Hydraulic Slide Motor Leak Fix
The reservoir attached to my slide motor was leaking and torquing the screws holding it to the motor failed to stop the static head leak. I contacted Dale at Lippert and he said the fix was to replace the pump/reservoir unit. However, since I am not the original owner, and a replacement unit would set me back around a $1,000 he suggested that I go to a hydraulic shop and get a slightly thicker O-ring gasket to replace the original one between the reservoir and the pump. I checked with 5 or 6 shops and no one had an appropriate gasket. I then called my local Mom & Pop hardware store and they said to bring in the old gasket and they would make me one. Sure enough, they had different cross section diameters of gasket material that they cut to fit your needs. They simply super glued the ends together. I got one with an 1/8" cross section ( the original one was about 1/16") and installed it. The 1/8" size is a little big, but it works. (I would recommend a 3/32" cross section for a better fit). In addition, the reservoir has no support other than the 4 screws holding it to the motor, and has a cantilevering force which subjects the joint to stresses as you go bouncing down the hiway so I stuck a piece of pipe insulation under the tank to dampen this affect. I have now been leak free for several weaks and would recommend this fix to anyone who has a leak at this joint.
Many thanks to Dale, of Lippert, for helping me on this.
Ken
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