Bedroom slide and brake

[Rick Vyncke]

Bedroom slide was having issues in the gearbox.  I installed a new Lippert motor/brake and gearbox assembly.  That fixed the mechanical issue I was having but am now experiencing and electrical issue. 

Note:  the replacement Lippert motor was listed as 20amp whereas the original was listed as 10 amps. I brought this to the attention of Lippert tech support who said that would net cause a problem.

The problem is this… when the slide motor brake is mechanicaly disconnected, the slide moves in and out freely.  When the brake is reinstalled, the motor cannot move the slide.  The brake is clicking like it is working but it is not. 

The brake and motor are wired together.  When the brake is physically disengaged, the voltage at the motor and brake is 14 volts.  However, when the brake is reengaged with the motor the voltage at each of them drops to 3 volts. 

One final test that we did was to power both the brake and the slide motor with a Milwaukee 12v battery.  It both released the brake and moved the slide motor. That tells me that the problem is not with the motor or the brake or anything related toe the mechanical operation of the slide.

I must have a problem with the power or ground circuits.  I don’t see any relay or solenoid in the system. 

Does the wall switch power the motor and brake directly or is there a relay somewhere.  If there is a relay, where is it located. 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  I’m getting grayer by the minute. 

[Steve Huber]

Rick,
I had a very similar issue on my 01 Contessa. The cause was due to high resistance in the motor brake circuit caused by poor connections where they used wire nuts to tie wires together and mainly by under sized wires at the slide switch; e.g. 14AWG coming off the switch tying into 12AWG for the remainder of the circuit. I hard wired the switch with the heavier wire and that resolved it.
Steve

[Rick Vyncke]

Thank you Steve. Mine also has smaller gauge wire at the switch pigtail.  Looks like 14ga vs 12ga to the motor. 

My slide switch has a pigtail with a single connector that holds six or eight pins with 14 ha wire to each.  How did you get that apart to eliminate the 14ga wire in favor of the 12ga.  I hope that’s not a stupid question.  That connector looks very small to hold the 12ga.

Thank you again!

[Steve Huber]

I removed the plug and added slide on lugs to each of the 12awg wires so I could connect them directly to the switch terminals.
Steve

[Rick Vyncke]

After struggling to resolve the issue where the motor brake prevented the slide from moving, I removed the new motor from the gear case and reinstalled the original motor.  Problem solved!

The original motor was a Klauber that was rated at 10 amps and 9 RPM’s.  The replacement Klauber was rated at 20 amps and 16 RPM’s.  I brought this to the attention of both eTrailer as well as Lippert technical support and they both assured me it would work.  It did not, but given that the original issue was a failed gearbox, I had the ability to switch back to the original motor on the new gearbox.