slideout motor repair

[Grand Surveyor]

Last spring on our 2nd outing with the GS272 the slideout decided to quit working. The motor would spin but the worm gear would not engage. As there is no exterior access to manually crank out I had to get creative. I pulled the little box cover off the floor which was held in place with long wood screws carpeted over. I got the slide out moving with a pair of pliers in the worm gear shaft and brought it in the same way. I called local RV services near Traverse City but no one cared to work on the weekends. Once back home I called the dealer who said I could bring it in in about 6 weeks. Their best guess without looking was a new motor, $600.00 parts & labor, and 4 or 5 weeks to get the job done.

As I had a few days to kill I decided to get the pliers back out, roll out the slide to access the motor underneath and proceeded to disect. Some genius engineered 2 of the 4 machine screws holding the motor to the frame flat against the interior wall. As the bracket at that part was above the frame rail I decided to get the crow bar and bend the bracket enough to access the machine screws. That worked!

I got the motor out, found most of the bolts holding the halves together had been stripped out (too much torque on the motor from holding the in/out button down too long). I got the halves cleaned up, recovered the gazillion needle bearings stuck in the grease, and found the other problem of the main shaft woodruff key missing. I took the shaft & gear to several hardware stores and finally found a key to fit the basic size but had to get the dremel out to custom-fit it. Once it was close enough I used a bench vise to press the gear back onto the shaft & key. Reassembled with lots of grease & new longer bolts, & put it all back together. The bracket bent right back in place after reattaching the motor and replaced the long wood screws holding the carpeted box cover.

Total time - 4 hours. Total cost - .37 cents.

[copout67]

Good for You surveyer this is what is needed to be a Happy Camper
most of Us don't have six weeks and most dealers would do better than suggest that. I have been blessed with a very good dealer but he can only do so much. Job well done ( now you can send me the 600.00 you saved . :-) enough for a good trip eh! Good Luck.

[Bear]

Great fix. Mine are all hydraulic, including the front legs on the fiver. If my motor goes out I am in big trouble.
Cheers
Bear

[Grand Surveyor]

Sorry, already spend the $600 on camping the rest of the season! I actually called the dealer to thank them for being too busy and saving me all that money. To their benefit they did take care of business the few times I had to have them work on the trailer.

[milzat]

Good job, Grand Surveyor.

I would have attempted to fix the problem also, if my dealer had told me I had that long of a wait.

[MrSen]

WOW.......Nice to have saved a bit of money, $600 is a good save.

MrSen

[Grand Surveyor]

I've been off this site for a while but thought I'd ad this update...Slideout repair part 2: On the last night of our trip to Yellowstone last June the slideout motor tore away from the mounting. This torqued the end of the worm gear off where the pin holds the gear to the motor shaft. I was able to hand-crank the slideout in to get home. I took the worm gear to a local blacksmith who fixed it for $10.00. In putting the gear back under the slideout I had to lift the carpeted section to thread it into the brass yoke. Now comes the fun part. 2 of 4 screws that hold the motor to the mount tore away at the motor side ruining the housing. I was able to get the 2 remaining screws in tight and bolted pipe strap across the gear housing and motor to stabilize it. We used it weekly through the rest of the season without fail.