Did I break my slide?

melissaburn · 05-24-2021, 02:24 PM

Hi!
I just bought a 1996 Saturn T36SS. When I looked at it before purchase, the slide was out. I noticed there were wires hanging underneath. The prior owner said he hooked a battery directly to the motor to move the slide in/out. When it was brought to me the slide was in and I discovered the wires hanging underneath were from the wall switch to the motor (they'd been cut). With electric tape in hand, I reattached them. I hooked it to shore power and the wall switch wouldn't work. I learned that I needed a battery hooked up and don't have one. So, I tried the manual override and got it turning just fine but nothing moved. Here, just now, I read that I probably broke something. Here's my desperate question: What now? I'm guessing that putting a battery in won't help at this point. Thanks for your time!

**JohnB** · 05-24-2021, 11:04 PM

Hi Melissa,

First off, welcome to the club!

Bummer on your slide system. If your prior owner had cut the wires and had to bring a battery to get the slide to move, there were issues before you ever acquired it.

If you use the manual crank system, and the slide is stuck or you accidently cranked the wrong way, damage to the slide system may have occurred. The mechanical advantage of the slide drive is very large. The small 12 volt motor has to run that big heavy slide in and out. The manual crank can create a very large amount of power with very little effort.

When you were cranking, did you hear any bang, pop or large noise?

We really need pictures of your slide drive system under the camper to help see if something not right. It's hard to tell what at this point is broke or just not working right. Take many and post and we can help better.

There are 3 ways to add pics.

1. Upload pics to a specific post attaching them at the end of the post.

2. Linking them in from a public viewable web photo hosting service you have.

See here for 1 and 2 https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f...html#post86041

3. You can upload pics to the forum in your own personal photo album. Then link them to anywhere in the text of a post. See here on how to create an album. https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f...html#post87945

If you still get stuck, let us know. Pic's go a long way in helping show things you are working on, and we really like seeing Sunline pics!

Hope this helps

John

melissaburn · 05-25-2021, 11:50 AM

Here are pictures I took of the slide mechanism. I tried to get everything mechanical I could see. Please let me know if you need a picture of something I've missed. I think this is the link to the photos.
https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/m...albums846.html

BTW, my photos often upload sideways or upside down. Is there a way to fix that once they're uploaded?

**JohnB** · 05-26-2021, 09:53 PM

Melissa,

You get an A+ on getting the pics up to your photo album.

The slide drive system sure looks like the Barker slide drive as we call it. And the year of your camper fits too for Barker. That was one of the early slide systems Sunline had.

Barker Manufacturing Inc made the slide drive system. Sunline went to them, Barker made it and sold it to Sunline to install in their campers. They are a very good company and still going strong, just not making slide drives any more.

But they still support them. I called them about a year ago to help a fellow club member and they may be able to help with parts.

This drawing I do believe is your slide drive. This file is stored in our FILES system so all club members have access when logged in. You can download a copy. https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/d...o=file&id=5633

Here is Barker and their customer service number https://www.barkermfg.com/support.html

Tell them you need parts/help with one of their prior EZ slide rack and pinion slide drive system they made for Sunline Coach back in 1996. The service guy I talked with was still with them at the time they made them. He had not retired yet.

From your pics, there is nothing that jumps out that is broke per say from the outside. I see the pipe wrench on the square shaft and that may not turn due to the mechanical advantaged of the system still being engaged with the gear box.

Your motor system, this pic

Does the motor run at all? If the motor runs but nothing moves, that points to a gear or drive key/pin is possibly broke inside the motor drive or the square shaft gear box that has the 2 square shafts coming out of it.

If the motor does not run, then that is the first issue. The motor may have issues.

Does the hand crank, when moved very slow and while someone is under the camper looking at the gear boxes, do the square shafts even start moving? Do not crank a lot, just enough to tell if the square shaft gear box is still mechanically intact.

With some of that info, we may be able to helps back into if the issue is in the square shaft gear box or the motor drive gear box.

For parts, try Barker. They were super helpful to me. Ideally you figure out what is broke before requesting parts.

Hope this helps

John

**JohnB** · 05-26-2021, 09:56 PM

As FYI for the future,

To get to the files section, you need to be logged into the forum. At the top of the forum are tabs, look for the word "FILES" click it.

Once into the files section, scroll down to an area you have interest in. You can also find a sales brochure on your camper. Scroll to brochures, go in there and find a sale brochure for the camper you are looking at and down load a copy.

The Barker slide drive file I linked was in "Sunline Slide Systems"

Hope this helps,

John

roger66ogden · 06-02-2021, 10:39 AM

Hi John. It is possible that the set screws came loose and the motor slid back away which if the motor is working would cause the motor to not be engaged in the gear box. There's only a pin that goes crossways through the motor shaft that engages the gear box drive.

**JohnB** · 06-04-2021, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roger66ogden

Hi John. It is possible that the set screws came loose and the motor slid back away which if the motor is working would cause the motor to not be engaged in the gear box. There's only a pin that goes crossways through the motor shaft that engages the gear box drive.

