Hi! Once again it has become incumbent upon me to try and repair something for somebody in order to comply with regulations requiring that it works. Just take my word for it, please – can’t replace them with new ones, can’t get a professional to do it for immutable reasons.
Okay, this time, it’s aluminum-frame single-hung windows. The lower window, which slides, has along its bottom frame two sliding button/tabs. When you slide these tabs in towards the center, it releases the window to slide freely up and down.
When you release the tabs, although I can’t actually see what’s going on inside there, I assume that what happens is that a little tooth is released on each side, which will then lodge in the nearest notch in a series of parallel notches in the outer (vertical) frames on the left and right. The window is then held open at that latitude until you push the tabs in again to slide the window again.
Okay, hopefully I’ve described it well enough that somebody will know what I’m talking about.
Now, the windows, (four of them) will no longer stay open unpropped. The tabs are still in place, and you can still push the tabs, but nothing engages to hold the window open.
I have it on fairly good authority that the problem concerns a spring somewhere inside the assembly that will need to be replaced in each window.
Assuming that I can even find a retailer who will sell me such an item – what exactly is the part called, and how specifically should I ask for it?
If anyone could point me to a diagram of how the hell I would get the frame open to install the new spring, it would be enormously helpful. The thing appears in a cursory examination to be impervious. (i.e., no obvious screws or plugs or fasteners.)
Thanks!