My 97 extended Aerostar sliding door lower front roller with alloy frame is starting to rub the top of the plastic buttons that secure the lower plastic tread plate and the plastic lower cover plate near the front where the door closes. As the front lower roller assy is load bearing I cannot adjust it. Ive tried to shim the top of the mounting alloy bracket (top bolt of the three bolt bracket mounted on the door. The track on the body is clean and not worn. This happened over a few days.All the bolts hinges are tight. The door sees a lot of action with the kids. Any fixes?

 

The lower roller bearing is worn and must be replaced.

 

Thanks for the reply, i started to think that I have to do that.

 

A temporary fix is to slap a chair leg glide (cup style) over the roller. You can find these in most hardware stores in various sizes. I think, but not sure, that either a 7/8" or 1 inch size fits over the roller. Again, this is a temporary remedy but it keeps the tread plate from being torn up.

 

Thanks for the help. Ive just ordered the roller from Ford, at least it is available.Its sold separate from the lower assy as the lower assy is $70 or so from Ford.

 

Some pics will aid.

I, too, had the noisy/draggy feeling of the sliding door on my green '93 recently. Nylon gone on the lower horizontal axle (load-bearing) wheel, and brg itself noisy. It's around $30 from Ford.

(click on any image for larger)



It comes off the door rather well. Vacuum the ledge and track area well, take the load off the wheel, unbolt the three bolts, slide the alum. bracket assy forward clear of the door. Mark the guide brg's steel bracket's position in relation to the aluminum bracket, then remove the nut holding the two brackets together. Tilt it around and it will come out.




The axle is serrated, interference fit to the bracket, and has a lock-tite-like sealant too. I used heat plus a section of steel flatbar and a hammer to remove the old bearing and axle from the bracket.




The new brg taps into place with little effort (no need to re-heat the bracket) . . .





. . . and it reassembles easily. What a difference!

 

Attn: asavage-
Did you order ONLY the nylon wheel/bearing from ford?
after 6-7 years of kids slamming the door on our 93, i ended
up fixing it with boneyard parts, got lucky, it was unworn
(they had no little ones?) That van was just sold, now i have a 90,
and nylon can fail not only from useage, but weather...

 

Yes. Just as shown in the first pic. That part No. is for the wheel/brg/axle as shown. About $30.

You can buy the whole bracket, but it's a lot more money. As is the other wheel/brg that has the short steel bracket. This is the cheapest part of the three, and the one that wears out first (I think).

 

Nice write up, good fix!

Did you check out the rear roller too, I've had a problem with that one but managed to make an adjustment to compensate for the wear, since the housing plate is moveable.

ATB Aeroman.

 

No. No kids, door gets used but not abused, and I haven't had to even look at the upper or rear roller on any of my Aeros (yet).

 

OK, five years on, and my "new" '97 needed the lower bearing replaced as usual. The "Door Ajar" light would come on unexpectedly or not shut off (the door edge contacts weren't aligning properly), the upper bearing bracket was too low and rubbing on the weatherstrip, and the door noise when open/closing was terrible, though it was working OK.

This time, I decided to try it the way Rojostar did it, by using an off-the-shelf No. 1614 bearing instead of the $30 Ford E69Z-1125001-A that I'd purchased back in '07 for my '93. Just for fun.

While I don't doubt that an inexpensive 1614 bearing can be had for $3, my local bearing house (Applied Industrial Technologies) charged me $11.53 for their Chinese version. Plus tax.

(click on any image for larger)




However. the upper bearing seemed to be making a lot of noise too. Here's a short vid with sound of what I mean.

I know from my other Aeros that squirting a bit of lube in that bearing (it's a quite sloppy bearing, and has no seals) makes it much smoother, but I thought I'd waste some time and see if a more permanent solution might apply. I bought a used upper bearing/bracket assy. from a JY, and did some measuring.


I'd drilled/faced the end of the axle off, and pried off the old bearing.

I couldn't find a bearing with those dimensions, so I ordered the bearing below from VXB.com for $5 plus shipping etc. It's only 6mm thick rather than 9mm.



Next, I filed the axle end flat, center punched it, drilled & tapped for 6-32 socket head machine screw.




I'm afraid this isn't my best work; the hole wandered so the screw mounts crooked. Some stainless steel washers shimmed the missing 3mm, and a slightly larger SS washer under the screw retains the inner race.



All of that was with the spare, JY bracket/roller.

To get the bracket & roller out of the channel, I removed this rubber stop block. There's no mechanical fastening, it just pries out with a screwdriver easily. With that stop removed, the unbolted upper bracket just slides out the rear.






One glitch: with the replacement upper bearing, the door would make a groaning noise when it reached the upper channel curve, with the door about 9" open:



I thought that the socket head screw might have been contacting the top of the channel, but I ground off 1/8 from the screw, and had the same issue. I finally resorted to some Tri-Flow grease on the channel to eliminate that. I hate to do that, as grease just collects dirt, but it sure is quiet & smooth now.

 

Thanks for posting this Al. I'm now motivated to tackle my lower roller, as its tire is almost gone. I think that since it supports most of the weight of the door, as it wears away, it starts putting more strain on the other supports, especially that upper roller. So it's that much more important to make sure that lower roller is in good shape.

And sorry that you got gouged for the 1614 bearing. I got my Chinese bearing from a place called Fastenal:

Home | Fastenal

for $1.89+tax. They're a chain, but they had a store that was pretty close to this place I frequent, and since the bearing was so cheap, I bought a few, just in case I find other uses for them.

 

Ah, I forgot about Fastenal. I used them to buy taps and such. I've just moved to Denver area for six months, and I see that there's a Fastenal about three miles from me.

That 1614-2RS is a pretty good deal at $1.89, though their website says it isn't available at my local store. May not be stocked everywhere, but still a good price.

For $12, I was expecting an SKF or ***, but just got Chinese. Well, Ford put Chinese front wheel bearings in my '89 Aero; I expect the one I installed in my slider will last the life of my '97.

The slider is so quiet now. I open it and close it just to hear it whisper. I lived with it yowling for over a year when I bought it, because I was driving a company vehicle mostly, and only used my '97 Aero when I needed AWD or had company visit from out of town and needed to haul four adults and the golden retriever!

 

Since the new roller bearing obviously does not have a tire on it like the OEM roller, I wonder if it's going to wear through the steel floor panel that it will be rolling on.

I called the local Fastenal store first, and they didn't have it in stock either. But they had no problems ordering it, at no additional cost.

 

If the sliding door got thousands of cycles, I imagine the paint/primer will wear through and rust would occur. I doubt that the metal of the channel would wear to any significant degree.

Overall, I like the nylon tire better, but the OEM bearing is not a very good one.