Kwikee Electric Step #888 repair...

[mgirardo]

Recently our Kwikee Electric Step stopped working. I learned a good deal about fixing it here, so I wanted to give back with my experience.

I've always used White Lithium grease to keep our steps lubricated and it has always worked well. I mistakenly began to think a few years ago that when the steps wouldn't completely retract, it was time to spray them with more grease. Usually the step would go up like normal, but would not retract all the way. There would be maybe a 1.5" to 2" gap between the steps. I would just use my foot to push it the rest of the way while the step was still retracting and that did the trick. I'd spray it down after that and it seemed to work for another few months.

Apparently, what I should have thought was the motor was going bad. After reading advice here and reading the manual, I figured it was an easy troubleshoot. I bought the 4 Pin test connector mentioned in the manual and went to work. I would say don't buy the 4 Pin test connector. If the problem is with the motor, the 4 Pin test connector won't tell you that. The best price I could find with shipping was $24 from PPL Motors. Maybe ebay would be cheaper, but I didn't have the time to wait for ebay.

The instructions aren't completely clear when testing. It states to use the green wire coming off the controller to ground the 4 pin test connector. Our controller has 2 green ground wires, so I wasn't even sure if I was using the right one. I tried both and still the step didn't work. The instructions to test the motor say to disconnect the 2 wire power lead between the motor and the controller. I guess what they mean is to cut the wires. That's what I did and confirmed the motor was bad. The only disconnect is at the motor itself. I used crimp on bullet connectors to reconnect the wires.

I probably could have called Kwikee about which green wire I should use, but my hands were already dirty and I'm lazy. I was pretty sure the motor was bad to begin with since I could hear a relay or solenoid receive power which to me meant the controller was getting power and trying to do its job.

I purchased the motor from Amazon for $65 and had it in 2 days. I watched a few Youtube videos about replacing the steps. It seems there is a difference of opinion about removing the cotter pin that holds the step on the linkage arm. I did not remove it. When the motor failed, the steps were retracted. I just supported the step with a jack stand, then pushed up on it and yanked the motor off after removing the 3 bolts. The motor came right off, then the steps fell onto the jack stand.

Removing the cotter pin isn't really an issue. It probably only adds a couple minutes of extra work taking it out and putting it back in, but I am pretty lazy. Putting a jack stand under the step was less work. If the step is already extended, then the cotter pin will most likely need to be removed. Stress needs to be removed from the gear that connects the linkage to the motor.

It was a pretty quick replacement. Three bolts hold the motor to the step. Probably the most time consuming part was getting the gear on the motor to line up with the linkage, but that only took a minute or two.

The steps I took to replace the motor after confirming it was bad:

1. Support step with jack stand.
2. Disconnect 4 pin connector to remove power from steps (could have disconnected chassis battery instead, but that would mean more work resetting clock, etc.).
3. Remove 3 bolts on motor.
4. Push step to relieve stress on gear and pull motor off (did bang on it 2 or 3 times with a rubber hammer).
5. Removed gear and washers from old motor, put on new motor. Greased the gear with high temp bearing grease (all I had at the time).
6. Line motor's gear with linkage and tighten 3 bolts.
7. Remove jack stand.
8. Replace 4 Pin connector.

Hopefully my experience will help someone else having problems with the step.

-Michael

[j-d]

For awhile, they used Ford power window motors.

Our step is earlier, and uses the 875 manual. It's a different control box, a different motor, and (I believe...) a different gearbox.

I've had two recent problems. First, the magnetic door switch provides a ground signal to the control box, telling it what to tell the motor to do (up/in or down/out). One switch wire goes to the control box, the other to chassis ground. I had an erratic step, and the chassis ground was failing. Re-did the ground circuit connections and step was all good again.

Till the next time. Step wouldn't fully deploy or fully retract. This time it was part of the motor. It's NOT a window motor, but similar, and uses a window motor's safety feature in the motor's internal gear. Ours was all ground up. I put solid blocking in it, reassembled, and all good again. We'll see how long. It's been doing its in/out thing since 2002.

About that safety in the motor... In a car, it makes the motor slip to not crush somebody caught as the window closes. In a Kwikee step, the Control Box detects excess load (normally, step all the way closed or all the way open, but also something left on the step, or the step opens against a curb) and stops the motor. Since the step is built to do that, I had no reservations about changing the gear to "direct drive."

[sullivanclan]

Very helpful post