I have a glass slider to a patio that is crooked. The door does not move smoothly along the track, and it will not lock. (The lock is one of those switches that slides up and down, commonly found on sliding glass doors.) When the slider door is closed all the way, it is very apparent it is crooked. There is a gap that increases in size toward the top.

Does anyone know what the problem might be and how to fix it?

Thanks in advance.

 

Assuming that the door frame is square, and that the sill is still level, and the rollers are still on their track, you probably have a roller that is either broken or out of adjustment.

To close the gap at the top, you'd raise the adjustment on the far roller, and slightly lower the adjustment on the latch side roller. If the adjustment screws are not on the front of the bottom stile (sometimes hidden behind caps) you usually get at the adjusting screw from the ends of the door, with a long screwdriver, inserted under the door right above the track.

 

The door must be removed from the frame to fix the rollers, correct?
If so, what is the proper way to remove the door?

 

Every door is different. Some lift up and then the rollers will clear the bottom track and the bottom edge of the door will tip into the room. (if you aren't strong, use 2 people, one on each side to lift the door.

Some, like Andersen's, have a stop on top that must be removed first, and then the top of the door will tip into the room.

Others, mostly on cheap aluminum doors, you have to actually remove the fixed panel first, and then the sliding panel slides to the middle, and you lift it up and the bottom tips out to the outside.

Hard to say which one you might have. But you never need to remove the door to adjust the rollers. That can be done without removing anything. Look for the adjustment screws as I described in the last post. If the rollers can't be adjusted, or are broken, then yes, you would have to remove the sliding panel to get at the rollers.