A Two Part Problem?
After our 20° night three days ago , we had a 24° one night before last, and then 29° last night.
And we’re looking at 40° tonight. At least that’s the temp forecasted. But our temps out here in the woods seem to always run 3 – 5 degrees lower. So we could be looking at the mid 30’s tonight.
I spent most of the afternoon working on my Kwikee step problem. It was working fine when we left Los Cruces back in March, but later that afternoon when we checked in to the Cochise Terrace RV Park in Benson, the step started grinding when it extended.
And grinding when it retracted too, as well as not retracting all the way.
When I called Lippert (the now-owner of Kwikee) they immediately told me my problem was the motor/gearbox and they would be happy to sell me a new one for only $250. Right!
At least not until I’m sure that’s what it really is.
First thing I did was to drop the motor to look at the gears. Because of the grinding/chattering I kind of expected to find a tooth or two missing from either the motor gear or the interfacing one in the gearbox. But they all looked good.
So next with the motor hanging loose, I had Jan open and close the the door and listened to the motor as it ran. And it sounded just fine, with no noise beyond the normal motor sounds.
Next I pulled the cotter key and disconnected the gearbox linkage from the step mechanism so I could move the step in and out by itself. And in doing this I found that the step was binding at the bottom of its movement.
And when I scrunched further underneath the rig I found that the whole frame was slightly bent, pushed toward the front of the rig. But how it happened I don’t know. The entire step mechanism was replaced after our blowout in May 2015, so it’s just two years old.
I got my crowbar out of the truck and tried to bend the step back into alignment with only a little success. I couldn’t get enough clearance to really straighten it out, but I did make some improvement. To fix it completely I may have to remove the entire step mechanism to get it completely straight.
After spraying all the moving joints with while lithium grease the mechanism was moving a little better, so I put it back together, hoping I had fixed the problem. And it kind of did.
It was moving a lot better, but I was still getting the chattering. But now I noticed that the step came all the way out, but the motor kept running, and chattering.
So, is something causing the motor to not shut off when it should? But that’s for next time since it was getting dark. But it looks like a two part problem.
For dinner tonight we finished off the rest of the Baldy’s BBQ from yesterday. Still great. And hopefully we’ll get in another visit before we leave.
Then later for dessert we finished off the last of the Gingerbread Banana muffins that our friend and neighbor Dina Pickens dropped off a couple of days ago.
Tomorrow we going in to Bend to see “Guardians of the Galaxy” and then have dinner again at Red Robin and then make a Wal-Mart run .
Thought for the Day:
“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”
dghdgh
