LR slide “jamming”

[Mark77]

Quick question here.

I’m on the road and noticed that my living room slide appears to be trying to come in crooked, that is to say the backend where the hydraulic cylinder is gets ahead of the front end and it stops.

I’m on a pretty busy trip and haven’t had time to check into it very deeply, but I know I can push on the front end and get it to come in. There’s only one cylinder on the back and it’s connected to the front via a rack and pinion System.

The only thing that I can think of that may be a roll pin or something broke in one of the rack gears in the front is not being pulled along with the back end.

I can look into it closer when I get home, but I’m curious if anybody has ever experienced this phenomenon before.

Off to a class reunion now, first one I’ve ever been to and not real sure what to expect. Was a class of almost 300 people, so I’m not sure how many I’ll even recognize anymore.

Let me know if you’ve ever seen this problem with a slide, please.

 

[Carl n Susan]

There is a "shear" pin (actually a Grade 8 1/4 bolt) connecting the two piece rod that turns the gear packs. It sounds like that has failed or is missing although with only one gear pack turning (the front one?) that slide should go crooked pretty quick.

 

[Mark77]

Appears you nailed it Carl... Have not had time to fix it yet, but we are back home now and I'll check it tomorrow.

I took a peek under there before we left MN and noticed right next to the rack gear on the front end of the slide and there is a bolt head stuck on the tubing nut no bolt or nuts on the opposite side. Guess I'll have to punch the head and partial bolt out and put in a new one.

I'll take a couple of pictures along the way for others to reference in the future.

 

[Mark77]

As stated, Carl was correct. Even the grade 8 part as pictured.

Before...

Broken bolt...

Grade 8...

 

[Speck56]

Quick question here.

I’m on the road and noticed that my living room slide appears to be trying to come in crooked, that is to say the backend where the hydraulic cylinder is gets ahead of the front end and it stops.

I’m on a pretty busy trip and haven’t had time to check into it very deeply, but I know I can push on the front end and get it to come in. There’s only one cylinder on the back and it’s connected to the front via a rack and pinion System.

The only thing that I can think of that may be a roll pin or something broke in one of the rack gears in the front is not being pulled along with the back end.

I can look into it closer when I get home, but I’m curious if anybody has ever experienced this phenomenon before.

Off to a class reunion now, first one I’ve ever been to and not real sure what to expect. Was a class of almost 300 people, so I’m not sure how many I’ll even recognize anymore.

Let me know if you’ve ever seen this problem with a slide, please.

Yes, I've had it 3 times. Finally figured my issue out. Loose screw on the top track. My issue was going out. It wouldn't move, the screw was impeding it

 

[laverdur]

I had a similar problem with my large slide coming in crooked. I found that the shear bolt on the drive end had worn quite a bit and so had the holes in the metal drive shaft so there was a lot of slop. The binding that the slop caused resulted in the driven end (rear) jumping a tooth on the rack. The roller/gear assemblies were also not in the best shape. I took the drive shaft to a metal fab shop so they could restore the end with more robust material. I replaced the front and rear roller/gear assemblies. I jacked up the slide with it partially extended and aligned it so that it was straight. That involved counting teeth on the rack. So far so good.

 

[Mark77]

I got it fixed temporarily with a 1/4" grade 5 bolt I had in the bin. I have a lot of grade 8 bolts, but not one in 1/4"!

I since have picked up a pack of 1/4" Grade 8 bolts on my last trip to town and they are in the 5'er, along with some new nylock nuts. I will replace the grade 5 and likely it's counterpart on the drive end as soon as I get time. There is a lot of torque on that shaft and a grade 5 1/4" bolt has little shear strength.

Thanks again Carl for saving me the troubleshooting time!