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Old 05-24-2018, 11:48 AM   #1
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DIY dometic awning motor replacement

Has anyone here replaced the motor on their dometic awning themselves?
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Old 05-24-2018, 12:02 PM   #2
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Here is a thread on motor replacement for the LCI awning....
http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...nt-110957.html


That probably doesn't help you....

A quick google search of this forum for the dometic motor replacement didn't bring up a lot....
Hopefully someone with more time can shoot you a link to the directions.

I did see one thread where a guy replaced his back in 2015. He said it was easy but he showed a black and blue finger nail as proof you gotta be careful.

Go to the search box in the green bar above this message, just below the FRF logo.
Make sure the dot is on search FRF and search for

dometic awning motor

Good luck!
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Old 05-24-2018, 12:55 PM   #3
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I replaced mine. It was fairly easy- just a couple of screws, maybe drill out a rivet, and some very minor 12v wiring.

My symptoms were the awning wouldn't run itself in or out. It made all of the noises like it was trying, but wouldn't actually turn:


The 2 biggest challenge was #1, accepting that a new motor costs $300-400
and #2, getting the right color. If you have to get the wrong color (white vs. black), you can switch the pieces that connect to the arm pretty easily.

I got lucky and did it at a campsite where I had a tree just away from the awning. I was able to tie that corner off to hold it up. Otherwise, I had to use a ladder at a different campsite while I did some troubleshooting.

Ok, so some pictures. First I took things apart to get a better look at them:



You have to unplug the 12v wire that comes up the awning arm.

Using an allen wrench, unscrew the screws from the white cap:



It pulls off of the power awning roller tube pretty easily:



I removed the silver piece from the end:



And then I stopped and buttoned it all up as we had to move campsites.

At the next stop, I had a helper (horray for people who actually know what they're doing!) and the helpfully positioned tree:



It's hard to see, but the motor is attached to a portion of the white body which connects to the arm of the camper. I had to buy a black motor because that's all that was available to me locally and couldn't have anything shipped at the time.



It was easy enough to take apart:



I did the steps in reverse - connected the white stuff to the motor. Rewired the quick connect for power to the motor (the new body piece was slightly different than the old one and I couldn't pull the quick connector through). And then a few screws, maybe a rivet, and bingo/bango, bob's your uncle.

NOW- if you muck with the non-motor side, be aware that there is a spring in there that wants to tear itself through your hand and possibly eyeball. But the motor side had no such haunts.
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Old 05-28-2018, 04:47 PM   #4
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Thanks ependydad - these pictures are very helpful! I have a similar issue as yours with the awning not retracting, except when I push the button, all I hear is a click, rather than the motor sound like in your YouTube video. A clarifying question for you:

Did you have to adjust anything with your spring on the non-motor side at any point? The Dometic instruction manual indicated that once the two cap screws are removed with an allen wrench, that the awning will quickly retract due to the tension in the spring. As such, someone needed to pull down on the manual strap in the middle of the roller to prevent it from snapping back to the side of the trailer. However, mine did not do that and it stayed in place when I took out the two screws. I'm wondering if this means that both my motor and the spring are bad.

Based on your pictures/steps, it looks like the you also didn't have any tension when you removed the two cap screws, but wanted to confirm.

Thanks!

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Old 05-28-2018, 05:31 PM   #5
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Mine did not retract but I only removed the motor side cap, not the spring side. The awning worked flawlessly after replacing the motor.
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Old 07-12-2018, 08:12 AM   #6
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I have a spare motor in white, never had to replace mine, but pretty easy to do just pin the spring end, in fact I have new motor from a salvage yard, I'll send it to you for 75.00 bucks and you pay shipping.
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