Hi everyone,

I have a window in my home that doesn't support its weight. It has come loose from the sliders along the sides that prevent it from crashing down. The window is the type that you can unlatch at the top and lean down towards you to clean, and the side supports are strings latched at the top by metal hooks, with circular metal bits that the bottom of the window is supposed to fit into.

I'm unable to get the bottom of the window, which has two approximately 1/4" metal bits on either side that are supposed to fit into the circular metal supports in the frame, to slide back in. Is there a particular trick to accomplishing this? One side in particular is giving me issues, as the frame slider has come unhooked at the top several times. I took some pictures to provide some clarity.



Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Put a flat screwdriver in the pivot shoe (your first picture). Pull it down about 12" then turn it toward you 90 degrees. You will feel some resistance, as it's spring loaded. It will take both hands to pull the screwdriver down. Do the same thing on the opposite side so that both pivot shoes are level with one another. Then take your sash and examine the pivot bars that are on the bottom of the sash. If they are bent or loose, that would be a problem. You should be able to set the pivot bars into the pivot shoes by holding the sash flat... parallel with the floor, then tip one side up... put the right side into the pivot shoe and once it's in, then put the left side in. The window will now be parallel to the floor and is ready to be tipped up into the closed position.

And those are called double hung windows, not sliders. Sliders slide horizontally.

I don't fully understand what the problem at the top is. The vinyl cap is in the way of the part I want to see.

 

I'm sorry, I gave you incorrect instructions. When you insert the screwdriver, you have to first turn the slot in the screwdriver 90 degrees before you can move it down. Turning it unlocks it so it can move. When you have it where you want it, turn it back so it locks. You may need to put one a few inches lower than the other, rather than having them level with each other. (Some need to be level and the sash just drops in from above... I think I can see now that yours need to be tipped in at an angle.)

So to do that, I've found it works best to have the left pivot shoe a few inches lower than the one on the right. Insert the sash pivot into that right pivot shoe, and hold the sash as far to the right as you can. Now on the left that pivot shoe should be JUST BELOW your left sash pivot. Try to align that left pin with the hole while you hold the sash... with your left hand... straight out toward you, but then with your right fist, strike the right side of the sash right by the right pin.

Alternatively, you can try the opposite method, putting the left side in first, and then pull up on the sash as you try to align the right pin.

This is much easier to do than it is to describe... I've done thousands of these.

 

Thanks very much for your helpful advice XSleeper. It helped a lot. We managed to get two windows back into their pivot shoes. Success!

We did run into an issue with one of the springs on the supports, as we were pulling down the string at the top came loose from the top hook (I tied it back on, that was an easy fix), but the spring seems to have come loose from the pivot at the bottom. As we lift the window the string bunches up. The window is completely supporting itself so it's not a huge deal functionally but in terms of getting it back to 100% it's something I might want to look into fixing. The difficult part about diagnosing it is that the pivot shoe prevents the slider from coming out so I can't take a good look or get full access to the spring to see how it should be reconnected.

Have you ever come across this problem before?

Thanks again for your help, it was really invaluable.

Cheers!