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GKW · 10-13-2018, 12:31 PM

Is there a washer or a snap ring holding the bearing? Either way, is it possible to remove the shear pin from the drive gear and slide the shaft out with the bearing removed on the left side of the housing? I am on my third coach with slide outs and fortunately have not had a problem yet, however I hold my breath each time I move them in or out. Lots of strange noises always heard. Not very impressive hardware used in any of them in the drive system or support. Maybe because I have spent most of my working career working with large machine tools capable of moving thousands of pounds effortlessly while machining large aircraft parts and moving as little of a ten thousandths of an inch.

andrei · 10-14-2018, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GKW

Is there a washer or a snap ring holding the bearing? Either way, is it possible to remove the shear pin from the drive gear and slide the shaft out with the bearing removed on the left side of the housing? I am on my third coach with slide outs and fortunately have not had a problem yet, however I hold my breath each time I move them in or out. Lots of strange noises always heard. Not very impressive hardware used in any of them in the drive system or support. Maybe because I have spent most of my working career working with large machine tools capable of moving thousands of pounds effortlessly while machining large aircraft parts and moving as little of a ten thousandths of an inch.

Hi there, sounds like you had an interesting career working on aircraft! Sadly there are no clips or a nice/serviceable way to hold the bearings in place. Instead there are two washers tack welded to the armature housing the bearings. I have bent the ones on left side in an effort to slide bearing out but it won’t budge(pic attached). I do not want to damage the bearings because I want to know why this shaft snapped. There was evidence of binding in the shear pin. The shaft itself currently slides left to right about 1/4” which is the amount of play the gear cogs have within the slideout arm track holes. I will hopefully cut the broken shaft today or tomorrow, and then should be able to better work on removing the bearings if they are seized or seem damaged. My current theory is that the pin securing the gear cog to the shaft was missed, that in turn allowed it to spin on the shaft which then misaligned the slide and eventually caused this failure. I will better see once I remove the shaft and can “persuade” the gear cog off the shaft.
I’m with you on cringing at the slide out noise every time the big slides go in or out. If it’s any consolation I was very surprised at how little effort it took to move the broken side of the slide in by hand while my wife retracted the other side .

GKW · 10-14-2018, 05:50 PM

Thanks for the input and very good pictures. Yes I had a very interesting time and worked on everything from the NASA Saturn moon landing program and then the Space Shuttle main cryogenic engine. Like the old saying goes, if your work is fun you will never work a day in your life. Because of my ongoing concern about these slide outs I want to know as much as I can about how they work and are put together. I see the tabs you mentioned now in the picture. I think if you use a 3 inch grinder (plenty of power) with a thin abrasive (approx. 1/16” thick ??) inch wheel you can easily grind off the tab. Grinder should also make easier work in cutting completely through the shaft and then using a thin pry bar to leverage the shaft where the cut was made and force the shaft out through the bore for the bearing on the bracket. If the gear won’t budge on the shaft you could make the cut on the shaft closer to the gear and shove the shaft and bearing out and then be able to pull the remaining gear and shaft out of the remaining bearing. Maybe I’m missing something here but it should work. Based on your pictures that looks like the way I would approach the problem. The bearings should be fairly inexpensive and readily available at any bearing house so expendable. Good luck, and will be interesting to hear how it goes.

SAS30 · 10-14-2018, 06:54 PM

The parts you will receive will come as a kit. Shaft, cog, 2 bearings, shear pins and cotter pins. If you need a finer touch on adjusting (equalizing front and rear) you can ad an additional hole in the square tube that goes over the shaft at 90 degrees to the present hole. Did that to mine and it’s within 3/8 inch when extending or retracting. If you need a picture let me know. It’s on a post here somewhere, but unsure how to get the link posted.
Good luck on the repair, it’s really not that big of a job.

Gary.Jones · 10-14-2018, 08:11 PM

Andrei

Im sure you will be careful after you get the shaft repaired. It sure seems that you had a major imperfection in the steel shaft or you have a serious bind in the slide that was enough to snap off that steel rod.... Seems like the motor would stall if the system was jammed.... Im wondering about flaws in metal. Metal fatigue. Take a careful look at the shaft where it broke and see if there are indications of corrosion, or different indications of age (like a partial crack that eventually cracked the rest of the way). Interesting. Good luck.

Gary

andrei · 10-15-2018, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAS30

The parts you will receive will come as a kit. Shaft, cog, 2 bearings, shear pins and cotter pins. If you need a finer touch on adjusting (equalizing front and rear) you can ad an additional hole in the square tube that goes over the shaft at 90 degrees to the present hole. Did that to mine and it’s within 3/8 inch when extending or retracting. If you need a picture let me know. It’s on a post here somewhere, but unsure how to get the link posted.
Good luck on the repair, it’s really not that big of a job.

