All coach interior lights cut out but come back on

[pierider]

We have a 2008 Lapalma XL and we have noticed when plugged into shore power 50 amp the lights will tend to flicker slightly. We are using a surge guard 34750. This is happening at both rv parks we have been in. Now just recently the lights will cut out and will come back on again after a short amount of time. I have cleaned the contacts and all the connections in the battery compartment which were fairly corroded but we still have the lights cut out. We still maintain full power to all Ac power including all outlets TV microwave etc. Last night we went to bed and the lights just cut out but when I woke up in the morning the lights are back on again. I have fiddled with the cutout switch in the battery compartment for the house and sometimes whatever I'm doing will make the lights work again. Possibly the cutout switches and battery compartment that have to be pulled apart and cleaned? I have however switched them on and off to try to clean the contacts but that hasn't seem to work either. I have checked the batteries and the battery water is a little low which I'm going to fill but they cover the cells. The battery did check out okay , they read normal voltage. and there's no problem with the battery since the new less than a-year-old. I checked power coming out of the inverter and it's ok when the lights did not work. So now I have found that the battery cut out switch located by the steps of the front door did not work and had no light on no matter if I switched it on or off when the lights failed again. I started unscrewing the panel that housed the cut out switch as well as other accessory switches and as soon as I unscrewed the last screw and the panel had loosened the lights came back on. The cut out switch now does not cut the power however but the lights slightly flicker like earlier and the lights return to normal when it is switched either on or off so it never shuts off the lights now. Jiggling it or checking the wires does nothing. I assume it's a faulty switch but what do I know. Any help you can give me would be great.

[Jeff753]

Can you make a little jumper and jumper (bypass) the switch?


Jeff

[pierider]

That's what I was thinking of doing but I don't know what wires are what
here's a pic of the wires in the back of the switch
note there are 8 inputs with 4,5,and 6 empty


https://www.flickr.com/photos/18000371@N06/14275622123/

[94-Newmar]

Your disconnect switch inside the coach does not switch any high amperage power directly through it - instead it operates a solenoid which does carry and toggle the house 12v power on/off.

I suggest your problem lies with loose wires elsewhere, or on the solenoid such as loose wires or bad contacts within the solenoid.

While I don't have a LaPalma of your era to look at, in most cases, Monaco places their entire 12vdc control center in the front compartment driver side. Should be a large (12 x 12 or so) black plastic box with 4 plastic wingnuts holding the cover on. Find that, remove the cover, take a picture of the inside of it, post the pic and I can walk you through what to check in there. - there could be loose house main wiring inside.

Next, take a pic of the battery compartment and post it. Inside the battery compartment is where you'll find the solenoid in question, having a picture will tell me quickly which one is your house side.

[YC1]

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/bypa...ch-190710.html

This thread should help. The switch controls a large solenoid that often fails. In my case I bypassed mine because the switch can get bumped and turn the Air Conditioners off. Not a good situation when leaving pets alone.

[pierider]

I had the lights go out last night again and when I woke they were still off and went to the cutoff switch and switched it and the lights came back on. So I thin it is the solenoid that is sticking either open or closed thus the reason for the lack of control with the switch.

Here's a pick of the front compartment where there is a solenoid bottom left hand




And here is the battery compartment where there is another solenoid as well




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[94-Newmar]

Ok. In the 2nd picture, the one of the battery compartment, the large solenoid you see is the one that ties the house and chassis batteries together when you hit the battery boost button on the dash. No issues here, so close the compartment door and let's move on to the front compartment.

In the 1st picture, the solenoid at the lower left is indeed the house disconnect solenoid in question. BEFORE you simply remove the solenoid and permanently bypass it, you need to make sure it is indeed the problem as it is entirely possible that the wiring from the switch inside the coach has been knicked or chafed in some manner causing it to activate this solenoid randomly. Additionally, notice the small circuit board also wired in between the purple wire and solenoid itself? This is a protection device designed to remove power to the solenoid should the switch inside become stuck or if the wiring from the switch to the solenoid becomes shorted in any way. This would prevent the solenoid from burning itself up. This is all very easy to troubleshoot. Activate the switch inside so the 12v system is active, lights are all on , etc etc. Then carefully remove the purple wire going to the solenoid, shown on the left lug. This is the activation wire from the switch inside the coach. Use the coach for a day or two and see if the lights switch on/off again randomly by themselves.

If after testing this and the house lights dont act up again then it's merely a matter either running new wiring from the switch inside down to this solenoid OR the small printed circuit board protection device is failing. If they do continue to act up then I can walk you through testing the solenoid - which is also very easy to do. I would start with the tests above first because honestly, when solenoids themselves fail, they simply quit working altogether - they don't randomly turn off or on - they simply quit passing voltage through from one side to the other.

The fact that your house power randomly disappears with no rhyme or reason certainly leads me to lean towards chafed or shorted wiring from the disconnect switch inside the coach running down to this solenoid causing that small printed circuit board protection device to kick in and de-energize the solenoid, OR the protection device itself is failing.

[pierider]

As I was checking the wires and mount of the solenoid the lights went out and came back on and I disconnected the purple wire carefully without the lights shutting off. Now we wait and see. I'll let you know

Thank you very much!



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[94-Newmar]

Well Peter, it's been over 24hrs.. how's it doing?

[pierider]

Had power to lights til I had to go on an unexpected trip Saturday and I will be back Monday morning to resume what's happening with my lights.


______________________________________
Peter & Corky Piepul
Pagosa Springs, Colorado

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[pierider]

Now that I'm back and the lights are now out. So wire to the switch is ok. I did reconnect the purple wire and hit the cut out switch in the doorway it did come back on however there has been no light on the switch when on which did work before this problem occurred. when working properly it would light up when power was on and the light would go out when the cut off switch was off.

I flipped the switch and it does try to trip the solenoid but nothing happens except an audible clicking sound from the solenoid and slight flicker of the lights.


______________________________________
Peter & Corky Piepul
Pagosa Springs, Colorado

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[Gorlininc]

Sounds like the solenoid is bad on your front bay. The fact that it clicks with the switch and the light flickers can mean bad contacts in the solenoid. I connected both the big wires on the solenoid to one side, there by bypassing the solenoid. I never had the problem again.

[94-Newmar]

Check the voltage on the output side of that small printed circuit board when the house power is enabled.... it's possible it's failing and isnt passing enough voltage to the solenoid to cause it to latch closed or open. If thats at least 12volts then I concur, the contacts inside the solenoid are bad/burnt/corroded. You can temporarily bypass the solenoid using car jumper cables on each side of the big lugs until you get another. As mentioned in the other threads on this very same matter, I do not condone or recommend completely eliminating the solenoid which disconnects the house power for a variety of reasons.

[pierider]

Yes that would be the problem. I'm getting 12v out of it where I'm getting 15v everywhere else. Time to find a new solenoid. For now I seemed to be able to toggle the cut off to get me power. It is strange that it will just cut off just as we go to bed.

Thanks for all the help!


______________________________________
Peter & Corky Piepul
Pagosa Springs, Colorado

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