Flagstaff a frame lift actuator failure

[Crazymaize]

Recently, our lift actuator failed and forest river was quick to send out a replacement (still under warranty). I installed and things are good. I like to tinker and decided to disassemble the old one to see how it worked. Pretty straight forward and fixed the old one without much effort. Apparently water entry was the problem. I removed the base housing (3 screws) and released the trapped water and used compressed air to dry out. Sprayed some wd40 and resealed. Take your time as not to disturb the components (gears). The real issue was in the motor housing. Removed the housing ( 2 screws). You can see the armature and the commutator. Water and grease had covered the commutator so the 2 brushes were not getting good contact, thus no working motor. I removed the springs which hold the brushes in place, pulled the armature out a little bit and cleaned the commutator with a qtip. Compressed air to remove any moisture I saw and reassembled. Testing the actuator was also straight forward. The power plug has 2 connections. I took my battery charger to provide dc power, connected +,- to power plug. If no movement in actuator, swap connection from charger to -,+. Basically the extend, retract switch on camper just reverses current to actuator. (+/- extends, -/+ retracts or vise versa). Actuator works great now and I feel good to have a spare to carry. Water entry seems to be a major issue but couldn’t easily find a solution. Easy enough to repair though. I took no pictures and this is my first post. If you google electric motor (images), you can get a good perspective on the internal components so you know what your dealing with.

[Zoinks]

There are several posts on this topic that you can take a look at. I know I also discovered the excessive water intrusion when I unscrewed the main extension arm and left it in the sun. Tons of rusty water then poured out. I also wanted to take it apart to see how significant the water damage was but FR had me return the failed actuators. You beat me to it so it's about what I expected. On mine, I let all the water drain out, hit it with compressed air and it started working again but died after 2 trips. I did not take it completely apart like you. My thought is, add some drain holes in the bottom of the actuator. If water is going to get in, give it a place to get out before it builds up and causes an issue. On my second actuator, that was supposed to be FR's fix, I added some RTV sealant around every seem I could find. Around the fasteners, around the gasketed joints, etc...it still failed. I saved the 3rd failed actuator so I'm going to attempt the same repair you did, add some drain holes and then completely encase the actuator to keep the water out. Lastly, I'm going to fab up some sort of a drip shield around the actuator extension rod in hopes of keeping water away from the extension rod seal. We'll have to see if that works! Thanks for the notes.

[Crazymaize]

I too believe the extension rod seal is the problem. Curious to see what you come up with.