Stair Well Cover Not Working - 1999 Allure

[deandec]

To try to determine whether it is the motor or actuator, or wiring, you could do the one-handed removal of the two nuts that bolt the motor to the actuator cover.

Then pull out the motor....

1. Do not cut the black and red wires.

2. Do not move the slide cover.

3. Try the toggle switch and see if the motor shaft turns, in both directions.

4. If so, re-install the motor to the actuator and retry the toggle switch. (You might spray some grease into the shaft hole first.)


The above procedures could test whether the wiring and/or switch is the problem or whether the screw rod in the actuator is the problem.

If the motor shaft turns in both directions your wiring and your motor might be fine.

If the working motor does not move the shaft maybe the motor just cannot overcome the resistance of the screw rod actuator. A new motor might be the solution or the shaft gears may need attention.

(I failed to do the above steps and initially cut the black and red motor cables and slid open the step cover which introduced an unexpected wiring problem and did not allow me to perform the above test. Corrective action produced no motor action or reinstall as yet. )

[deandec]

"I tried tapping it with a rubber mallet but that didn't help."

Over the years I always successfully used a metal hammer or hatchet to whack (more than a tap) the outside end or side of the actuator cover. The cover is very sturdy on my rig. One whack seemed to be remedy.

The idea being to shock a balky limit switch back to normal life. (I have no idea if that is what I was accomplishing but it sounds good.....)

The procedure seemed to "fix" things for about six months and was a lot cheaper than attempting a repair as I need to do now.

[deandec]

DO NOT REMOVE THE STEP COVER MOTOR FROM THE ACTUATOR!

unless rewiring the harness and eliminating the relay inside the actuator does not work for you.

I will post the rewiring of the harness which appears to work for me later on today.


Re-installing the motor is a matter of blind luck on attaching the retaining nut on the inboard side of the motor. I have an hour into that process now and do not recommend anyone duplicate the effort if not needed.

Hopefully I can get the motor re-installed before the warmer air and sunlight go away today.

[deandec]

Well, I think I gave bad advice in terms of the steps to follow in my posts preceding this one.

1. Removing the motor should be reserved for a much later step in the process. It is very hard to re-install. I may have to remove the actuator to do so.

2. I did some work around wiring that seems to make the motor work from the switch.

3. Wiring can always be spliced if the work around does not solve the problem.

4. In the basement compartment I have Blue, Red, Yellow and Black wires entering from the dash switch. These are wires 385,386,387,388.

5. In the compartment wires from inside the Actuator are plugged to the above wires from the switch. The color of wires do not match the switch wires. I cannot see what the wires connect to in the actuator, but I am guessing there is a relay inside the actuator.

6. I cut the four wires and used the open ends from the dash switch wires to connect to the motor. This bypasses the suspected relay which probably is not needed anyway. (The actuator in the above You Tube video did not use a relay.)

6. Using the switch wire leads as a guide, I connected the wires in the following manner similar to the You Tube Video.

Blue and Yellow connected to the Red Motor Wire.

Black and Red connected to the Black Motor Wire.

7 The step switch now operates the motor forward and reverse as designed where it did not before. (I have not yet been able to re-install the motor to the actuator.)

8 The motor shaft turns a gear which meshes with the teeth of a long rod to move the rod and step cover forward and backward.

[deandec]

My repair effort is still at a stand still!

I tried to find the business end of the actuator shaft and back side of the sliding platform by looking inside of my nose mounted Generator ceiling.

Nothing to be seen

I also have not been able to find the connector with the platform extended.

I would like to disconnect and dismount the actuator to address the problem. I guess this will not be simple.

[CntryCoachRV]

Originally Posted by GoHorseyGo

Hi. First Tech question on our new-to-us, ‘99 Allure.

The step slide cover doesn’t work. I don’t hear any sounds when the toggle is pressed in either direction. The 20A breaker fuse was replaced to no avail. Confirmed that power is going to the switch. Switch seems to test okay. I think it may be the motor, or other's have thought it may be a switch.

Have you had experience with your stair well cover, that you fixed?

What do you think? Switch, motor or something else?

Hi, mine wasn’t working or was working intermittently, I pulled the switch housing out of the dash cut out and it now works so I think there is a problem with wire connections to the switch. It has worked without fail since I pulled the switch housing out of the dash cut out.

Ray
2000 Intrigue 11040

[AnotherMike]

Originally Posted by deandec

"I tried tapping it with a rubber mallet but that didn't help."