So, you measured the ends of the slide out as you pulled it in and then made your adjustments on the drive? I understand drilling an additional hole which will give you a smaller adjustment. I will post pictures of the removed items and see if we can figure out what caused this to snap.

andrei · 10-15-2018, 11:32 AM

Ok, I cut out the shaft and there is no evidence of a pin in the cog wheel, but I can not move it at all. I braced the cog and hit the shaft with a hammer to see if it would move. I will try later today at my brothers house in his vice. I had to make two cuts to drop the cog since the track kept the cog from moving laterally. The bearings are fine, they move freely, have no slop, and don’t feel rough. I will work on them now that there is more room.
I will post some pictures I took. We are always super careful when using the slides and this slide has never bound or jammed (it has groaned since day one and was supposedly adjusted at Entegra 2 year) That said, SOMETHING caused the broken shaft as well as the bent shear pin. They are indicative of binding somewhere. I can move the broken slideout side easily, so it’s not that. We have never had anything bind or accidentally in the way? Any help with looking at the shaft metal would be appreciated.
Also, can it be that these are not really shear pins, rather just regular clevis pins? If you look at how much it bent I would expect it to shear? The guy at Ace said he only had regular pins not shear pins, they look just like my bent one. Many shear pin images on Amazon show clear shear grooves?

Gasman 2 · 10-15-2018, 04:06 PM

Andrei,
There must be a hold in the shaft to pin the cog wheel to. Perhaps it drop out sometime and the cog wheel slipped on the shaft causing the two slide mechanism to be out of time causing it to bind.
Take a big sledge and break the cog off the shaft and see if there hole in the shaft.

Richard

SAS30 · 10-15-2018, 08:47 PM

[QUOTE=Gasman 2;4451984]Andrei,
There must be a hold in the shaft to pin the cog wheel to. Perhaps it drop out sometime and the cog wheel slipped on the shaft causing the two slide mechanism to be out of time causing it to bind.
Take a big sledge and break the cog off the shaft and see if there hole in the shaft.

I agree with you, also think the pins are just clevis pins. Except for maybe the pin in the cog wheel. The pin in the cog wheel fits flush on the outer edges of the cog and will have to be either peened, welded, glued or somehow bonded so it will not fall out. Interested to know if that pin possibly sheared putting the slide in a bind that caused the shaft to break. Let us know when you get it apart.
In answering your ? about the adjustment, if I remember correctly. I put the slide out about 6-8 inches equal on both ends. Then installed the shaft, cog and pins. Ran the slide in and out(use the remote) watch for equal closure on both ends. Make first adjustments using the clevis pin than joins the 2 shafts. This is where the extra hole in the outer shaft comes in handy. You can adjust the shaft 90 degrees, instead of 180. Make final adjustments by moving the cog wheel.
NOTE: Do Not permanately install the pin in the cog wheel until after final adjustment.
Hope this helps!

andrei · 10-15-2018, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gasman 2

Andrei,
There must be a hold in the shaft to pin the cog wheel to. Perhaps it drop out sometime and the cog wheel slipped on the shaft causing the two slide mechanism to be out of time causing it to bind.
Take a big sledge and break the cog off the shaft and see if there hole in the shaft.

Richard

I tried that and it will not budge. There is NO sign that there ever was a pin in there, there is even paint in one of the pin holes in the cog, the other one is clean? I will try it again with a bigger hammer and maybe heat it with a torch. I’ll let everyone know if I get it freed up.

andrei · 10-15-2018, 10:15 PM

[QUOTE=SAS30;4452458]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gasman 2

Andrei,
There must be a hold in the shaft to pin the cog wheel to. Perhaps it drop out sometime and the cog wheel slipped on the shaft causing the two slide mechanism to be out of time causing it to bind.
Take a big sledge and break the cog off the shaft and see if there hole in the shaft.

I agree with you, also think the pins are just clevis pins. Except for maybe the pin in the cog wheel. The pin in the cog wheel fits flush on the outer edges of the cog and will have to be either peened, welded, glued or somehow bonded so it will not fall out. Interested to know if that pin possibly sheared putting the slide in a bind that caused the shaft to break. Let us know when you get it apart.
In answering your ? about the adjustment, if I remember correctly. I put the slide out about 6-8 inches equal on both ends. Then installed the shaft, cog and pins. Ran the slide in and out(use the remote) watch for equal closure on both ends. Make first adjustments using the clevis pin than joins the 2 shafts. This is where the extra hole in the outer shaft comes in handy. You can adjust the shaft 90 degrees, instead of 180. Make final adjustments by moving the cog wheel.
NOTE: Do Not permanately install the pin in the cog wheel until after final adjustment.
Hope this helps!

I don’t understand your final comments. How do I use the cog wheel to make adjustments? The way I understand it the pin in the cog of the shaft can only be in one place with 180* of adjustment, and other than that it’s fixed? I have not looked at adjustments yet, my brain was in removal mode. Is there something I am missing, maybe the allthread? Wouldn’t be the first time

andrei · 10-16-2018, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Andrei

Im sure you will be careful after you get the shaft repaired. It sure seems that you had a major imperfection in the steel shaft or you have a serious bind in the slide that was enough to snap off that steel rod.... Seems like the motor would stall if the system was jammed.... Im wondering about flaws in metal. Metal fatigue. Take a careful look at the shaft where it broke and see if there are indications of corrosion, or different indications of age (like a partial crack that eventually cracked the rest of the way). Interesting. Good luck.

Gary

Hey Gary,
Here is the answer to why the shaft snapped. The motor, and in turn the drive shaft is way lower than the cog shaft (about 3/4” over 18” or so) so the pin at the cog shaft binds at every turn. You would need a ujoint there to work properly. I reassembled it all and found the new pins binding. It would only be a matter of time until the shaft snapped again. In the end I ovalized the holes on the drive shaft to handle the angle as it turns. I have a hard time understanding why Entegra would let it leave the factory like this, there is no way it could work for long. They knew it was it was way off since they had to grind some metal for clearance to get it working. It’s working for now.