Interior Drawer Latches - WARNING

RickB

Member
Jul 22, 2017
74
50
18
Vic
Hi All,
If you have the following type of latch on your cupboard draws then read on.

Latch Type.png


We recently went for a trip to Texas QLD and along the way stopped for a cup of tea.
My wife tried to open the top draw to get a tea spoon but the draw would not open when the latch was lifted.
Being the top drawer the only way to get it open was to pull the front off the drawer.

Broken Draw.JPG


This allowed me to remove the two outer screws holding the latch to the draw front where I found that the pin which operates the latch had vibrated loose and completely come out!

Latch Pin.JPG


I then undid all of the latches in the van and found that ALL of them were loose and over time could fail also.

All Latches.JPG


To fix the problem I bought some Loctite "Super Screw Lock", placed a dab on the thread of each pin and then screwed it back into the latch.

Locktite.JPG


Now back to repairing the drawer front....

Cheers,

Rick.
 

Drover

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
12,723
19,450
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QLD
My mate's Discovery has the same latches he found the threaded bit would break off, Jayco replaced them all with a later version, his rig is about 12 mths old..
 

The escapist

Active Member
Nov 9, 2016
140
177
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48
Sydney
Nice work Rick
Should be a bottle of Loctite supplied with every new Jayco !

Totally agree. Their lack of use of nylock nuts or spring washers leaves a lot to be desired...

Just on the weekend I had to loctite the bed end locks as the nuts would constantly come loose!

I’ve also had a drawer handle fail in the same way. Might look at loctite for the others as well.
 

RickB

Member
Jul 22, 2017
74
50
18
Vic
Part 2 - ReAssembly

After the cure time for the Loctite I went to reinstall the latches but I noticed that Jayco had used sheet metal screws when the latches have a fine thread!
I went to my local Bolt shop and picked up a pack of M4 x 16mm long machine screws for $14. If you reuse the screws provided they don't have much grip, can easily be stripped and may work loose which would not make for a good holiday.

Screws.JPG