Yes, that could be happening. You should hear the motor running but the slide would not move.

Have not heard back from Melissa how this is going or if she can hear anything working, like the motor.

melissaburn · 06-05-2021, 05:57 AM

Hi- I tried to upload a video yesterday but apparently that's not an option. I don't have anyone to work with me to look and see if the square shafts move when I slowly turn the hand-crank. But I put my phone on the ground and captured video. It shows that one of the square shafts seems to be bumped but not turned as I turn the hand-crank. Does that tell you anything? Thanks for all your help!

melissaburn · 06-05-2021, 05:57 AM

I guess I'll need to pull the battery out of my car to test the motor that way.

**JohnB** · 06-06-2021, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melissaburn

Hi- I tried to upload a video yesterday but apparently that's not an option. I don't have anyone to work with me to look and see if the square shafts move when I slowly turn the hand-crank. But I put my phone on the ground and captured video. It shows that one of the square shafts seems to be bumped but not turned as I turn the hand-crank. Does that tell you anything? Thanks for all your help!

Hi melissa,

On the video, h'mm I will check with our admin on this. We used to have that feature, but it now appears to be gone. I'll report back what I find as we need to know this for the future etc.

I myself have linked a video to the forum. I have Flickr as my picture hosting site and I can link in pictures or videos. I'm not sure if you have access to a photo hosting site, but that is an option.

You said,

Quote:

It shows that one of the square shafts seems to be bumped but not turned as I turn the hand-crank. Does that tell you anything?

I'm not understanding the context of you wording "bumped" and "not turned". Do you meaning one square shaft was starting to rotate and was moving, but the other square shaft did not move at all?

If that is the case, and ideally we can see that video, that can be an issue. Both square shafts need to turn at the same time.

But, this pic of yours, if it is still like this now, shows normal.

The front and rear square shaft appears by the picture, that both front and rear square shafts are in mechanical time. But, there could be more to this so do not assume it is still in mechanical time. Again, back to the video. Hopefully we can get that to work. It will tell a lot, hopefully.

It also appears by your car battery statement there is no battery in the camper or one that is charged up. Can the camper be plugged into shore power and do you have a battery in the camper now? Even if it needs to be charged?

Hope this helps

John

Tinstaafl · 06-06-2021, 07:06 PM

For posting a video to a Vbulletin forum (which this is), just put it on Youtube and post a link to it here. Vbulletin has no native ability to host videos.

melissaburn · 06-07-2021, 06:38 AM

https://youtu.be/lTScnlVuwHk

The rig is hooked up to shore power but there is no battery present. I'll have to disconnect the wires to the motor if I want to try an external battery direct to the motor. I'm not sure where to hook install a battery to the rig in the normal manner. I looked at the tongue where the propane tanks go but didn't see anything that looked like 12 volt battery cables in a car. Instead, there are four wires -- one with a large connector that goes to the pulling vehicle, and three that have small donut-shaped connectors on the end. One of these smaller connectors also has 3 fuses wired in -- 2 x 30 amp and one 40 amp. I have no idea what all this is for.

**JohnB** · 06-10-2021, 08:47 PM

Hi Melissa,

Sorry this took so long to get back to you, I'm sort of tied up on a project and did not have time until tonight to see your post.

Your video is helpful, but with the limited motion you have in the video, it is hard to tell if anything is wrong. Let me explain.

I'm not totally sure of the Barker manufacturing system, which yours is, for a gear ratio. However the other Sunline side systems have an 18:1 gear reduction in them to move the heavy slide. The little motor moves that large slide, just very slowly through the gear reduction ratio. They give up travel speed for more torque and power from the motor.

In your video, I could see that the shaft at the bottom of the screen had a hole in it, and I could focus on the hole. That shaft I do believe is the input shaft to that gear box. The same shaft you are turning by the hand crank.

The video showed you turned the input shaft only 90 degrees and they went back the other direction 90 degrees and you were expecting to see the square shafts move.

In this case, if your gearbox is anywhere close to 18:1 (18 to 1), meaning it takes 18 full revolutions of the hand crank to equal 1 full revolution of square shaft, if you only turn the hand crank 90 degrees, the shaft only moves 0.014 of a revolution or 5.04 degrees.

Basically, that is very little movement on the square shaft for the 90 degrees you moved the crank. You may or may not see it that small.

Again if the ratio is close to 18:1, a full turn of the hand crank would move the square shaft 20 degrees and that you can see. You may not have moved the crank enough in your test to easily see the square shaft movement.

The bad news is, of you go the wrong direction too far, that can create damage to the system if you go far enough. For your system, I'm not sure how far is too far. The system may survive 1 rev of the crank the wrong way, but not several hand crank rev's. the wrong way.

Ideally, if we had another member with a Barker slide, and they ran the slide open about 1 foot, then put the hand crank on and figured out which direction you turn the crank to go out, when facing the crank, then you can test going that way more than a few revolutions of the crank. Going out the foot of distance is so they are not close to nay travel stops, and the slide will just move and not hurt anything in either direction.

