Slide motor failure?

[38 Special]

You can unplug the motor from the harness going to the TT. Hook up a "jump box" (a 12 volt box used to jump cars off) to the two wires going to the motor. Hook them up one way , it is out, reverse the wires for in. It does not go to a common chassis ground. This will test the motor.

[TravelingJ]

Well, it sounds like those who said "it's not the motor" are right. I looked under the slide and saw a giant wear mark, so it's clearly hitting something on it's way in and out. It looks like I need to align the slide on the rails, I'm just not exactly sure how to do it. Should I pull it in and adjust it? Leave it all the way out? I'm thinking I need to find jacks or something to lift some of the weight off the rails to get them to safely move. Thoughts and suggestions?

[Always-RVing]

Grease. I often use canned spray grease on the slide rails and gears. This is a good practice after you get the alignment fixed.

[RV Wizard]

The ware mark looks to be from a screw head or something sticking up off the main floor and the slide is dragging over it. How does the ware look on the slide rams and how well does it seal to the main wall? When the room is retracted it is trying to climb up over this screw head causing it to be so slow. Bring the room in a little (3") and use two wedges on the floor and bring it in enough to lift the room a couple inches; watch the roof of room and main wall opening, with the slide out motor. The object is to clear the obstruction under the floor of the slide out. You might be able to get to the screw from the outside(fold down the rubber seal) at the ware mark. I have a feeling it may be in the ramp. Run it all the way in and if it tightens you are OK. If it does not tighten take it out. Let us know how you do on this.

[TravelingJ]

Sorry I forgot to update this.

We managed to start aligning the slide on our own. A lot of PB Blaster and some elbow grease, and I was able to get things towards the right direction. It's not 100% perfect, but it's better. I had called an onsite repair guy out to finish aligning it and we he came out, the motor totally quit. After he ran all the tests that you guys suggested, still nothing. He took it down and took it apart. One of the contacts was corroded, and had a missing spring. Off he went to clean and rebuild it-and we were off with flying colors the next day.

Sans the blowout in the RV parking lot.

Of course now, I'm having another round of issues. Slide went out, slide wouldn't come back in. Motor would still kick towards the out position. I took the switch down, and then things worked. The rocker has felt a little funny lately, so it looks like it's just time for a new slide switch. Is there a good site to order those from? It works if I squeeze the entire thing together, but that's not the most attractive of setups.

[RV Wizard]

Glad to hear you have gotten the real problem fixed. Try
www.pplmotorhomes.com for a switch.