Entrance steps won't go out

mikestock wrote:
After my first trip in the RV, it failed again. I will go ahead and do what I should have done, to begin with.

Mike you had the time and curiosity to try all things. At $150 per hour, It would be foolish for me to attempt what you did:B What IS interesting, is, since Kwikee has become the default step maker in the past 4 years, The incidence of bad spots in motors has increased, even Steps less than 1 year old. I attribute this to Cheaper components from China that LCI has contracted with. Before, It took years to cause a bad spot in an Armature. And, usually, was caused by lack of maintenance and the binding/rusted step linkages made the motor heat up and work harder which caused the Armature system to fail. Doug

I bought my OE motor from Amazon. It was around $100. Mine had a broken gear. It would clunk when opening and then just stopped and you could hear he motor just run.
I wouldn't put in an aftermarket motor in something that was relied on like power steps!

After my first trip in the RV, it failed again. I will go ahead and do what I should have done, to begin with.

Sorry to have led you astray Mike. Your experience sounds much different than mine. The teeth on the ring gear on both the old and new went all the way around. I used the whole new assembly except for the drive gear which came of easily. The output shaft on both assemblies was the same size and so the gear fit.

At last I got the steps working again. As it turned out the only part of the new assembly I was able to use wes the brush holder with brushes. The motor housing, although it looked like it would work, got bound up when I attached it to the ring gear housing. It probably failed originally because a brush wasn't making contact until I tapped on it with a hammer so the brushes may actually solve the problem.

At any rate, I may have saved $50 or so. It my travel time and effort are valued at about $10/hr I guess I broke even.

DFord wrote:
Why go to that trouble when the whole unit bolts in with 3 screws. No need to even open up the worm drive section. Just change the gear on the output shaft and bolt it in. Take a look when the replacement arrives.

The output drive gear is much different and the old gear which is larger than the new one. The old output shaft is larger and has two flats to turn the gear. The new shaft is much smaller and totally different. The worm gear which is the driven gear with the output shaft in the center has 360-degree teeth. The worm gear in the old one only has teeth about 1/4 of the circumference. I guess this is where the motor stops and the steps are correctly positioned up or down.

This is when I decided to just change out the motor.

The motor armature shaft is the worm and the worm spiral is about 1/2" out of position which prevents just swapping out the motor. Now it looks like I will be using the old armature and shaft (worm). The only new parts I will have are the motor housing with permanent magnets and a new brush holder with brushes. Four shiny new screws to hold the motor.

If you have KwiKee steps on your motorhome and need to replace the motor and you’re thinking of trying a power window drive from Rockauto…………DON'T.

Why go to that trouble when the whole unit bolts in with 3 screws. No need to even open up the worm drive section. Just change the gear on the output shaft and bolt it in. Take a look when the replacement arrives.

After removing the old drive unit and opening it up I see that the shaft is in the center of a worm gear. The little silver box on the left is the motor and the armature is a worm. The motor may be the only part I will use. From the picture, the worm gear shaft may be a little different from the one in my old drive.

My memory is a little foggy about exactly what I did to make it work. I may have had to remove the snapring to swap the gears but I'm not certain. It worked great. If the steps go the wrong way, just reverse the wires to fix it. I replaced the motor on a friend's steps. A few months later he showed up to an outing with our group and said they stopped working again. When I took the motor off and opened it up, I found the remains of the 3 plastic disks that should work as shock absorbers had turned to powder. I cleaned them out and reused the ones from the original motor. They were still working when he sold it. Never did figure out what happened that made them pulverize like they did.

DFord wrote:
A search for Dorman 742-206 on RockAuto returns Dorman 742277 as the current replacement. You'll need to cut the wires on both motors and put the old connector on the new motor with some butt splices. The motor itself is held in with 3 bolts. Easy swap.

RockAuto Listing for Dorman 742277 Window Lift Motor

https://www.rockauto.com/info/42/742-277-010__ra_p.jpg



Topic: Replacement motor for Kwikee steps

Great find. That is less than half the price from eTrailer. Looks like the armature shaft might be different. Sounds like you did the repair yourself. Is the shaft the same as the one you removed or did that issue have to be addressed? If the wiring harness is the only difference that won't be a problem.

I took pictures of the labels today. I'll have to go back and get more information and pictures tomorrow before I order it. Looks like I could maybe swap armatures if necessary, but that may mean I'm bringing the old problem along, to the new motor.