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Kwikee Step not working
#11

I spent several back-breaking twisted hours under the coach trying to get the new parts and the step working again. The motor was completely caked with a nice layer of road grime which was concreting everything together. I sprayed the whole thing with penetrating oil and finally gave up trying to get it apart. A few hours later as I was opening the door I noticed a whirring sound that was different than normal - I looked under the step and there was the motor sitting on the ground! The oil had done its job and the motor completely came apart easily. I fought valiantly to get the motor pieces together and stabbed in to the hole but I ended up with the outside/bottom cover plate having about 1/4 inch space between it and the bottom of the motor... finally it dawned on me that I need to remove the 4 nuts that hold the mounting plate to the bottom of the step and coach (also remembered Newell mentioning this). I will try that today and see what I get. I did manage to get the pin out of the push arm with the aid of some vice grips. A set of vice grip clamps would go a long way to holding the parts all together and I plan to go pick some up this morning along with about 10 boxes of rubber gloves to keep in each bay. I'm tired of searching for gloves every time I need to touch something on the coach!

Karen & Adrian Abshire 
1998 2 slide 45' Newell Coach 498 
Prior: 1985 Foretravel ORED 35, 1988 38' Foretravel U280, 2000 Foretravel 42' U320, 1990 Bluebird Wanderlodge WB40
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#12

So the lesson I learned the hard way: unbolt the four bolts in the plate (at the top) attaching the motor to the underside of the step BEFORE taking the step apart! It is much, much easier to rebuild the motor on the ground or workbench than it is when you are upside down under the coach... The step is working great! I didn't get the gloves (yet) so I have nice greasy fingernails for the next week, that should make a great first impression on the folks at NASA in Huntsville, AL lol. We start a new project next week for the next 4 months or so.

Karen & Adrian Abshire 
1998 2 slide 45' Newell Coach 498 
Prior: 1985 Foretravel ORED 35, 1988 38' Foretravel U280, 2000 Foretravel 42' U320, 1990 Bluebird Wanderlodge WB40
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#13

We had our Kwikee step stop working on a trip to Albuquerque a couple of weeks back. We had driven through a lot of rain to get there. I finally got around to working on it yesterday here at home. I had been in hopes it was just a loose connection from the rain. I started by checking fuse panel. No problem there. Next stop was to pull the panel at the entry way. Switch working good and good voltage there. Next stop was checking the plunger switches by the door. One wire pulled out of spade connector when I pulled it out of the wall. Aw ha! I fixed this and still no step operation. Next I raised coach & crawled underneath to check connections there. All looked good. Unplugged main connector to the control box input. Had voltage there. Hmmm, I need a new control box. Went down the road to Jimmy's RV Repair to buy one. $186.00 ouch! The tech there asked if I had checked ground and tested the motor. I replied "no, I think I need a control box". He told me "a lot of folks think that and when they put one the new box the bad ground gets fixed". Since there is a no return policy on electrical parts I thought I would go back & at least re-do ground & test motor. Re-did ground and hooked test wires one ground & one positive to test motor. Unplugged motor and it tested fine. opened & closed door and switch on entry panel. Still no step operation. Back to town for the control box. About 3/4 of the way there I thought "did you plug the motor connection back together after testing it with jumper set up?". Drove back to house & sure enough I had forgotten to plug it back together. Plugged it back together & step works fine now. Must have been a bad ground. I think next time I will start at the ground and work backwards towards fuse panel.
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