Fantastic Fan Problem

[74barrio]

When I picked up my new Momentum 23G last month from the dealership, during PDI the motor on the fantastic fan in the living area would just spin and the lift mechanism would just ratchet like it was slipping when it was trying to lift the vent cover. That was written up as a warranty fix and dealer was going to order a new one and have me bring the trailer back to fix it when the part came in. Well I live 90 miles away from the dealer and I really didn't want to take the trailer there just for that (two 180 mile round trips and time off from work), so I watched some videos online and I figured out what the problem was...at least the part that broke at first and not the real cause.

I unscrewed the fan cover and dropped the electric motor to get to the lift arm and pull it out. Sure enough the casing had split (see attached picture) so the gear pushing up the arm would just pop out of gear and not lift the vent. After pulling out the broken lift arm I tried pushing up on the vent cover and it didn't want to move, so I went up on the roof and found the real problem. Whoever put on the self-leveling sealant around the vent got a little carried away and got it all over the hinge for the cover, which is why the vent cover wouldn’t open which caused the lift arm to split open because of that resistance. So I removed/cleaned off all the self-leveling sealant off the hinge and got the vent cover to open freely. I then ordered a new fantastic fan lift arm (part # K0811-5).

Fast forward to today and the lift arm came in and I installed it without much issue; however, when I went to turn the fan on the controls really didn’t want to work right. After a whole bunch of head scratching and research online I wasn’t getting anywhere so I took off the new lift arm and compared it with the broken one. They are the exact same except for one very important difference, the new one raises the arm/vent cover when the motor turns counterclockwise and lowers it turning clockwise. The stock broken one works the exact opposite (clockwise raises the arm/vent cover and counterclockwise lowers the arm/vent cover). So I can get the fan to work, but I have to press down when I want the lid to go up and then up when I want it to go down…very frustrating.

The help I’m looking or here is I cannot find the model number of the fan to figure out what the correct lift arm to order would be so the fan functions correctly. Attached are some pictures of the fantastic fan and the wall controller. Sorry for the long-winded post, but there was a lot to explanation needed to set up this question.

[Jlawles2]

Looking at the parts page, the fan appears to be a Zephyr https://www.granddesignrv.com/owner-...s/detail/71314 for the wall switch and https://www.granddesignrv.com/owner-...s/detail/71313 for the fan itself.

https://hengsindustries.com is the MFG website.


What controls the cover lift? Can you reverse motor leads to make the motor lift properly.

[74barrio]

Jlawles2 Thank you very much for the help! I would have never found this. How do you search parts on the Grand Design Website?

With the information you provided I was able to put together some google searches to find the correct lift arm https://www.amazon.com/Hengs-JRP1000...p?ie=UTF8&th=1

That lift arm looks the exact same rather than the fantastic fan one that I bought. I thought about switching the wires, but they are soldered on to the motor and was only going to mess with that as a last resort.

[ncitro]

74barrio Here's the link to the parts lookup:

https://www.granddesignrv.com/owner-...y/parts-lookup

[74barrio]

ncitro Thanks Neil!

[ncitro]

ncitro Thanks Neil!

No problem, welcome!

[Jlawles2]

There is a bit of trial and error in the parts lookup. Sometimes things are categorized much different than what we think, and naming may not be what we know it as. That being said, use the pictures and when all else fails start at thr top and work through each category.

[wudwork]

My friends Solitude fan, above island sink, acted very erratic. We found that during trailer assembly they ran the "silver satin" wire to controller first then stapled the wall together after. Yup, one of the staples went thru the silver satin. Took a few years to fail, but eventually it did. We replaced that wire and all was normal again.

[Cooper2022M25G]

Hey everyone, just wanted to add to this thread for anyone else that has a similar problem.

I did what 74barrio suggested and replaced the lifter arm and it didn't fix my problem. (Great post BTW - thanks for doing that - I had to go out and clean off the excess sealant as well).

For me, what the root of the problem was is that a pin had fallen out of the lifter motor assembly that lifts the vent cover. So my motor was making a grinding sound, but the knob wasn't turning. So my suggestion is to check that is before taking everything apart, just take the screws off of the knob, then take the screws out of the white motor cover and carefully lower the cover (without dumping any contents out). Then check inside that cover and see if a pin is sitting in there. If it is, try and push it back in the empty pin slot in the motor and hold it there with your thumb while you give it a try and lift the vent cover with the control buttons.

(Make sure the pin is completely flush with the outside of the motor & hopefully it works) IF it works, then what you can do is just put a piece of electrical tape over the pins. (That's what I did and everything is holding great for me.)

If that still doesn't work, then the gear inside has shifted and you've gotta get everything back in line. So what you need to do is pull that motor out. It sucks, but you've gotta do is:

1. pull the motor down from the cover.
2. cut the (+) & (-) wires (leaving enough slack in the wire to re-connect them later)
3. remove the screws from the back side of the motor
4. expand the compression fitting that the lifter arm slides into. What I did for this is got a pair of wire cutters and wedged them between the motor and the collar. You only need to lift it like a quarter inch.
5. Spin the cover out of the way
6. Look inside and find the gear that's loose
7. Put the gear back in place where the hole that the pins slides into.
8. Spin the cover back in place (while being careful to not disturb the gears)
9. Push the pin back in place
10. Tape/glue the pin so that it doesn't fall out again.
11. Re-assemble up on the fan.


Good luck! Here's a picture of my motor unit after it's been fixed so you can kind of see where I'm talking about. I put tape over all 3 pins so that another one won't fall out.

[howson]

Cooper2022M25G -- thanks for the informative post! I hope you'll take some time to fill out your signature line (details and links in the Welcome Letter which is linked off the home page).

The power of an owner's forum is the sharing of information--your post is a perfect example of that and reflects our purpose here: owners helping other owners.

Howard

[Cate&Rob]

Thanks Cooper2022M25G . . . x2 on what Howard said .

Rob