Isata 3 A/C Plastic Cover Screw....'d

jneum525 · 08-02-2020, 04:25 PM

In case this happens to anyone else, I thought I would share my fix.

Climbed up on the roof for the first time (on our pre-owned 24FW) to clean my solar panels as mentioned in another thread and much to my surprise I found that someone had taken a hole saw to make a hole around one of the screw holes on the plastic cover for my A/C unit.

Turns out a year ago the prior owner had a problem with the A/C unit and had called out a mobile repairman in FL. As it turns out, the screw was just spinning in the threaded insert. I'm guessing the repair guy took a hole saw to the cover to enable him to remove the cover so he could fix the A/C unit.

I ended up removing the cover and then cut off the screw (that was just spinning in the insert) and threaded insert using a cut off grider. Found a Metric threaded insert (6 X 1.0) at DIY and pressed it into a washer w a tight hole using some JB Weld. Then inserted the insert w washer into the sheetmetal hole of the A/C unit on the roof and used some more JB weld to affix the insert to the sheet metal. Lifted up the sheet metal enough to smear some more JB on the underneath side as well after sanding the sheet metal. Got a large fender and neoprene washer to cover the hole and put it all back together. Used some antisieze compound on all 4 screws when re-installed.

I guess when I have to get a new cover, it will be back to normal. In the meantime, it seems to be a pretty good fix to cover the A/C unit from the weather and to get back to 4 screws holding it on.

Had a similar problem on our old MH and made a similar fix and so I have to believe it happens to others out there as well...

PS: In the 3rd pic, the screw was inserted into the insert while applying the JB as I installed it into the sheet metal to ensure I didn't plug up the threads.