Stubborn Fantastic Fan connectors

[Joel Ashley]

One of our Fantastic Fans stripped the cast female gear of its motor drive (again).  It should be a simple plug and play replacement, but two issues arose.

One, though I’m usually capable in this dept., I cannot get the two red spade connectors apart that run power to the drivers motor.  I’ve tried a small, narrow flat blade screwdriver between the insulating plastic and the blades, and I’ve poked and pried with metal probes, all to no avail.  Usually those means get the connectors apart.  I may cut the plastic so I can see how they’re locked, but that ruins the weatherproofing.  I may cut the wires near the motor assembly and attach my own new connectors, leaving the old in place.  But doggone it, these should pull apart somehow.

Two, neither Dometic nor BCS Parts has replied about if the K6010-81 motor unit that’s commonly available will replace the failed K6050-81 that’s apparently not to be found anywhere these days.  Does anyone have recent experience with that?  It looks like the only difference is the newer one uses a 2-pronged handle, as opposed to the older one with a 4-pronged handle.

-Joel
PS- I’d add pix but this system is saying they are too large even though one is 165kb and the other only 211kb.  Seems to happen often, so I can see newbie’s consternation here!  And if they don’t take, one has to copy and paste (or rewrite) the text body in a new, refreshed post because load-failed pix locks the whole post.

[Joel Ashley]

Pix

[Scott Shearer]

Joel,

Been there with those same terminals. I was able to separate them using two needle nose pliers. Grab ahold of the crimped part of each terminal and pull hard while working it back and forth...get real stern with it.

Did the gear strip or the coupler on the motor shaft?

I ask because I repaired one of our Fantastic Vents with a stripped coupling by making a new coupling out of a replacement hand crank handle.

-Scott

[Joel Ashley]

I did try pliers once, Scott, but worried about screwing them up altogether.  I’ll try working the connectors harder.  It’s the female side of the gear that appears stripped, the part on the motor shaft.  When I removed the assembly a bunch of black “dust”/debris came raining down on me out of the gear tube…. yuk.  Not good for an eye still recovering from 2 surgeries, but I think it missed.  On that same token, my still not recovered eye(s) only briefly examined the male and female gearing in poor lighting;  I do need to recheck that it is for sure the motor side that’s stripped, but I was pretty sure yesterday.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Joel

[David Ciotti]

I bought one of these:

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Dometic/FVK6010-81.html

and it works just fine.  It opens and closes the vent cover much faster than the original part.

[Joel Ashley]

I was surprised that my gear stripped again, as I try to keep the lid from sticking to the roof decking.  But more Aerospace 101 applications probably should have been made.

There are lots of K6010-81 assemblies online and priced anywhere between ~$17 to over $50.  Quality is essential to especially the grade of metal used in the gear, and it’s presumptive that the less costly ones aren’t up to snuff in materials used.  I’m gravitating to a $31 Vorgens version.

But scanned buyer reviews came up with a couple notions I hadn’t considered but that you likely can answer.  One fellow had to modify his assembly:
“Replaced a 6050-80 motor. Not an exact replacement for this one. Mounting tabs were not in the right place (you can't move them due to the support in the fan housing). I used the original plastic motor housing but had to carve it out some to get the motor to fit, Once that was done it worked well.”

Another fellow noted that there is no knob push/pull disconnect for manual lid adjustment.  He complained, albeit minimalistly, that manual lid adjustment required resistance from having to turn the motor in the process.

Are these concerns that you’ve encountered?

Joel

PS-  You know, a person only needs the gear;  motor, case, knob… are all okay.  I may attempt disassembling the device to see how the female gear is fastened in as part of the drive shaft.  Allen screw perhaps, if I’m lucky, or pressed onto a squared shaft end.  It may be I can swap it out with one off a new assembly, thus retaining gear disconnect for original 4-prong handle manual operation, and no issues with device housing alignment to the fan casing.

[Joel Ashley]

Gear puller and a little adaptation to small devices, and off came the pressed-on stripped (what I’m calling a) spline gear.  The gear is a non-magnetic soft metal that looks like lead but isn’t that soft.  It’s not even squarely cut on one end, making it harder to get the puller feet to balance.  But it came off with persistence. 

We’ll see if I want to take the gear off a new one and onto this old one, so as to retain the ability to free wheel the motor and manually raise and lower the fan lid.  I often do that as the weather changes and the batteries are disconnected.

Oh, and thanks Scott… it nearly knocked me off the stool when the connectors suddenly separated, but severe hauling with 2 needle nose pliers finally did the job!

Joel

Don’t know what the deal is lately here, but I can’t get pix to be accepted;  it claims they’re too many kb when they’re well under 200. 🤔. I had another at 180kb jpeg of the puller setup, and it refuses to fly.

[Scott Shearer]

Sorry Joel, I almost added a warning to be prepared for the rapid release of energy post terminal separation.

What you're calling a spline gear is what I was calling a coupling. It's soft metal and easily strips out. 

FWIW, I made a new coupling out of a metal vent crank handle, the splined end of the handle that fits into the cover lift mechanism is the same spline as the Fantastic Fan. 

I cut off the splined part of the handle, drilled a hole in the opposite end and used my vice to carefully press it on to the motor output shaft. Its been working for five or so years now. Slight advantage though, our Fantastic covers don't stick anymore.

-Scott

[Fred Brooks]

   Hey Scott,
 I did pretty much the same thing you did. I bought a short extension for a splined crank mechanism used on jalousie windows. I shortened it and attached it to the motor casting that was stripped out. I drilled a 5/64 hole thru it and installed a finish nail as a pin retainer. Works like Fantastic Fan intended. Fred

[Joel Ashley]

My apologies to those I’ve recently recommended my image processing app to.  They’ve since “updated” it to where it’s not as simple to use as it originally was.  I don’t yet understand why, the site here is analyzing my attempts at being about twice the kb they register on the compressing app and in my album. 

I ultimately noticed the successful photo post above is tagged as 242kb, while on the compression app and in my album it lists as only 127kb.   That cause yet unresolved but somewhat sorted, below is the image of the puller setup discussed in my prior post.  Unfortunately it’s lost some resolution as I’ve had to reprocess it down to less than 100kb to be sure it accepts here well under 300kb.  Note that my app and album say it’s 72kb, but it’s footnote here says 115kb.  Go figure.

Joel