I can't tell from that video if your gear box is broke or not.

A prior owner must of had something break in the wiring for them to unhook it. They should not have to hot wire the motor to get it going.

Sunline would of setup the battery to be mounted out front by the LP gas tanks, behind them. Take some pics of the wires that are hanging there and we may be able to see what is there. We have no idea if someone changed something from original. And yes, a camper battery does have different battery posts then a standard car has. The camper deep cycle battery should have a normal looking post and a threaded stud (bolt looking) post next to it that ring terminals go on for the wires. Just before you hook up a battery, you have to sort out what the polarity as if the wires are backwards for + & -, that can creates a new set of problems.

Post some pics of the battery area and the wires and we will see if we can help there. One of those wires will be the DC (-) negative or ground. That wire will be bolted to the camper frame under the front of the camper. Crawl under and trace it. White is normally the negative wire and red is the positive wire, but again someone may have changed something used whatever wire color they had. And I'm not sure when Sunline started the heavy red & wire color code. Some of the older campers used black battery wires. But the negative regardless of color always went to the camper frame.

Hope this helps

John

roger66ogden · 06-11-2021, 06:18 AM

John
I have the Barker slide system. You turn the shaft counter clockwise to extend the slide out. Not sure of the gear ratio but I will research that the next time I am under the camper and let you know.

melissaburn · 06-11-2021, 07:25 AM

Thanks very much to John and Roger, I really appreciate your insights and help. I'll take a picture of the battery wires, of which there seem to be quite a few, and post them as soon as it stops raining here -- perhaps in August (just kidding). Thanks again!

melissaburn · 08-07-2021, 07:30 AM

Hi John (and Roger) I don't want you to think I've ghosted you. My slide still won't open but I realized the rig may not be level. I have it here in MD temporarily and plan to move it this summer to my property in WV. Once there I'll get it good and level and will try again. Thanks for your help!

**JohnB** · 08-09-2021, 09:00 PM

Hi Melissa,

Thanks for touching base back with us.

Not sure where you are currently with trying to get your slide to work. We are willing to still help.

How far off level and in which direction is the camper off level? Meaning, in the front to back long direction of the camper, how high or low in inches is the camper ball coupler off from being level. And in the left to right direction, (left wall to right wall), how many inches off level is the back wall?

To make this easier to measure, tell us the length of the level you have to use, is it 12", 24" etc long. Then for front to back, have the level touch a siding joint on one end, then move the level to be true level and measure at the far end, the gap from the level to the same siding joint. Those 2 distances (level length and distance at even of level) tell us how far off level the front to back is tipping.

And do the same thing across the back wall siding of the camper using the same level, and tell us how far off level the end of the level is. In this case, it tells up how far off level the camper is left to right.

This is what I mean about the level. This is a 24" level up against a siding joint. In this case, the camper is level, but if the camper was unlevel, there would be a gap at one end and the level touching the other end. If this is not clear, let me know.

You stated the camper is not level and that, that may be part of your issues. Under normal situations, the camper being level if not part of the motor turning or the slide moving in or out. Something else seems to be the issue. Granted, being grossly off level can affect things, but not the motor turning or the slide moving an inch or two in either direction.

Just trying to help make it easier to correct before you move the camper to WV if it is easier to do in MD. If you will have more help in WV, then OK we can help pick this back up when you get there.

Hope this helps

John

melissaburn · 10-10-2021, 06:17 AM

Hi John (and whoever else checks out the posts) - I've finally got my Sunline camper moved to WV, it's level, and I have a battery hooked up so the slide motor works! However, I wanted to ask if there is some locking mechanism I should be unlocking, or anything that needs to be released before I start trying to move the slide with the motor. Thanks for your help!

**JohnB** · 10-10-2021, 08:21 PM

Hi Melissa,

Glad to hear something is working. Yeh!

To your question:

Quote:

However, I wanted to ask if there is some locking mechanism I should be unlocking, or anything that needs to be released before I start trying to move the slide with the motor.

Some of the older slides, had what they call, slide prop rods, travel bars, slide stop bars, transit bars, slide out lock rods etc. These rods or bars are on the inside of the camper that go between the walls and the slide flanges when the slide is fully retracted. They helped to not have the slide open up while towing down the road with bumpy roads.

Not all slide systems need the stop rods etc., but some did. If yours has them, then you can physically see them inside the camper. If yours has them, they would need to be removed before you open the slide.

To my knowledge, I have not yet seen an electric slide motor drive on a Sunline that had a motor interlock or brake system that had to be manually released before you push the button to open the slide. But I have seen the prop rods, transit bars and they need to be removed.

Hope this helps,

John

melissaburn · 10-18-2021, 03:45 PM

Turns out all it needed was a battery in the camper and good leveling. Worked like a charm the first time I tried it. Now, how do I insulate the area inside the camper where the slide and side-wall meet? There's a bigger gap on one side than the other, so it seems just a little crooked. I hope that's something I can ignore for now and just get it insulated for winter.

Thanks for all the help!