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Generator Hydraulic Slide-Out Problem


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Hi Folks,

I needed to run the generator slide-out today and quickly discovered that the hydraulic slide-out motor will not run. I attempted to use the three different switches I have to accomplish the same task and all of them provide the same results, NADA.

The relays on the slide-out board do activate when I activate the switches but NADA.

Is this pointing to a failed hydraulic motor or have I missed something?

Once I have access to another set of hands I will have one person push the switch and I will pound on the motor with a hammer just in case the motor armature has gotten stuck at a specific point of the winding's.

Any advice is appreciated!

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Ivan,

Yes the park brake switch is working fine. All of the compartment doors are under the slides on the sides PLUS they have all been bypassed as I was tired of having them go out of adjustment.

My plan is to check for 12 VDC at the hydraulic motor and if it is there then I will start beating on the motor to see if it is stuck.

There is also a relay that when the ignition key is on it will Lockout the generator slide from working. I am assuming that relay is located on the generator slide-out control board. That will be another thing to look at.

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Dave,

I will give it a go today as it is an easy test. Thanks!

What tells me that it most likely isn't is that since it has been parked and not moved I have cycled the generator slide out and in multiple times over the past 3 months without difficulty.

Edited by Dr4Film
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On our 03 dynasty it was dirty armature from lack of use, the motor is likely the same as many snow plow lift motors.  I removed mine from the pump and took it into the shop, pulled it apart and spun the armature in my drill press while using a generator armature cleaning stone on the armature.

Cleaned the rest of the assembly and brushes, greased the bearings and reassembled, it's been working ever since.  

 

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Well, I did the park brake cycle and NADA. Then I took 12 VDC measurements at the weather plug for the motor and I have lot's of power so it is definitely the motor.

I will get someone to help me with a hammer test to see if I can dislodge the armature and get the motor to run. Otherwise it is off to a repair shop to fix it.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

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5 hours ago, gburgman2000 said:

I removed mine from the pump and took it into the shop, pulled it apart and spun the armature in my drill press while using a generator armature cleaning stone on the armature.

Cleaned the rest of the assembly and brushes, greased the bearings and reassembled, it's been working ever since. 

Guy,

How does the motor disassemble from the pump? How do I get to the insides of the motor? The pump and its components are held to a mounting plate with two hex bolts. That removes the entire assembly which is the 12 VDC motor, pump and reservoir.

I did locate a used one at Visone RV Supply but I would like to attempt to resurrect this one if possible or maybe match it up with a new one from someplace.

Thanks for any advice!

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Guy,

Thanks, yours is much different than mine. I guess one year can make all the difference!

Here is a typical photo of mine.

It almost appears that the motor cover is pressed on which doesn't make any sense.

 

M1041.8.jpg

Edited by Dr4Film
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Richard

Have you had any success getting the motor & pump apart.

I looked through all my information and could not find anything that gives a clue as to how it comes apart.  I do have a manual on the slide system but the pump and motor are sold as an assembly.  The part number is 540109, I googled it and it did come up on both Walmart and Amazon but listed as "Out of Stock" 

I had an issue with my electric front slide motor, which is power gear, it would not work.  I ended up replacing but kept the motor.  One day when I nothing better to do I tore the motor apart, could not find anything but I did clean it up and reset the brushes.  Put it back together and it worked so I have a spare. 

Jim

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Nope, no luck but I have not taken it off of the mounting bracket as yet. I am going to pound on it with a hammer while my brother activates the switch to see if I can knock it into action once again. I did find a used replacement and will purchase it if my idea fails. Then once I have more time to look the failed one over to see if it can possibly be repaired it or I may rebuild it for a future spare.

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Folks,

I posted my dilemma on the Monaco Facebook page and got a response from a person who owns a company in Cincinnati Ohio called Affordable Hose & Fittings. They have the ability to replace the motor with a new one fairly inexpensively. Once I return from the upcoming Monacoers Rally at Lazy Days which starts this Tuesday I will disassemble the unit from the chassis and ship it to them for repair.

Here is their web site link. http://www.affordablehydraulics.com/

They also do repairs on  HWH, Power Gear and probably many other products that our coaches have that need attention.

This is a great contact to include in our Monacoers Parts List.

Edited by Dr4Film
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  • 1 month later...
On 2/5/2020 at 9:19 AM, Dr4Film said:

Nope, no luck but I have not taken it off of the mounting bracket as yet. I am going to pound on it with a hammer while my brother activates the switch to see if I can knock it into action once again. I did find a used replacement and will purchase it if my idea fails. Then once I have more time to look the failed one over to see if it can possibly be repaired it or I may rebuild it for a future spare.

I would use a rubber mallet for that!  🙂

Joe

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  • 5 months later...

I wanted to follow-up with the outcome of my generator slide hydraulic motor failure that I originally posted back in early February.

I shipped the motor to Affordable Hose & Fittings back in February and they repaired it and shipped it back. The cost for repair was about $130 with return shipping. I installed the motor, filled the reservoir with ATF and ran the slide out slowly. The slide went all the way out but it would not go back in. The motor quit or so I thought. I removed the motor and sent it back. They took it apart and found that the motor was fine BUT the pump had frozen up with a chunk of black rubber looking material.

This prompted me to think that the entire hydraulic system had a problem which Mike at Affordable Hose & Fittings agreed. He suggested that the cylinder be rebuilt with new seals and I also requested that I wanted all new hoses made up in case the inside of the hoses were coming apart.

