Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×
Gulf Stream Owners RV Forum
 


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 06-21-2014, 07:15 PM   #1
Chuck v
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,026
Default Electric step reliability issues

A little over a year ago the Kwikee electric steps on my TourMaster 40C developed skipping in their motion. I took the motor worm drive apart and found some pretty severe wear, but it looked like the lubricant was not sealed in very well by the cover plate. I bought a replacement motor and that one looked to be better sealed so I installed it and thought I would be OK for several more years.

This week my steps failed to extend when the door was opened. I live in this coach so the door gets used several times a day. Here in Oregon it rains frequently enough that I prefer to have the steps retract when the door is closed -- besides it gives a little more clearance when I park the Lexus beside the coach in my small space here, and my wife's MDX parks there when she is in town. (This space is a bit too short to allow either SUV to park in front of the coach... but one can fit sideways after the other is in place beside it.) I put it off troubleshooting the steps until the weekend to look for a root cause and to effect a cure. This is what I found.

The fuses were all OK, but I did note that the step light was coming on as it should with the door open even though the motor did not run. As I still had the old motor (kept for spare parts if needed...) I unplugged cable to the mounted motor and ran the cable down to the loose old one -- sure enough that motor ran whenever the door was cycled and reversed as it should. In case you are not familiar with the Kwikee controller, it shuts off the motor if the stall current is sensed at end of travel OR if a certain time has elapsed.

Once I knew that the "new last year" motor was not working correctly I did a little on-line reading and found that often these have issues with the brushes not making good contact with the armature segments and the generally accepted fix is to tap on the motor housing lightly. I did this and the steps began working again. I do not know how temporary a "fix" this may be...

My nature is to find a preventative maintenance approach to avoid this in the future -- anyone have direct experience or some encouraging ideas on how to address this??

Chuck
__________________
2007 Tour Master T40C
Acura MDX toad

"It takes a great deal of time to recover from any improvement..."
Chuck v is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 06-22-2014, 02:34 PM   #2
RayChez1
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,257
Default Re: Electric step reliability issues

Chuck, If the motor works after you tap it, it means the brushes are hanging up. Now why are they hanging up is the question that has to be solved. Either the slot where the brushes sit either is dirty and needs to be cleaned out with a WD-40 or the spring that pushes on the brush has over heated and lost its spring action. If the springs have lost its tensile spring action, then you have to replace them. Most of the time it is just grime that has gotten into the little motor.
__________________
2002 Gulf Stream Scenic Cruiser
2018 Buick Envision Essence
Neway Freightliner chassis
Aventa II Blue Ox
RayChez1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-23-2014, 12:04 AM   #3
Chuck v
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,026
Default Re: Electric step reliability issues

Thanks Ray,

I was pretty sure that the tapping was just re-seating the brushes. I likely will take the old motor apart to inspect how the brushes are held and tensioned before getting into the "new" one. Today was full of other commitments, so it may be next weekend before I get back to it. I did look online and the replacement motor has only gone up $1.70 since I bought the last one -- but I don't think they should only last a year or so for my $58...

Chuck
__________________
2007 Tour Master T40C
Acura MDX toad

"It takes a great deal of time to recover from any improvement..."
Chuck v is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 06-23-2014, 12:33 PM   #4
RayChez1
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,257
Default Re: Electric step reliability issues

You are right that they should not last only a year. I have never had problems with the electric motor on my coach. Mine is equipped with a Frigette motor. It is much bigger then the Kwikee motor. Maybe that has something to do with it last now for eleven years and still going strong.

Check all your wire connections to see that they are tight and secure.
Good luck!

OH! be careful working with electric powered steps that you do not get your hands or arms in a pinch. If you are going to work on it, make sure you disconnect the power to the off position first.
__________________
2002 Gulf Stream Scenic Cruiser
2018 Buick Envision Essence
Neway Freightliner chassis
Aventa II Blue Ox
RayChez1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-23-2014, 10:17 PM   #5
Chuck v
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,026
Default Re: Electric step reliability issues

That does sound like a more substantial motor. However the first motor on the Kwikee steps lasted 7 years, and this replacement did not make 1 and a half years until it had an issue... It is working OK now after the gentle persuasion tapping, but I just don't trust it.

