How the hell do I hang a bi-fold door by myself?!

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

One of my closets has a bi-fold door and came out of the track. I’m finding it impossible to re-hang it by myself. All of the YouTube videos go into great detail about installing them, but then say “OK, now go ahead and hang it…” without showing how.

It’s a three-point problem.

  1. There’s a groove on the floor to the left and the door has a small dowel that’s supposed to fit there.

  2. A sliding metal bracket in the groove above the door with a hole for another dowel at the door’s top left.

  3. A third dowel on the top right of the door that’s supposed to slide in the groove.

I’m unable to get all three to catch simultaneously. I slide the bracket over, hold the door in the bottom groove and try to get it into the hole and slide it back, but it never gets there without dislodging somewhere else.

I’ve seen people do this by themselves. It’s not a two-person job is it? What the hell am I doing wrong?

#2

I used to have a door like that, and it was always coming out of the track. (I don’t remember any dowels.) I became proficient at putting it back, but it’s one of those things I can’t explain in words.

#3

fold the door in half. place the bottom pin in place with the door tipped into the opening with the other pins under the top track. straighten the door while guiding both top pins into the track.

particular doors, hardware and tracks have their own wiggling and swearing to get in place. your description sounded like the above method.

#4

are the dowels spring loaded or do they screw up and down? If they’re the screw type there’s your answer. If they’re spring loaded then look for a clip or a pin that holds them in place.

#5

Make wedges of all sorts of required shapes and sizes… wedges hold it up and in place…

If you have to give it a big shove and it comes off the wedges, well at least you get at least one part into place… maybe its 4 steps forward but 3 back, but you are making progress