Bedroom Slide Suddenly Not Working

[Mikey51]

I'm fairly new to the forum and have already learned several things about maintaining our "new to us" Sundance.

We purchased a 3300 CK about two months ago and have had it out a couple of times so far. Yesterday we packed up to head home and everything worked as it should. On the way home we had a blow out on the door side that broke one of the electric brake wires and tore off the side clearance light. When we got home, the bedroom slide wouldn't work. Today I repaired the brake wire and clearance light. I checked the breakers and fuses, all looked good. The slide motor is under the bed so I opened it up and checked the motor. Each wire had 12 volts when I pressed the switch but the motor didn't engage.

So it seems to me the motor is the issue. Do these motors normally go out without warning? Any other things anyone can think of that might be the culprit? Thanks

 

[danemayer]

Hi Mikey51,

Seems like it's more likely the failure is related to the blowout. Any chance the tire took out a ground wire?

 

[Mikey51]

That was my initial thought as well. But, everything else is working, including the bunkroon slide and the living area slide. The only broken wires I could find were the one on the brake and the two leading to the clearance light.

I suppose it could have pulled loose the ground wire somewhere in the underbelly. But, I did remove the motor, grounded it and applied 12 volts with no reaction from the motor. I guess I might not have grounded it well enough when I tested it. I might check that again tomorrow.

 

[Mikey51]

I found out what many of you already know, the motor on the slide isn't grounded though its attachment to the frame. Nor is one of the wires a ground. There are two wires coming out of the motor, a red one and a black one. When you depress the slide switch to move the side out, it energizes one of the wires and makes the other wire a negative. When you depress the switch to move the side in, it reverses the current, the wire that was positive becomes negative and the one that was negative becomes positive thereby reversing the direction of the motor.

I didn't think my motor was working correctly so I sent it to a shop. They say it's working fine so I checked the wires in the trailer last night. They checked out good as well. I'll reinstall the motor later is week and see if it works.

 

[Bobby A]

Maybe a silly question, but did you check the switch ?? remove it and check the wireing ??

 

[danemayer]

The switch is probably something like this illustration. Take a picture of yours before removing any wires so you can get things back together.

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

You can run a jumper wire from a good 12V source and see if you can make it work directly.

 

[danemayer]

You can run a jumper wire from a good 12V source and see if you can make it work directly.

You'd also need a ground path. The switch provides both and changes polarity of the voltage/ground depending on which way it's pressed.

 

[Mikey51]

I will reinstall the motor this weekend and see what happens.

When I checked the wires with a multi-meter, they showed to be good.

Maybe there was a loose connection that I inadvertently tightened.

 

[Mikey51]

I reinstalled the motor today and everything works as it should. All I can figure is one of the wires at the switch wasn't making good contact and when I was messing with the wires behind the switch I inadvertently corrected the problem.