Welcome to Careless' world of aggravated owners, Dale. Mine stripped out too, and that allowed it to open on Canada 1 in the Rockies at 60mph. As you found out, you can't just replace the bad part; they make you get an entire motor assembly. Steel drive shafts into aluminum sleeves never made sense to me. Eventually the softer metal wears, allowing the thing to freely spin, with nothing else integral to keep the awning from unrolling upon the first good bump in the highway.
BCS replaced the motor assembly eventually, after nobody at Careless could give a darn. But I don't trust the design, and am nervous to use the awning at all now for fear of unknowingly wearing down the gear again, and it suddenly unrolling on the road and this time hitting another vehicle or something on our right. Customers of Careless shouldn't have to feel that way or go through that. We got darned lucky last time. As it was the sound was like a shotgun blast next to the copilot, scaring the heck out of us both.
As I recall there was a recent discussion here re. awnings, Girard I think; seems there was mention of a fellow in California that's good with fixing these often troublesome critters, if that's feasible, and someone here can refresh info.
If you've got an imperceptibly bent arm or arms that need cleaning and some lube, or something interfering with one of the roller ends, that could make the motor stress. How's your battery strength? Did they give you the right motor for the size of awning? Are the awning's wire connections making complete contact and carrying full current?
The one thing I'd watch is that the shaft isn't slipping, reaming the metal out again.
-Joel
