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Old 09-30-2009, 01:17 PM   #1
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2005 Seabreeze BR Slide Repair

I've been posting in other folk's threads... since my experiences are now diverging from the norm, I thought I should break this out into its own thread.

History: We experienced our first failure with the RBW slideout mechanism within our first year of ownership, when several teeth sheared off the brass worm gear. Apparently this was a common failure due to a defect in the brass castings. The gear was replaced under warranty and has continued to operate without issues... until now.

On our last trip, we noticed that the BR slide motor was having considerable difficulty moving the slide in and out. Once we got home I emptied out the storage and took a close look at the slide motor system. What I could see was that there appeared to be pieces of a bronze bushing scattered underneath the gearbox.

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Operating the slide, I saw that the worm shaft was moving over a full revolution under load before engaging the gear, and the shaft seemed to be out of alignment at the end with the hex nut.

Once I had disassembled the mechanism, I found two issues. First, one layer of the steel mounting plate that mount the motor to the gearbox had partially separated from the other two layers.

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This changed the axis of the shaft driving the worm, putting a significant side-load on the bushing under the hex nut on the opposite side of the gearbox. Eventually the bushing disintegrated completely, allowing the worm shaft to move well outside the design tolerances and causing the rough operation we had noticed.

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More to come...
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Old 09-30-2009, 02:00 PM   #2
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Slideout repair continued

So... I had a dilemma. Repairing the gearbox wasn't going to be easy, since the worm-drive assembly was a single welded unit. On the other hand, the replacement drive system from RBW costs over $500 and has a significant lead time, owing to RBW (now owned by Al-Ko) relocating their plant to Indiana. A quick check of the wallet made my decision for me... Oh, did I mention my extended warranty expired two months ago?

First: I ground out the welds on the hex-nut side of the gearbox, and also ground the hex nut itself down past the welded end.

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Pulling the box apart, here's what I found. The worm gear is welded onto a 1/2" shaft (threaded at one end). The coupling for the motor is a hub that's intregal to the opposite end, and slotted to engage the electric motor. The design uses a bearing, thrust washer, and bushing at the hex-nut end to carry the load when the slide is being closed.

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A quick trip to the hardware store got me what I needed: one 1/2" ID flanged bushing ($2.75), one 1/2"-13 pitch steel nut ($0.27), and one 3/4" ID 1/16" thick plain bushing ($1.15, for the input side of the gearbox). Total investment so far, $4.51 with tax.

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A couple minor issues: The factory bushing that failed was a 5/8" OD flanged bushing. The only 1/2" ID flanged bushing available had a 3/4" OD. So, a few minutes with the drill and I had a 3/4" hole. Also, the hub on the new bushing was 1/2" thick... with the new hex nut threaded down it took almost all the freeplay out of the assembly. So I cut the bushing hub in half to make it pretty much flush with the plate. Here's the new assembly with the hex nut already welded on, you can see the new bushing underneath:

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And here's the box all ready for welding:

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The finished product:

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Yes I know they're ugly welds. I also laid a new bead on the flexplate to prevent the layers from pulling apart, it's ugly too:

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Voila, I have a bedroom again:

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Old 09-30-2009, 02:31 PM   #3
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Postscript

A couple things I discovered while I was engaged in this project. First off, the gear assembly RBW used to create the worm drive are all off-the-shelf parts from Martin Gear. The worm itself is a steel gear, Martin part #WH12. It has a 3/4" OD hub on one end which is how the motor shaft is coupled to the worm. The matching gear is part #WB1220R (the "B" indicates brass). It's also available in cast-iron, which is a stronger metal... why the brass gears were used in the first place, I'm not sure. The iron gear is cheaper too.

Anyway, the gears will need some machine work for use in the RBW mechanism. The bore on the WB1220R gear needs to be increased to 5/8" to fit on the driveshaft, and a 1/4" cross-shaft needs to be drilled for the roll pin. If I were replacing the gear, I'd have a machine shop thread one end of that shaft for 1/4"-20 threads, and use a 1-1/4" grade-8 Allen-head screw instead of the roll pin. It'd be smart to take the driveshaft into the machine shop so that the cross-shaft could be align-bored. Also, the WH12 worm needs to be slotted for the motor shaft pin.

The gears are available from Motion Industries, they have locations all over the country. Total cost to replace both gears would be around $100 or so, plus the necessary machine work.

Another discovery is that although the drive motors are the same between the old worm-gear design and the new direct-drive, they're not interchangeable. The reason being that the new system incorporates an electromagnetic braking system to hold the motor in place when not in use. With a worm-gear setup, the gearset will self-lock (by design) when not in use. A direct-drive configuration doesn't do that, hence the need for an additional braking system. Also, the original motor is a 1/2" output shaft with a crosspin to engage the hub on the worm shaft. The new design requires a 5/8" ID coupler to connect to the main driveshaft. Not having seen a new-design system up close, I can't tell if it's an easy fabrication or not... probably a moot point since the new setup isn't available without the motor attached anyway.
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Old 09-30-2009, 10:26 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noozeyeguy View Post
A couple things I discovered while I was engaged in this project. First off, the gear assembly RBW used to create the worm drive are all off-the-shelf parts from Martin Gear. The worm itself is a steel gear, Martin part #WH12. It has a 3/4" OD hub on one end which is how the motor shaft is coupled to the worm. The matching gear is part #WB1220R (the "B" indicates brass). It's also available in cast-iron, which is a stronger metal... why the brass gears were used in the first place, I'm not sure. The iron gear is cheaper too.

