumb till the ball was all the way in, and my thumb was firmly on the ring, and then turn my hand to turn the ring. But I think that was when the ring was almost all the way out.

Thanks Fynite - we'll give it a go tonite & report back.

Maybe a I should use a pair of needle-nose pliers to rotate the adjuster around the ball also besides coin (ineffective) or screwdriver (dangerous)?

This post was edited by pbx2 on Thu, May 30, 13 at 13:21

This shouldn't be so hard.

You choose a screwdriver that is wide enough to span the ball and have each edge of the screwdriver fit into the two slots at the same time. The ball gets depressed out of the way when you push down to fit the screwdriver into the slots (it doesn't have to be cut out in the middle!). If you don't have a screwdriver of the right size, you can use two small screwdrivers to push against the slots in a clockwise direction. (If you try with only one small screwdriver, you will be applying force in an unbalanced manner and, if the housing for the ball is threaded tightly, you will find it difficult to rotate.)

Get a ladder and use your thumb. Push fully and turn as necessary. Test and repeat.

Kudzu, you need a screw driver with a 1" blade. Those aren't easy to find. Plus it is very hard to push the ball down so far that it is below the slot in the threaded ring if the ring is in very far.

pbx, if you need to use a pair of needle nose pliers, pick a pair you don't love. :)

You can make your own tool. Last time I had to unscrew a ring like this, I made a tool from a bolt using the grinder to grind down the head into a T shape and then glued the threaded shaft into a handle. You could do that and then use a dremel tool to shave the top of the T to fit around the ball. (The ring I needed the tool for didn't have a ball.)

The one in the picture has a flat spot on either side. If yours has that *and* the ring is proud of the surface, you might be able to use an adjustable wrench to move it a little, which would have the advantage of letting you press the ball and turn the wrench at the same time. Once it has started moving, you should be able to finger turn it if you are pressing the ball hard enough.

I have easily adjusted those by using a small flat screwdriver(I used the kind with a pocket clip advertisers give away) to turn the adjusting ring while depressing the ball just a bit.

There are adjustable snap ring pliers and adjustable spanner wrenches that take two tips for just this sort of thing.

Go to a good auto parts store (generally not a big box place).

They come in sets sometimes, and with replaceable tips (more $ though).

This post was edited by brickeyee on Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 11:03

My thumbs needed the rest from pressing down & trying to turn those slots.
When needle nose pliers did the trick!

Thanks all for your feedback.
Learn something new everyday.

I use a dime in vice grips to depress the ball and turn the ring.