How Dun wrote:
We have a Newmar 2008 Dutch Star 4023. When the steps retract the motor will not stop and the steps hammer several times. We are in Texas and called our dealer, he said to replace the module which we did. I checked the voltage and it was 13+. I also cleaned all ground wires. This did not solve the problem. The dealer has no other suggestions. Has any of you had this happen. What do I do now?
How Dun,
Well Sir, one of the first things I need to know here is, what exactly do you mean by "hammer" several times? You see, the reason I ask that is because I just finished working with a problem on our step that sounds incredibly close to what you're experiencing right now with yours. Ours has been operating just fine for the time we've owned the coach, about 3.5 years. But, we just came back from our annual Quartzsite AZ trip and, upon parking the coach at home, and the step retracted, it made a "hammering" noise for a couple of seconds.
I opened the door, which, extended the step and that went as normal. But, upon retracting the step, it made the hammering again. So, I decided it was time to operate. I removed the step motor and drive mechanism. I put it on the operating table and began to dissect it. I came up with what you see in the pictures.
There's two gears in that gear box. One, the Driven gear, is about 3" in diameter and the other one, the Drive gear, is about 1" in diameter. The driven one, has one broken tooth and one about to break. The drive one is flawless. But, if you look close at the picture of the drive gear, you'll see the broken tooth of the driven gear, lodged in between two teeth of the drive gear.
So, in cleaning things all up, I noticed that the driven gear, only rotates about half way in the total movement of the step, either in or out. That leaves the other side of the driven gear, completely brand new and not used at all. So, because the shaft of the driven gear allowed me to do it, I rotated that driven gear 180 degrees so that, the drive gear comes in contact with all brand new teeth on the driven one.
I put it all back together with new and way better grease than the factory used and, it works absolutely flawless. No noise(s) what so ever. I got lucky on that one. Now, could this be your problem too? Who knows? It's actually quite simple to remove that motor drive assembly and, do some dissecting on the operating table. It would take you about 1/2 hour, from the time you started pulling it off the coach, to the point it's all apart on the work bench. There's only a few moving parts so, it's not very hard. Take a look at the pics and see what you think. Maybe it's your same problem.
Scott
