Lippert (Schwintek) Slide Motor - Brand Name or Not?

[ghnl]

I am diagnosing a malfunctioning rear (bedroom) slideout in our 2015 Thor ACE 30.1. I believe we have a faulty motor. I have not yet removed it but I did get a look at the wire harness to motor connector and saw that the brown wire between the connector & the motor is broken.

Until I get the motor out I won't know if this is repairable or not.

Anyway, if I do need to replace the motor, what is your opinion regarding a Lippert brand replacement ($$$) vs a "fits" replacement from Amazon ($$)?

 

[16ACE27]

I installed a motor purchased from Amazon over 5 years ago. Same part # as Lippert, probably made in the same place. Still going strong in my full wall slide.

 

[Chateau_Nomad]

If a circuit board isn't fried, nearly ANY broken wire is repairable... soldering iron, butt splices and heat shrink. MUCH cheaper than replacing an entire motor that may still work just fine.

 

[ghnl]

Yes, that is my hope. By the time I figured out the issue the sun was going down and it was already rather cold out. I'll remove the motor when I get a Roun Tuit and see if I can fix it. And I'll make a note of the part number in case I ever do need to replace one.

 

[Jimbo56]

Yes, that is my hope. By the time I figured out the issue the sun was going down and it was already rather cold out. I'll remove the motor when I get a Roun Tuit and see if I can fix it. And I'll make a note of the part number in case I ever do need to replace one.

Just bench test it once you have it out.

 

[craigd853]

Just bench test it once you have it out.

Holy crap Jimbo,LOL You would't happen to have been in the military were you? I am retired from the Air Force and haven't heard the term bench test in over 12 years. Good choice of words sir. Take care

 

[ghnl]

So I removed the recalcitrant aft slide motor today. No thanks to Thor what should have been a 20 minute job turned into an hour & half of torture.

For some reason Thor has an extra piece of trim/rubber bumper that I had not seen in numerous YouTube videos. The white metal trim retainer (secured with many screws) did not leave enough room to remove the motor. And of course no room to get any sort of cutting tool to remove some material so the motor car come out. Now that it is out I am going to slice off a section (~ 1/2" X 8") so the motor can be R/R'd without needing to remove this piece. The attached picture is of the forward side - easier to snap a photo.

Once I had the motor out it didn't look so healthy. Lots of green corrosion. I cleaned that off and was able to solder the wire back on. And, as I was cleaning the circuit board the blue wire also pulled off (also repaired). None of the wires seemed very securely attached - just a tiny solder joint.

Once I re-installed the motor I tried moving the slide. No change - it'll move about an inch (both motors do appear to work) but then the aft side stops and the controller flashes error code 8 for motor 1. To make sure it isn't a wire harness fault I swapped the motor leads at the controller. It does the same thing but now the error code is for motor 2.

At this point my guess is the Hall Effect circuitry has failed. Thus the controller doesn't know that motor is moving so it cuts off power. I can nurse it in or out by moving it an inch then resetting the controller and moving it another inch, etc. BTW, even with the motor connectors at the controller disconnected I could not budge the slide.

Anyway, next step is to order new motors from Amazon. (I think I'll get two - not sure if I trust the other one...)

 

[Chateau_Nomad]

Thanks for the update!! Wow... that's some nasty corrosion on that board. Looks like it's gotten wet at some time??

Please keep us updated on your progress!

 

[wrapped]

Amazon motors are fine but they do come with a rubber shrink sleeve over top of motors, cut out the opening where your outside set screw will go. I'm not sure how your slide is configured but usually that metal plate on the inside wall is is what keeps the schwintek wall unit from pushing out and pushing the outside rivets or screws out,the plate creates a sandwich of inside plate and outside lip that keeps the mechanism in place in the wall.

 

[ghnl]

I haven't cut the inside plate (yet). I assume it must serve some purpose. I do note that it is in two sections - the upper section (pictured above) and a shorter lower section. I wonder if a shorter upper section - near the gear case/horizontal rack area - would be sufficient? It'd make replacing the motor a bit easier.

And the set screw on the outside. It appears it just bears against the motor case - locking it into place. It doesn't thread into the case itself. Does that sound right?

 

[wrapped]

The set screw goes directly into one of the 4 oval openings near the top of the motor, it keeps the motor from popping up. Take your time and pull back the rubber seal unplug the motor and push it up and tilting the top towards the outside while pulling the bottom of the motor towards you, I don't remove the plate to remove the motor.

