Trouble shooting Awning

[trdutch]

I'm popping 15 amp fuse when I press extend.
New fuse,press retract (awning is retracted) and I'm getting the thunk and movement to up position.(it wants to move)
So,I'm thinking a bad switch
I read,that If I disconnect the two wires at the motor and see if I pop another fuse then I know it's not the motor.Fine,I'll do that.
My question is if It is (hopefully) the switch will turning my battery cut off be sufficient to safely disconnect the switch or do I have to power down the unit and physically disconnect the battery's
I'm at the beach and my "screw it" side says call mobile repair guy and pay him $150
My practical side says ride my bike to the parts store at the front of the Park and buy a switch for $50

[bob caldwell]

Have you looked at back of factory switch?

[trdutch]

Yes,
Four wires going into prongs
Wires look good
No corrosion

[bob caldwell]

You need a switch that can reverse a motor......Most have 6 terminals with 4 wires
Google awning switch.......

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by trdutch

I'm popping 15 amp fuse when I press extend.
New fuse,press retract (awning is retracted) and I'm getting the thunk and movement to up position.(it wants to move)
So,I'm thinking a bad switch
I read,that If I disconnect the two wires at the motor and see if I pop another fuse then I know it's not the motor.Fine,I'll do that.
My question is if It is (hopefully) the switch will turning my battery cut off be sufficient to safely disconnect the switch or do I have to power down the unit and physically disconnect the battery's
I'm at the beach and my "screw it" side says call mobile repair guy and pay him $150
My practical side says ride my bike to the parts store at the front of the Park and buy a switch for $50

If it is the switch just remove the fuse.

[trdutch]

That's done
Thanks for the quick reply

[trdutch]

Thanks Bob I'll take mine to the parts store to cross reference

[trdutch]

Service guy came out
Switch was fine
Motor hot wired fine
Splice from a previous fix seemed to be the culprit
Stripped wires and made a fresh splice and everything worked fine
.........until I tried to extend this afternoon and the fuse popped again
I don't know if it's worth calling the mobile guy back
They are going to tell me I need a new motor to eliminate the splice
I guess I'll tack it to the shop back home
RV camping,
Not for the faint of heart

[bob caldwell]

Motor is fairly easy to change....

[trdutch]

Yep
I think that's where we are with this thing
The last splice bought me a two years so this was never going to be a permanent fix

[rsdata]

I would TRY a 20 AMP fuse in place of the 15...

If it is a bad motor then it will pop the 20 also, but if it is just a little too much for the 15 amp fuse, you might find the 20 will work...

Does the awning work OK with a little manual help from you like lifting it up when it starts to retract?... obviously requires two people, one at the switch and one lifting the awning... then what about some silicon or WD-40 lube at the joints to get them loose?

[5picker]

Originally Posted by trdutch

Service guy came out
Switch was fine
Motor hot wired fine
Splice from a previous fix seemed to be the culprit
Stripped wires and made a fresh splice and everything worked fine
.........until I tried to extend this afternoon and the fuse popped again
I don't know if it's worth calling the mobile guy back
They are going to tell me I need a new motor to eliminate the splice
I guess I'll tack it to the shop back home
RV camping,
Not for the faint of heart

A properly made splice won't add enough resistance to a circuit to continue popping fuses. Besides, if you replace the motor, you are going to have splices anyway. I would take another look to see if the 'culprit' (as you called it) is properly spliced or if there might be another splice you didn't see and that moving the wires to get to the first splice jiggled the second splice enough for it to work.

The suggestion of increasing the fuse size to 20 amps is OK but I'd rather see you get a resettable fuse or an auto reset fuse. Then if it pops, it will simply reset in a few seconds. Similar to this...

[trdutch]

Well I tried the 20 last night and it popped just as quick
Just to reiterate the motor works
The techs hot wired a 12 volt source to it and it tested fine
Then they redid the previous splice and again it tested fine
We left it in retracted position,cause we went to the beach and it's windy
Came back and poof like it was never looked at
Tech said my wiring connection is still there
The splice was made down stream at motor end
All I can figure is maybe the factory connection (plug in) was my problem from the start

[bubbles]

If I remember there are 4 wires on the switch. A power wire/ground wire and 2 wires to the motor. The switch reverses power and ground to the motor to drive it in one direction or the other. I don't know why your tech didn't remove the motor wires from the switch and disconnect at the motor and ring out the 2 wires to ground to verify there is not a short to ground. If one of them is. the motor will work in one direction but not the other when it is switched. Just a thought. Maybe he did.

[trdutch]

They are coming back out later this afternoon and I will ask them about verifying if one of the wires is shorting to ground
Thanks,Bubbles

[KyDan]

Just a thought... have you carefully inspected the wires where they
exit the wall and proceed up the awning arms to the motor??
Maybe you have a cut wire somewhere along the arm that is shorting out?

[trdutch]

Yea they removed all the arm covers and looked at all exposed wire

[bob caldwell]

Jury rig a couple jumper wires from switch to awning motor plug in

[metalsideup]

What Bob says. This will take the guessing out of your troubleshooting.

[trdutch]

Will suggest that too