Anyway, the gears will need some machine work for use in the RBW mechanism. The bore on the WB1220R gear needs to be increased to 5/8" to fit on the driveshaft, and a 1/4" cross-shaft needs to be drilled for the roll pin. If I were replacing the gear, I'd have a machine shop thread one end of that shaft for 1/4"-20 threads, and use a 1-1/4" grade-8 Allen-head screw instead of the roll pin. It'd be smart to take the driveshaft into the machine shop so that the cross-shaft could be align-bored. Also, the WH12 worm needs to be slotted for the motor shaft pin.

The gears are available from Motion Industries, they have locations all over the country. Total cost to replace both gears would be around $100 or so, plus the necessary machine work.

Another discovery is that although the drive motors are the same between the old worm-gear design and the new direct-drive, they're not interchangeable. The reason being that the new system incorporates an electromagnetic braking system to hold the motor in place when not in use. With a worm-gear setup, the gearset will self-lock (by design) when not in use. A direct-drive configuration doesn't do that, hence the need for an additional braking system. Also, the original motor is a 1/2" output shaft with a crosspin to engage the hub on the worm shaft. The new design requires a 5/8" ID coupler to connect to the main driveshaft. Not having seen a new-design system up close, I can't tell if it's an easy fabrication or not... probably a moot point since the new setup isn't available without the motor attached anyway.
We will certainly be saving this info as JC is capable of these kind of repairs.
Thank you so much for posting great pictures of your engineering and repairs.
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Old 10-01-2009, 08:58 PM   #5
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This is the best info I have seen on this forum regarding the bedroom slide. My slide is fine now, but I know it will go bad at some point, and I will refer to this thread when it does.

Great job.

Bill
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Old 10-02-2009, 03:05 AM   #6
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Aww, shucks, t'weren't nuthin'.

It's amazing what you can talk yourself into tackling when Benjamins are on the line...
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Old 10-02-2009, 09:15 AM   #7
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Great info. Wish I had the expertise and machinery to fix ours. After talking to a machine shop owner, I determined I could not get a fix or substitute on our existing unit for less than the replacement cost of the new type. Maybe some enterprising forum member wants to start a remanufacturing business?
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Old 12-04-2009, 12:23 PM   #8
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Update:

We've put a couple trips on the "moho" since the repair, so far so good
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Old 08-07-2011, 03:31 PM   #9
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HEY! Noozeguy I HAVE A 2005 SEABREEZE MOD1321 WITH THE SAME SLIDE OUT AS YOU. I NEED TO RPLACE THE BEDROOM SLIDE OUT WORM GEAR. THE SHEAR PIN IS BROKEN IN SUCH A WAY THAT I CANNOT GET TO IT WITHOUT REMOVING THE ENTIRE ASSY. CAN I REMOVE THEGEAR HOUSING BY REmOVING THE FOUR BOLTS HOLDING THE BRACKET TO THHE HOUSING. WILL THE GEAR SLIDE OUT WITH THE HOUSING SINCE THE SHEAR PIN IS BROKEN. IF IT DOES I CAN CLEAN UP TH ENTIRE ASSY AND INSTALL A NEW PIN AFTER I SLIDE THE GEAR BACK ON THE SHAFT. PLEASE ADVISE . I CAN'T GET IT INTO THE SHOP FOR ANOTHER TWO MONTHS,FULL UP. HELP !! THANKS .JIM BURR.
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Old 08-09-2011, 11:21 AM   #10
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HEY! Noozeguy I HAVE A 2005 SEABREEZE MOD1321 WITH THE SAME SLIDE OUT AS YOU. I NEED TO RPLACE THE BEDROOM SLIDE OUT WORM GEAR. THE SHEAR PIN IS BROKEN IN SUCH A WAY THAT I CANNOT GET TO IT WITHOUT REMOVING THE ENTIRE ASSY. CAN I REMOVE THEGEAR HOUSING BY REmOVING THE FOUR BOLTS HOLDING THE BRACKET TO THHE HOUSING. WILL THE GEAR SLIDE OUT WITH THE HOUSING SINCE THE SHEAR PIN IS BROKEN. IF IT DOES I CAN CLEAN UP TH ENTIRE ASSY AND INSTALL A NEW PIN AFTER I SLIDE THE GEAR BACK ON THE SHAFT. PLEASE ADVISE . I CAN'T GET IT INTO THE SHOP FOR ANOTHER TWO MONTHS,FULL UP. HELP !! THANKS .JIM BURR.
If I understand you question correctly, yes removing the bolts holding the gearbox and drive motor to the base will allow you to slide that assembly off the driveshaft. The brass driven gear will come with it and drop free of the shaft once it's out. However, you'll have to move the slide manually (brute force) to rotate the shaft to bring the bore for the roll pin into an alignment where you can access it once the gearbox is reinstalled.

FWIW, you can move the slide with the gearbox still installed, since the roll pin is broken anyway. The gear will just spin on the shaft, there won't be any locking action.

Safety note: I'm assuming you know that the locking action of the worm-gear system is the only thing holding the bedroom slide in place, there's no secondary brake or lock. With the roll pin broken, there's NOTHING holding the slide except friction and gravity. Needless to say, it's not safe to drive the motorhome in this condition.
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Old 08-10-2011, 11:21 AM   #11
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Thanks. i'll let you know how it turns out. jimburr.
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