Yes, I am careful and work per the cautions in the manual I downloaded from the Power Gear site. Thanks for the safety reminder...

Chuck
__________________
2007 Tour Master T40C
Acura MDX toad

"It takes a great deal of time to recover from any improvement..."
Chuck v is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2014, 10:05 PM   #6
Chuck v
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,026
Default Re: Electric step reliability issues

ROOT CAUSE FOUND FOR MOST RECENT FAILURE TO CYCLE: For those of you who may have had steps binding and staying out or staying retracted...here is yet another thing that may be causing your symptom.

I had the steps fail to extend yesterday and no amount of tapping on the motor helped at all. If you have ever done any work on this step assembly you know how little room there is to get to the linkage when the steps are retracted. It took me about a half hour to pull the cotter pin and clevis from the crank arm to free up the steps so they could swing down and expose the motor and gearbox. You can see a bit of the layout of the parts I am describing in the manufacturer's information on page 7 -- the Tour Master uses the type "A" linkage arm layout:
http://support.powergearus.com/techdocs/82-ST0501.pdf

I first pulled the three bolts out of the motor assemble hoping to separate it from the gearbox -- but it was so jammed that I could not get it to come off even with the bolts completely out. Ended up pulling the four nuts off the gearbox mounting plate and getting the whole assembly out from under the coach so I could muscle it more...

Once the motor popped off the gearbox everything seemed free to move, so I looked more closely at the pinion gear that is driven by the flatted shaft on the motor to see how it was getting bound up. In the pinion gear there is a short shaft that locates/pilots the gear in the floor of the gear housing (the other side of the pinion gear is located/supported by the flatted motor assembly shaft and bearing.) All of this is clearly visible in the drawing on page 7 as noted above... Note that in the mounted position, the 'floor' of the gear housing is up and the motor side is down, causing the pilot shaft to fall almost entirely out of engagement until it rests on the end of the flatted motor shaft

YES, it turns out that the loose pilot shaft is TOO SHORT to guarantee that it stays engaged in the mating bushing in the main gear housing. It is getting enough out of mesh with the larger gear that drives the crank arm that it binds up and stalls everything. I did not need to get a longer pilot shaft, although that would certainly have worked, because I found a simpler (local hardware store) solution. My observations and measurements indicated that I needed about a 1/4 inch of added spacer between the end of the motor flatted shaft and the pilot shaft to keep the pilot shaft up against gravity and well engaged in the bushing. The easy solution was to get a large set screw of 1/4 inch length to put down in the pinion gear before assembling the motor to the gear housing -- I used a 5/16 threaded setscrew, but even a small plastic spacer would have worked as no mechanical load is on this added spacer part. Now I am sure that the pinion gear is properly aligned with the larger gear and not riding up to be tooth on tooth and binding.

To make the job of disengaging the crank arm from the step frame easier if I ever had to take that clevis pin out with the steps retracted in the future -- I replaced the clevis/cotter pin combination with a wire loop self retaining style like you see here: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/aa...FQqCfgodjKAAVA

Hope this is of some help to other members here -- I feel like this fix addresses the jamming I was getting from time to time and had been erroneously blaming on motor brush intermittent contact... Time will tell.

Chuck
__________________
2007 Tour Master T40C
Acura MDX toad

"It takes a great deal of time to recover from any improvement..."
Chuck v is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Electric step problem.............I think jmj437 Class C 19 10-05-2020 11:04 AM
Sun Voyager Electric Step jjrowan Class A 3 05-10-2014 10:15 AM
Electric step does not open on 2004 BT Cruiser buddy Class C 0 06-13-2011 08:45 PM
Step cover treecounter Electrical 3 11-16-2007 10:41 AM
Kwikee Electric step problem darbyjudy Class A 3 04-06-2007 12:56 PM

» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:43 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
×