Pocket Door… Never More!

Can you add a little glue to the screws and tighten them back up?

Can not reach them. These screws are located near the back and cannot be reached because of the narrow width of the pocket housing.

Try to figure how the door was installed when it was built. Is there some type of trim that can be removed, which would allow the door to swing out and maybe take it off of the track for repair, or move it to the side to allow you to get at the other screws. Pocket doors are usually installed in such a way that they can be taken down, but it may involve a removing a few trim details.

Pocket doors were popular in houses early in the 20th century. I suspect they went out of style partly for that very reason. You would think smart engineers woulda figured out a way to construct them so that they might be fixable without having to tear out entire walls, or as in this case, major chunks of infrastructure. And evidently you would be wrong.

If you think about it, all you really need is a couple of properly placed small hatches that allow access to those screws. In their absence, you are faced with the problems you have observed.

Pocket doors are a GREAT idea, space saving and all that. But man, are they a major pain in the butt to repair when problems arise. You have my sympathy, OP. And I wish I could give you the secret handshake to easy pocket door maintenance, but I don't know of one.

If you can find a decent place to cut a panel opening, make it the size and shape of a knockout panel door you can by at lowes.

Here is a video

http://youtu.be/fTAdK4Jx9NE

Or you can purchase a piece of matching paneling and nicely cut a piece slightly larger than the opening. Be sure your original cut leaves a border of about 1-2"

Your new piece should overlap this border and can be attached with a few nice (color matched or painted) screws.

This is common for mobile homes.

As stated, they are install by lifting them onto the track. The track can have a notch or just lift up and off. do the leading edge first. Then close and you can see the keeper for the back.

I have a screwdiver or two in this coach (one stragith and one phillips) that .. Well if you hold it flat and straight across in front of you it won't go through a standard door..the shaft is simply too long.. Could you reach in with one of those?. (I use one as a ground rod)

The part the door hangs on is adjustable. Any adjustment left to allow you to raise the door slightly? Or could you counter sink a new screw in the track in a location that is accessable?

We ran into a similar problem and finally gave up on the pocket door. We put up a curtain rod and put up a heavyweight light blocking curtain. I know this doesn't fix your problem but may be an option for you.

Sometimes backing out the screw and adding broken up tooth picks into the hole then retighting the screws, works.