I removed the cylinder and hoses and shipped everything to him in Ohio.  I have attached a photo showing the bottom of the container that I used to catch the ATF fluid when taking the system apart. As you can see they was a significant amount of black material sitting at the bottom. I could not tell what it may have come from though, either seals or hoses.

They rebuilt the cylinder and made up all new hoses. The cost for that with return shipping was $550. I did not reinstall everything while in Florida as it was way too hot & humid so I stuffed everything into the storage bay for a later installation.

So today I decided to put everything back together.  With a little help from Jim J. in regards to correct hose locations I got it all back together, purged the cylinder and hoses with ATF and it is now working great.

I highly recommend Mike at Affordable Hose & Fittings for any hydraulic work needed for slide-out motors, hoses, valves, fittings, etc.

http://www.affordablehose.com/

Generator ATF Junk.jpg

Edited by Dr4Film
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  • 2 months later...

Well, bummer! It finally happened once again. My generator hydraulic slide has been working flawlessly since having it completely rebuilt and installed this past summertime in August.

Once we returned home early in November, I went to open up the slide to remove some items that were stored in the storage area just in front of the generator. I could hear the motor running BUT the slide was not moving out. I attempted to open the slide multiple times each day over the next two weeks with the same response, motor runs but slide does NOT move. Then this past Tuesday morning I hit the switch and the slide moved out as if nothing was wrong.

So I am assuming that the Lock Valve is the culprit for whatever reason. Now for my question. Has anyone with the same type of closed Hydraulic Generator Slide system with a Lock Valve ever replace their valve with a different one that has been trouble-free?

I have researched Hydraulic Lock Valves and found a number of them but without specific knowledge of fitment and operation it is difficult to move forward to replace the one that I have.

This has always been an intermittent problem ever since owning the coach. I had the system cleaned and flushed many years ago with no improvement. Then this past summer as posted previously I had the complete system rebuilt, new hoses, rebuilt cylinder ram and they also cleaned the Lock Valve I believe.

I think using hydraulics for the generator slide was a mistake. It would have been better to use an electric slide motor along with a rack and pinion to drive the generator slide out and in much like what is done on all three of my room slides.

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Richard,

I've had the same problem since I've had my coach going on +12 years now.  I did replace the lock valve itself but that didn't really help as I've had intermittent problems since.  I have drained and cleaned and added new fluid but this resulted in a short term improvement.  It seems to be worse right after I've driven the coach, possible heat and tolerance issues, not sure. 

One thing that I've been doing is when I close the slide I hold the button down for a short period of time, which I think forces fluid through along with possible contamination.  The frequency of problem has reduced but not disappeared.

I looked at the hydraulic hose routing and right off hand I don't see whey a standard hydraulic lock valve wouldn't work.  You might try going to a hydraulic shop and see if they have something that would work.  These are used in industry for safety reasons to prevent movement when a hose breaks but don't know if it would be compatible with the generator slide system. 

 

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I am new to RV's but I haven't read in the post any mention of a filter.  Why would they not put a filter inline before the hydraulic pump to catch the debris that you showed in your smiley face bowl.  I am not familiar with your coach layout and there might not be room, but it just seems prudent to have a filter system inline.  

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The pump is a actually reversible, runs one way to push the ram out and then the other to pull it in, so a filter would not work. 

Early reports indicated that Monaco used teflon tap on the hydraulic fitting and over time pieces of teflon would get into the lock valve.  I rore mine a part and completely cleaned the first time and still had problems. 

I carry a large deep well socket and extension that I use to take the end nut off the ram stem to be able to pull the slide out if doesn't work.  In most cases once I do that the system starts working.  I've given up on trying to "fix" the lock valve system.

One option may be to put a mechanical lock on the slide that you can release.  This could be a spring loaded type latch with a cable and lever and/or an electric actuator with a switch.  Just have to make it strong enough to hold the slide in and also when the ram is actuated by accident. 

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7 minutes ago, jacwjames said:

The pump is a actually reversible, runs one way to push the ram out and then the other to pull it in, so a filter would not work. 

Early reports indicated that Monaco used teflon tap on the hydraulic fitting and over time pieces of teflon would get into the lock valve.  I rore mine a part and completely cleaned the first time and still had problems. 

I carry a large deep well socket and extension that I use to take the end nut off the ram stem to be able to pull the slide out if doesn't work.  In most cases once I do that the system starts working.  I've given up on trying to "fix" the lock valve system.

One option may be to put a mechanical lock on the slide that you can release.  This could be a spring loaded type latch with a cable and lever and/or an electric actuator with a switch.  Just have to make it strong enough to hold the slide in and also when the ram is actuated by accident. 

Yes, that makes sense, I thought I had to be missing something!  Thanks for pointing that out.

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24 minutes ago, Texomaman73 said:

I am new to RV's but I haven't read in the post any mention of a filter.  Why would they not put a filter inline before the hydraulic pump to catch the debris that you showed in your smiley face bowl.  I am not familiar with your coach layout and there might not be room, but it just seems prudent to have a filter system inline.  

As Jim stated the motor is reversible to run the slide in both directions so a filter will not work. Also, Mike from Affordable Hose & Fittings in Ohio that rebuilt the system stated that the pump pressure is way too high for any filter. It is basically the same type of motor used in snowplowing equipment.

http://www.affordablehydraulics.com/

Edited by Dr4Film
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