slide 'BANG' won't go out!

oldbird · 08-06-2021, 06:18 PM

Its been awhile since I've been on here. Anyway, brought the slide in and before it was all the way in on the rear end of the door side I heard a loud bang. Got to our destination and the slide on the rear end wants to go all the way out but the slide end by the door makes it out about a foot and stops. Stopped it and it went all the way back in, both sides. Just after Joe sold his old DRV I bought a slide gear from him so at least I have that. Going to drop the bottom tomorrow morning to see what I can see. Any suggestions? Thanks

anijet · 08-06-2021, 07:30 PM

Maybe, with a little luck, it's just the shear bolt on one end of the torque tube.

oldbird · 08-06-2021, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anijet

Maybe, with a little luck, it's just the shear bolt on one end of the torque tube.

By 'torque tube' you mean what I'm thinking of is the 'drive shalf' between the two?

anijet · 08-06-2021, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldbird

By 'torque tube' you mean what I'm thinking of is the 'drive shalf' between the two?

Yes. The gear box has a round shaft that fits into the square torque tube with a bolt thru both, one at each end. Not sure if it is intended to be a shear point but in most similar designs they are.

oldbird · 08-06-2021, 10:12 PM

Thanks Leo, I'll be cutting and taking a look tomorrow, weather permitting. Just sure glad it wasn't the other way around, slide out and wanted to leave the campsite!

OCB · 08-07-2021, 09:35 AM

A friend had a similar problem with his 2009 model and it occurred putting slide in. The door end of the slide give-up its gear's teeth.
Happy hunting parts.
Clay

oldbird · 08-07-2021, 08:18 PM

Removed the under belly enough to see in there. The door side gear pack and track rack gears looked OK. The side towards the back had 'shinny' wear marks on the track rack gears. These shinny marks told me there was something wrong. I could not see anything wrong but running my hand over the top of the wood frame that holds up the under belly I found a broken off gear from the gear pack. When I remove the gear pack I'll probably see the broken gear on the top side. I read up on this some and I need to relieve the pressure (weight) from the outside of the track rack by jacking up on it before replacing the gear pack. Hopefully only one more night climbing over the kitchen counter to get to watch TV, lol.

anijet · 08-07-2021, 08:24 PM

Good thing you picked up that spare pack!

oldbird · 08-08-2021, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anijet

Good thing you picked up that spare pack!

It sure is good I had the part and come to find out if it was made after 2013 it has 15 teeth and before then was 18 teeth. Joe knew what he was doing when he bought his and then sold it to me. Anyway, ITS FIXED!! My gear pack had three broken off teeth right in a row. Looking back on the job it was almost as much work taking the belly down and putting it back up to get to the gear pack as it was to change it out. It fought me a little then I discovered the drive shaft moved a little in so I could mount the gear pack and then pull the drive shaft over to put the bolt thru.

A good thing to know is the drive shaft is square and if the slide will not go in you can use a wrench on it and turn the shaft. I'm guessing it would be quite a workout but if you have to you have to.

anijet · 08-08-2021, 09:21 PM

After fixing it and poking around under the slide, any idea what caused it?

oldbird · 08-09-2021, 07:18 AM

I have no idea except for the slide is out of alignment. The bottom is not going out all the way but I made an adjustment on the hydraulic ram to help with that. I can't see why that would cause teeth to brake off the gear pack?

Larry drv 7*3 · 08-16-2021, 07:28 PM

Guess you may want to pull that bolt holding square tube position. May need to be clocked to different position to align both ends of slide
Just a mechanical / engineering guess

oldbird · 08-16-2021, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry drv 7*3

Guess you may want to pull that bolt holding square tube position. May need to be clocked to different position to align both ends of slide
Just a mechanical / engineering guess

Larry, I'm not really following you

. When my slide is all the way out both corners at the bottom on the inside are showing a gap. I adjusted the bolts on the hydro ram to make it 'longer' thus pushing the bottom of the slide out farther. This took up about half the gap I had and will adjust it further, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Other then that I think the slide is aligned OK top and sides. It bothers me though that bringing the slide out there is a noise about a foot out but pulling it back in its smooth all the way in.

Larry drv 7*3 · 08-16-2021, 10:40 PM

Sorry, i misunderstood thinking your slide was cocked.
I have heard personally from people whose slide had gotten a small "something?" Under and it scratched the floor when slide went in and out til they got it removed.
Maybe swipe back n forth under slide with a opened up coat hanger to check for obstruction

oldbird · 08-17-2021, 07:35 AM

Thanks Larry, I'll check under it and see if there is anything.

**wingnut60** · 08-18-2021, 12:13 AM

Glenn,
Sure happy the gear pack worked. When working on mine, I lined up the gear packs on both sides by turning the side follower end to match to driver end, but I did not have any problem with the slide lining up top/bottom--just had to get both sides to move at same time by working the follower side by hand with a pipe wrench with the torque tube disconnected.
Interesting deal with the newer '15 I had--the torque tube is in two sections one fits inside the other. Well, DRV in their infinite wisdom, tack welded the two sections together. This kept the separate sections from moving within each other and snapped the tube in half at the weld. Of course, "this is the first time we have heard of this happening" was response from DRV. Bought the torque tubes and replaced them without the weld. At least I got the tubes quickly at the CG I was at and had time to do the replacement.
Best of luck with future crises...

oldbird · 08-18-2021, 08:01 PM

Good to hear from you Joe, I hope everything is going good. I'm sure glad my torque tube wasn't welded. I was able to push it in a little allowing me to install the gear pack then pull it back to align the bolt holes. I was just calling it a driveshaft but Oh Well.

**wingnut60** · 08-18-2021, 11:57 PM

I would have called it a square connector tube until DRV told me what they called it. Same setup in lots of Lippert frames with slides. That sliding tube makes it way easier to adjust the sides when the gear paks get out of sync.
Take care of that oldie but goodie...