Step Well cover won't extend, fuse? Where?

[FIRE UP]

Gents,
I try and be as efficient and resourceful as possible and not bug people with dumb questions. We're in the process of getting our new to us '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD D/P ready for our first big trip and as usual, I'm working on things and something else quits or goes wrong. I can't get the step well cover to go out and back in. On our last little cruise for a weekend maiden camping trip, the wife's switch, on her right side didn't work but, the one on the left side lower dash, mine, worked fine.

The manual (Horizon Owners) is real bland on it's operation. "Push the switch for it to extend and push it again for it to retract". Now that's pretty generic. It doesn't say if the parking brake has to be on, air in the system, check fuse if in op, NOTHING.

First off, I can't find a fuse for it. I've checked in the outside left front compartment, where there's a ton of circuit breakers and a smaller 12V fuse block covered up with a plastic cover, no luck. I've looked under the bed in the back where there's more circuit breakers etc, NO LUCK. I've looked under the hood, just above the generator, no fuses there. The manual, is no real help. I've checked the wiring diagrams and found the switch, and some of the wiring but, no fuses or circuit breakers for that step well cover.

Is there some prerequisite for making the step well cover work? Like making sure the door's closed or parking brake set or, what? Where might be the fuse for that system if I may ask. It was working when we purchased it a few months ago and, while we were installing a C/B radio we operated it a few times but, no worky now, help.
Scott

[cbeierl]

Hi Scott,

It should be one of the 12V chassis circuit breakers in the left front compartment (in front of the front wheel). We managed to pop ours once when my wife pushed her switch one way (the wrong way at the same time I pushed mine on the instrument panel (the correct way). I think it might be the same one as the steps, but I don't remember. If you can't figure it out I can take a look and figure out which one it was.

[ernieh]

Mine works ANY time that you push the switch. It is electric, but I've never had to look for the fuse/breaker. Since it works with the house batteries disconnected, I would look for circuit protection inside the panel above the generator. That's also where the disconnect and aux start relays are located.

I have managed to "jamb" it with a piece of carpet on the steps.

[KIX]

My step cover is air operated. The actuator is an 12v over air solenoid located on the "fire wall" on the drivers side. There is a knurled flat knob on top that unscrews and allows the coil to be lifted off. After lifting the coil off clean corrosion from the shaft. That corrosion prevents mine from working every couple of years. The solenoid will have two black plastic air lines and two 12v wires attached.

[FIRE UP]

Well Gents,
I think I've found the culprit. Long story short, I could not find a fuse so, I decided to go backwards on my investigation. My generator, like many of yours, slides out the front end of the coach for service. I figured I'd take a look under there after moving it out. Yep, there's panel with about 20 screws that hold it on.

I removed the panel and there sits the cables and motor that actuate the slide step cover. Leading into the edge of that panel is a set of wires, red and yellow. About eight inches away from the panel is a "Weather Pak" plug for those two wires. I got a jumper battery box from the garage and some smaller jumper wires and proceeded to do some checks. I attached the black lead to one of the screws on the motor for a good ground. I then touched the red lead to one of the pins in the weather pak male plug.

NOTHING! Hmmmmm. I then touched the red lead to the other one, NOTHING Hmmmm. Well, I figured possibly that that little shore section of red and yellow wires might just have a break or two in them. So, I unplugged the little black plug right on the motor. I then did the same checks, NOTHING! Hmmmmmm. 'Bout that time, the War Department came out and was laughing because I was sitting up inside the generator compartment. I asked her to get my Volt-ohm meter. She came back with it and then I asked her to step up into the coach and push her switch for the slide step cover to EXTEND it. She did, YEP, I got power at the weather pak female. Then she pushed my switch on the dash and YEP, I got power.

So, me not being an electrical genius, I figured that motor should have clicked, moaned, groaned, or at best, moved the slide in and out while I shorted the wires from that battery pack. NOPE! So, in my grand conclusion, I THINK IT'S THE MOTOR, WHAT DO YOU BOYS THINK???? Here's some pics of the mechanism.
Scott

[cbeierl]

Since you're getting power to the connector when the inside switch is activated it does sound like it's probably the motor. The circuit breaker must not be tripped.

That second picture makes it look like the motor might come out with 4 screws (2 visible, 2 on the other side). In any case, thanks for the pics--I've saved them away in case I run into issues in the future!

[FIRE UP]

Well Gang,
I'm happy to say, it's all better now. It's all fixed. As stated, I'm certainly no electrical genius. My experience is all back yard mechanics training. I assumed that, the motor should be grounded and the two wires coming into it, the red and yellow, simply were fed power from the two sides of the rocker switches.

Well, I was about to get ready to figure out how to extricate that little motor when I came up with one more idea of a test. I put the test jumper cable black neg lead on one of the pins on the motor plug and the pos lead jumper on the other pin, vualllllllaaaaaaaaaa, the step cover zoomed right out. I reversed the leads on the two pins, and ZAP, it came right back in. Naturally I did it a half dozen times just to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

Apparantly, the two wires simply reverse roles as "ground and hot" when different sides of the rockers are pushed. The motor is not grounded at all. In fact, the screws that hold it in place are insulated. So, the marbles are really floating around in the old cranium about now and, since I had juice when she pushed the switches from the inside of the coach, I then surmised that, it's possible that I simply had a bad contact someplace in the plugs.

So, I put some dielectric grease on all the contacts in the plugs, and put everything back together. I crawled out from under the coach and stepped up inside to push either her rocker or mine, on the dash. I tried hers first. ZAP, it went right out. ZAP, right back in again. I then went over to my switch on the dash, ZAP, RIGHT OUT, AND ZAP, RIGHT BACK IN AGAIN, Yahoooooo. ALL better. I went out and crawled back under the rig, and put the panel back.

Ya know, even at my age, you learn something every day. I'm a happy camper now and I'm not even camping YET! We leave in about 7 days.
Scott

P.S. Thanks to all for your support and suggestions.