Over the years I always successfully used a metal hammer or hatchet to whack (more than a tap) the outside end or side of the actuator cover. The cover is very sturdy on my rig. One whack seemed to be remedy.

The idea being to shock a balky limit switch back to normal life. (I have no idea if that is what I was accomplishing but it sounds good.....)

The procedure seemed to "fix" things for about six months and was a lot cheaper than attempting a repair as I need to do now.

My dad used to call that "percussive maintenance".

[deandec]

Originally Posted by AnotherMike

My dad used to call that "percussive maintenance".

A wise man was he!

[Almost There]

I haven’t had a problem with the linear actuator on the motorhome, but I did have that problem on my boat.
What I did was removed the linear actuator, took it apart gave it a good cleaning and found that when it wears it may turn a little too far and activate the limit switch.
When that happened no way on earth would it work either way.
I just had to remember on the boat to open window and stop it manually, rather than let limit stop the unit. (Limit switch was not replaceable )
Not sure if this information will be of any use, but wishing you good luck.

[GoHorseyGo]

Originally Posted by deandec

A wise man was he!

[emoji23][emoji23]🤣

[CntryCoachRV]

Well, my switch is no longer working so I am in need of a new switch, does anyone have a part number and source for the stair well cover switch?

[deandec]

If you remove the switch from its mounting you should see a manufacturer name and the part number on the switch. You may have to find a cross over chart to ID the next switch.

Mine is just a two way momentary 12v toggle switch which should be easy to replace.

I now know my switch is good and the motor is good. Just the limit switches have failed.

There is a way to wire around the limit switches, which I have done.

I just have not yet been able to remount the motor which I should not have removed in the first place. Very tight quarters for this effort.

[GoHorseyGo]

Originally Posted by deandec

Well, I think I gave bad advice in terms of the steps to follow in my posts preceding this one.



1. Removing the motor should be reserved for a much later step in the process. It is very hard to re-install. I may have to remove the actuator to do so.



2. I did some work around wiring that seems to make the motor work from the switch.



3. Wiring can always be spliced if the work around does not solve the problem.



4. In the basement compartment I have Blue, Red, Yellow and Black wires entering from the dash switch. These are wires 385,386,387,388.



5. In the compartment wires from inside the Actuator are plugged to the above wires from the switch. The color of wires do not match the switch wires. I cannot see what the wires connect to in the actuator, but I am guessing there is a relay inside the actuator.



6. I cut the four wires and used the open ends from the dash switch wires to connect to the motor. This bypasses the suspected relay which probably is not needed anyway. (The actuator in the above You Tube video did not use a relay.)



6. Using the switch wire leads as a guide, I connected the wires in the following manner similar to the You Tube Video.



Blue and Yellow connected to the Red Motor Wire.



Black and Red connected to the Black Motor Wire.



7 The step switch now operates the motor forward and reverse as designed where it did not before. (I have not yet been able to re-install the motor to the actuator.)



8 The motor shaft turns a gear which meshes with the teeth of a long rod to move the rod and step cover forward and backward.

**************************

I wanted to thank you as this post allowed me to get my stair working.

I finally came back to this after a year of having the motor out and using the slide as a manual push-pull. I had tried to have a local repair shop fix it and all they did was give it back to me with wires cut and hanging and the motor out. I knew the motor worked from doing a bench test...so did the limit switch at the far end, but I just didn’t come back to it until today.

Fast forward... I was able to get the motor back in the cradle by pulling/extending the stair cover all the way out. Then, with just a little bit of jiggling and pushing two hydraulic lines out of the way, it just slid straight in.

Now that alone felt good, except that I now either had to get the wiring figured out to where it would work, or pull the motor back out so I could go back to using a manual push/pull on the stair well cover.

Because the shop tech had made a mess of the wires, I just wasn’t sure of how the connections all matched up (red, black, blue,and yellow from the switch, into the tube with the limit switch). So, I was getting ready to just pull the motor back out, when I remembered your post. Specifically bullet #6 with the wire combinations for bypassing the limit switch was the golden ticket! Voilà! It worked.

Now, if someone can tell me how to match all the wires into and out of the limit switch area, I’ll try that as well. But bypassing that via your wiring instructions got it working.

Just wanted to close the loop and say “thank you!”

[GoHorseyGo]

Video https://share.icloud.com/photos/00Op...3Cy8Gw#Oakland