REPAIRED: Slide with broken gear tooth

We got to Clute Park and Campground yesterday and when we attempted to put the slides out, the main kitchen slide really messed up. Loud popping noises and went out at an angle. Retracted the slide and tried to “help” rear end, lagging side, by pushing on it as it extended. Still didn’t extend correctly and when I went outside, I discovered the rear end of the slide had actually extended too far and bent the J wrap. Of course, it was pouring down rain. So, I found problem was broken tooth on passive side of the system and, through trial and error, figured out how to disassemble drive apparatus. So, my question is,

Can I just replace the spur gear or do I need to replace the whole gear pack?

Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

Lou, sorry to hear this. I don’t know the answer but I suggest you call Lippert ASAP for guidance / assistance.


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Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

You can buy a gear pack and replace it, not a very hard job.

You will need to lift the slide up a little bit, then you can replace the gear pack, however you have a problem with the slide it is lifting off the rack causing the teeth to not mesh with the gear pack. There are several solutions to curing this problem, I am sure Lippert can help you with a solution to you problem.

dave

Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

Jim and Dave, thanks for the replies. I spoke with LCI customer service this morning to; a) confirm the part number, and b) replacing just the spur gear. LCI representative indicated I had the correct part number and that the gear could be replaced without replacing the entire gear pack. Now waiting for closest RV parts stores to open to see if they have the part. If not, I find it on Amazon so with prime can have it in a couple of days. Once I get the gear, the hard part of reassembling and getting everything back in working order will start. Not knowing exactly what I was doing will probably complicate that reassembly process. Oh well, first things first, get the part.

Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

It is a fairly easy job. Like dave said you'll want to jack the slide up to get the weight off of the gear. But before you do that put the slide out most of the way (if that's possible) then pull the bolt out of the square cross bar that connects one side to the other. Then move the good side with the Ram in or out to make both sides match exactly (use a tape measure or something)
Then jack it up, pull the 2 bolts holding the gear assembly in, drop it out and install the new parts.
You might want to take a picture of the old one before you remove it. 1) so you know where the washers were and 2) post it on here so we can take a look at your gear alignment.
Post a good picture of the gears in the track before you jack it up. I'd like to see how much of the tooth is actually in the rail.

My gear was off to the side and was only utilizing half the gear. Daves had a bent outer channel and only contacting the tips of his gears causing them to snap off.

Good luck and I hope some of that helps you.


Jerrod

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Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

Jarred made a good point make sure that the teeth are meshing with the rack, if not you will have to adjust the slide or you will strip the teeth off the new gear pack, ( don't ask how I know). One more suggestion it is best that 2 people work together when checking the meshing of teeth 1 to bump out the slide a little at a time the other to watch, by all means keep your hands and fingers away from the gear and rack (this to is from the voice of experience).

dave

Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

Dave and Jerrod, thanks for the advice on repair, I certainly will pay attention to the points you make. First, as was suggested, I think I remember the teeth not being exactly centered so that may have been the cause of the broken gear tooth. What I don’t understand is why there isn’t shiny metal showing where the tooth broke off. It looks like the tooth has been missing for enough time to be slightly rusty in the broken area. If it has really been missing for “a while” why haven’t I had a problem until now? When Bette first tried to extend the slide at this stop, made a loud popping sound and then continued to extend but at an angle. I had her bring it back in, still at a slight angle, and, while I pushed on the rear end of the slide to “assist it, had her extend them again. Well, the rear end went out faster that front and when fully extended, two white rollers were visible from the inside. When I went out to check alignment, the rear, passive, rail had extended so far it actually deformed J-wrap. After I removed the bolt from the shaft of the rear gear to allow the rail to move freely, I could not push that end of the slide in. I believe this was due to the slide no longer being on the rollers. So, not knowing exactly what I was doing, I removed the two bolts from the base plate of the rail and moved the rail in. The rail moved in freely but, the slide dropped down when supporting ledge on base plate was removed. I couldn’t get the rails to equal length so I remove the same two base plate bolts from the dynamic end of the slide and pulled it in with control. Now slide was down past both rails and I know it will have to be jacked up when I replace gear (hopefully coming today from Amazon with one day shipping.). I then removed one of the bolts from the gear pack and was then able to lift the rail far enough to allow me to move the rail without moving the gear. I then evened the rails up, reassemble the gear pack so there was contact with mechanism and had Bette try extending the slide with only the rails moving since the slide was disconnected. Rails did not move equally so I realized there was not enough of the broken tooth remaining to allow that rail to move. So, after checking with every RV store within a 100 miles, I found the correct gears on Amazon. Ordered two. I did reattach the rear rail to the slide without raising to use the hydraulics to pull that end of the slide in enough that I could actually get both ends of the slide equal distance from the coach wall. So, now when gear is replaced, my plan of attack is to jack up slide high enough to get base plate back in place on dynamic end without disconnecting the ram. Once I have that end totally reconnected, I plan to leave the passive rail loose and manually bring that rail/base plate out and reattach, reassemble gear pack and remove jacks. Hopefully, slide will resume normal operation at that point. I hope this explains the mess I have gotten myself in.

