Slide alignment problem after awning hangs

Hi Bill,

I do not know the Lippert hydraulics but I do know a fair amount in the Lippert electric rack and pinion.

If you jumped teeth, and that is an if, when the gear rack is exposed from the camper (I'm assuming you have enclosed tanks) look for traces of any kind of damage. Scared teeth, dings etc.

If it did jump track OR if the slave side arm slid, then when the camper opens or closes you should see the slave driven side act different then the master rack side. Meaning, when the slide is full out, take a tape measure and measure from wall of camper to slide flange on both the front and rear at the same spot. The number should be the same. (I would say, within 1/16" but not 1/4"). You "might" see that on closing, the slave side is not closed all the way tight but the master rack side is.

I'm assuming, don't know, the hydraulic cylinder is pushing and pulling the master rack. Yes/no? and if so then the master rack arm can't change location by and overload unless something bent. But the slave rack which is driven from the master rack can move in the gear drive.

On my slave arm, there is an adjustment at the end of the arm where it connects to the slide room. It has slots. This may have come loose and slipped. Check for witness lines of dirt or rust moved. See this pic, I do not know if yours is like this but the slave rack should have some kind of adjustment. There are 2, 1/2" bolts (vertical) in the end of the arm. There are slots on them




On mine, the camper wall opening is not large enough to jack up the camper and allow the rack to move from the pinnion. And the opening in the slide frame will not allow that either for the slide arm to raise up to disengage the teeth.


The only way on mine to reset teeth, is to unbolt the square shaft drive from the master rack and turn the square shaft to move the slave rack in 1/4 rev's.

Man, if you jumped teeth and really did that, something needs to leave tracks of jumping. Check the rack and pinion gear assembly and see if something is affected there. In this area on both the master and slave rack. You would think you would of sheared the bolt on the square shaft first or the hydraulic safety relief would or tripped.



Hope this helps and please report back findings. Pic's help greatly.

John

Well that's pretty much what I'm thinking happened. Just not 100% sure it can happen. It doesn't look to me like the rack can lift that high. I don't think i need to jack it though. I think I can put it out as far as it goes, remove the sheer pin, push the bad side out, and then replace the sheer pin. If I keep track of how many teeth turn while pusing it out, I can probably get it back to where it was if it doesn't work.

When the slide comes in, is it supposed to hit on top first and then square up on the botton as the rod comes in all the way? I'm thinking I can watch how it comes in to make sure it's behaving right. If something seems wrong, I can just put it back to close to how it was and start over with a different theory.

I assume this is a hydraulic slide and the two rack and pinions under the slide are used to keep the slide in line as it moves in and out. when the awning caught and the ram continued to push, it lifted the slide allowing the rack to lift off the gear on at least one side and stop moving while the other side continued to be pushed by the ram. then the slide dropped back down on the gears misaligned which was probably the bang you heard. I would lift the slide with a jack until the rack is just off the pinion on the side farthest from the ram then jog the ram in or out until the slide is properly aligned with the trailer wall then lower the jack allowing the rack to engage the pinion in proper alignment .that should fix it assuming I understand the problem.