 

[ghnl]

But the space between the slide box and metal plate was smaller than the motor so no way could I maneuver the motor out until the metal plate was removed. And those screws were very tight - self drilling/tapping into a ?steel? frame behind the thin plywood panelling.

 

[wrapped]

With it being a small slide your probably are OK but those screws were holding the top of the slide in. If you're slide was bigger and open it would try to tip out. I have to have the slide out to get to some of my motors so I always support it with a 4x4 and a jack outside. Can you pull back the black rubber flap where the motor is and take a picture with the metal strip on.

 

[MLP-THOR]

There is a controller that may have to be reset. Prior to that run the slide in and keep holding the control switch for eight seconds. Then run the slide out and again keep holding the switch for eight seconds. This resets the end points. If that does not work. Find the controller for that slide. You need to override the controller and this will allow the slide to fully open. Then do the procedure as stated above. Where is your slide controller? It depends on the manufacture and model. Found one of mine behind two junction boxes under the slide. Fully hidden. I still am yet to fined the bedroom slide controller.

 

[ghnl]

Can you pull back the black rubber flap where the motor is and take a picture with the metal strip on.

I don't think I can. The top screw of the metal retainer also goes through the top of the rubber flap. That is what stymied me for a while until I got all the screws out & removed the retainer. The top of the rubber flap was also glued to the vertical H column (which I expected).

Picture below (not our motorhome - from the Lippert Manual) shows what I expected to find. Note that with the metal retainer installed it blocks about half of the motor removal notch.

There is a controller that may have to be reset.

Yep, done that...

Where is your slide controller?

The bedroom slide controller is under the bed - in amongst the water tank, circuit breaker panel and other assorted wiring items. The living room slide controller is in the storage compartment below the slide. Carefully hidden in the top of the compartment such that one has to stick their head into the compartment and look up.

 

[TheGoodLife-THOR]

The rear slide controller for our Class C is simply laid on top of the wiring into the circuit breaker and converter under the bed. Spiffy installation there by Thor, but I must say it’s easy to get to.

 

[wrapped]

You might want to call lippert and ask about your setup. Cutting a notch out of the metal sounds like a good idea, by getting ready for future access assures you that you'll never have a problem kinda like getting a big snow fall and then buying a snowblower, no snow for the next 10yrs.

 

[pneumatics]

Corrosion like that indicates that leaking water into the motor. Check the outside seals to make sure that no water is entering there whether open or closed. I had a small intrusion early on and installed drip edges next to the canopy topper over the slides to move the roof drainage off the area at the top of the slide.
Note that the newer motors all have the rubber covering on to keep some of moisture out. The outside retention screw will go right into the motor opening and through the covering. More sure your retention screw is at least #8-32 in size, the larger ones hold better. The original screws were only #6-32 and do not hold up, they wallow out the tapped hole.

 

[Galobo]

My RV works on UTube has some helpful videos that may be useful with solving you install proble. I for sure would not reinstall the motors. Check to make that your wiring harness isn’t stressed in any way that may have caused your original problem.

 

[ghnl]

I ordered two replacement motors from Amazon on Nov 30, they arrived Dec 4. Today I got a Roun Tuit and installed them. I decided not to trim the metal seal retainer. Now that I am aware of it and what it does, it is not a big issue to remove & replace it. (It just stymied me for a little while at first as I did not see it on the YouTube videos I had looked at.)

The new motors installed easily. To get the D shaped shaft inserted with the wires aimed in the direction desired I held the motor in place and bumped the extend/retract switch to rotate the motor shaft until it lined up and went down into place. The new motors do come with a shrink wrap cover which I left in place. The retaining screw (on the outside of the slide) went in without an issue.

I then operated the slide to the fully extended position and let the controller shut off power - holding the switch for an extra 2 - 3 seconds. Then I retracted the slide fully and did the same thing. My understanding is this procedure 'tells' the controller where the in/out limits are and keeps the two motor synchronized.

As for corrosion, the forward motor had no corrosion (it was the one working properly). I'll keep that one for a spare - just in case... Undoubtedly the failed motor got wet. I'm not impressed with the weatherproofing. There are rubber flaps vertically (up the side) and horizontally (across the top) but it is easy to see how wind driven rain could get in there. But I don't see any practical way to improve that. Hopefully the shrink wrap on the replacement motors will improve their weather resistance.