Side window screen issue

browntdb · Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 1:24 am Post subject: Side window screen issue

My 2000 CD 22 when I bought it in January came with two aluminum framed screens that appear to be for the side windows. My guess is they came with the boat. When I tried to install them in the interior top and bottom channels, I slid them first into the top channel but they seem to be too wide top to bottom by about an eighth of an inch to drop into the bottom channel.

What am I missing? could they have been made too large for the windows? Whenever I have used any type of interior window screen before, I have first slid the top of the screen into the top channel and then dropped the bottom into the bottom channel. I assumed these worked the same way. I just can't figure out why they don't. It is probably something simple, but I just don't see it. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,

Terry

texasair · Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 2:06 am Post subject:

they slide in from the rear.

browntdb · Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 5:41 pm Post subject:

My window has channel completely around it. I have tried sliding it in farther back in the window frame, but same problem.

Captains Cat · Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 7:52 pm Post subject:

I think there are springy things (technical term) on the top and if you push them hard enough on the upper channel, while holding them halfway up the sides, you can get the bottom into the track. Make sure the tracks are clear and clean!

Charlie

browntdb · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 3:35 pm Post subject:

No spring mechanism in the top. The top channel and bottom channel are solid metal. Strange that the side screens are too big top to bottom for the height of the channels. The frames appear to be in one piece so might be hard to modify them.

Terry

Captains Cat · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:03 pm Post subject:

If they are clean, you may be able to ,flex them enough by bending in the middle to get it in. Put the top or bottom flat in the track, try to bend the other side in by putting your hands on the sides. Good luck. 1/8" isn't a long way to go.

Charlie

Sunbeam · Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:10 pm Post subject:

Did you ever get your screens to fit? Mine came to me in place on the windows, but when I tried to remove them (I wanted to slightly "adjust" one to make it hook in at the front end easier) I found basically the same thing you did -- maybe with a slight variation.

That is, I can tell mine do have "springs" (probably flat pieces of spring steel) on top, so that just like an ordinary storm window, one should be able to press it upward, compress the "springs" and then pull it out at the bottom.

However, when I did that, I pushed them all the way up and.... they still did not clear the bottom. And it's metal/metal, so a miss is as good as a mile (they are not very tall, so I don't think "bending" them to make them shorter seems like a good idea). So anyway, this bothered me, because not only could I not adjust the one now, but if the screening was ever damaged... there'd be no way to get at it to replace it without getting them out.

I considered that perhaps the window frames had been "smushed down" in the middle upon installation, but rejected that as the window glass slides well, and evenly, and the screen is "too tall" to come out all the way along - not just at the center (how it would be if the frame was not even all the way along).

I noticed there was a clear piece of plastic tubing in the bottom of the track (they slide on it). Wondered about that and then did a search here. Found another thread with screen questions (but at the time did not see this one), and asked, and ghone replied that on his boat, he removed the plastic tubing piece, then pulled the windows down and removed them that way. So I tried that. The plastic piece was not too hard to get out, but.... the screen frame was *still* too tall to remove Angry

And by then I could tell that there were definitely those "springs" at the top.

Well, finally, with a MAJOR upward force, we were just able to get the one screen (port side, which I want to adjust) to come out over the bottom lip (without scraping, but man, there wasn't even room to put protective tape on the bottom frame - it was TIGHT).

So, just know that the fact that they don't seem to fit doesn't necessarily meant they won't fit, ultimately. But it takes a heck of a compression force. They are much, much tighter than a house storm window (plus those are taller so you can put a little "English" on them and distort them to make them "shorter"). To the point where it seems like they must work some other way, but... they sure don't seem to!

Sunbeam