Re: Slide with broken gear tooth-FIXED

Update...Gears arrived today, ordered two so that I would have a spare. However, I got a big surprise when I began the repair, the dynamic side of the slide gear had TWO broken teeth next to each other (I will try to attach photos.) The repair went fairly smoothly and, using the advice from Jerrod and Dave, with Bette on the inside to bump the hydraulics, everything went back together fairly easily. What amazes me is that the thing worked at all. If the rust on the broken area of the gears is a true indicator, these things have been broken for a long time. I believe it has always been fairly noisy and moved kind of herky-jerky and I just put that off to the “nature of the beast.” I suspect the reason it went all catty-whampus this time is both gears happened to hit dead center on the broken tooth/teeth area at the same time and caused the big jump. Probably will never know for sure. All I know for sure is that everything works as smooth as a baby’s tush now. I’m going to order another gear to have as a spare. Jerrod, I hope the photos show what you want. I do remember the gear on one of the rails being off to one side but can’t remember which one. I made sure the gears were centered on the repair and can’t understand, besides the weight of the slide on the gear pack, holds the gear in the correct place. There is a lot of side to side play in the gear when no weight on it. When I was looking at Lippert’s Owner manual on line, the gear packs have a keeper pin, ?straight cotter pin, through the shaft on both side to hold the plastic rollers in place which holds the gear in a fixed place. None of my gear packs have these pins and there are no holes in the shaft to put one. So, as I mentioned, the gears have to be aligned prior to the weight of the slide being put on them. So, the real morel of this story is - if your slide is noisy or jerky you might have a broken gear.

P.S. One of these days I will remember to turn my phone sideways when taking photos...sorry for them being sideways.


Unsupported slide droop


J-wrap damage from slide extending too far

Dynamic side gear alignment (and two broken teeth) prior to repair

Passive side gear, new and old one with one broken tooth

Dynamic side gear, new and old one with two broken teeth

Passive side with repaired gear pack and gear alignment

Dynamic side with repaired gear pack and gear alignment

Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

Happy to hear you got it taken care of Lou. Nice work and thank you for sharing.

Re: Slide with broken gear tooth

It appears you are taking the correct approach to the problem. The problem can be several things. But bottom line the rack is lifting off the gear pack. Lippert fixed our coach when we took it to the Goshen location. First they put a big "C" clamp on the tube that houses the rack this squishes the tube and then welded a piece of metal on the top to keep the rack from lifting up, this does indeed fix the problem however it does create another one by welding in place you lose the wear tab on the top of the rack.(Not good)

The new fix from Leppert is a clamp that they designed just to fix the problem here is the Lippert part number 304331, service assembly. With this you don't lose the upper wear tab (a good thing).

If I can be any help give me a call I will try to walk you through the process.

dave

Dave, I noticed, while I was researching the correct part number for my gears, the “wear tabs.” I didn’t notice these during my repair but, I will admit I wasn’t really looking for them since my focus was on the repair itself. Where are these wear tabs located; what would indicate “excessive wear;” and, if excessive wear is indicated, are these tabs repairable/replaceable?

Thank you for the info...I will start looking for them.

Wear tabs are shown on this parts list.

Thanks Dan, I knew I saw that term/part when I was looking for the part number I needed but couldn’t remember where I saw it. Now, to find the things.

Wouldn't you have to remove the entire inner slide tube to install these new ware tabs ?? That would be a big project from what I can see.

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jesstalkn said:

Wouldn't you have to remove the entire inner slide tube to install these new ware tabs ?? That would be a big project from what I can see.

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No, you have to run the slide out jack it up a little and use a pair of needle nose pliers to replace the tab, not easy but can be done.

dave

Dave l sure don't see how that would be possible !!!

I must be missing something

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jesstalkn said:

Dave l sure don't see how that would be possible !!!

I must be missing something

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I’m with you Jerrod, I couldn’t see therm either. Even when the inner, moving, tube had extended out so far it dented my J-wrap, it didn’t seem to be out far enough to clear the outer, non-moving, tube to see a roller. Dave, I don’t want to be a bother and I am usually fairly quick to catch on to instructions, but I think you are going to have to spoon feed me on this one

jesstalkn said:

Dave l sure don't see how that would be possible !!!

I must be missing something

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My tube was bent up so much I had no problem inserting a new tab, now I have not tried to replace the side tabs however I have cut a 3/8 washer into a horse shoe looking thing and slide it in to the side of the tube. Maybe that is way they welded the metal on mine creating the problem of not being able to adjust the top tab. After some talks with Lippert the only way I can have a wear tab on the ram is to extend and drill a hole to put in a tab. The new fix appears to solve the issue without going through all this hassle.

dave