Replace slide wear tabs

[Jlawles2]

Cate&Rob The first thing I would be investigating is the bowed tube to determine if it's changing the orientation of the gears, second (this is counter intuitive) is the slave side. Apparently the drive side is trying to do its job but something is putting excess stress on the drive mechanism.

Wonder if I need to clean the tubes and coat them with graphite slip coat (dries into a coating of graphite so nothing to collect debris).

[Cate&Rob]

Cate&Rob The first thing I would be investigating is the bowed tube to determine if it's changing the orientation of the gears, second (this is counter intuitive) is the slave side. Apparently the drive side is trying to do its job but something is putting excess stress on the drive mechanism.

Wonder if I need to clean the tubes and coat them with graphite slip coat (dries into a coating of graphite so nothing to collect debris).

Hi Joseph,

I appreciate your perspective on this. It has also occurred to me that while the drive side spur gear is apparently the "weak link" . . . it may not be the cause of the overload. I'm just not sure how to figure out where the binding is occurring.

Rob

[Jlawles2]

Cate&Rob Rob unfortunately I don't know of a good way. The only thing I can think of would be to remove the drive mechanism from the drive side and using a torque wrench give one a 1/4 turn the go tot he other and give it a 1/2 turn (if you can do that or 1/8 then 1/4) seeing how much it takes to drive it from full retract to full extend.

As I typed the above something occurred to me. The non driven side is a HUGE load when closing is initiated as the slide must jump up the drop off. This issue is only on the couch side where the slide drops into the recess making the floor almost level, correct?

When does it jump time? Closing or opening???

[Cate&Rob]

Jlawles2

My “early” Reflection does not have the drop-down to an (almost) level floor. This slide does not have rollers . . . It slides across a nylon wear bar and I do wonder if something that I can’t see is amiss there. Going out, the tooth jump occurs about 2/3 of the way out. Coming back in, it reverses the jump and comes back into alignment as the slide flange comes up against the wall. There is a lot of slide floor flex going on at the drive end under the recliners (I can see them moving about as the slide goes in or out) but I can’t see any damage to the underside of the slide box or separation from the slide walls.

Rob

[Jlawles2]

I'm at a loss then. I'd have to watch it to see if I could spot anything that makes me wonder. Just for its and giggles, have you measured the pitch of the threads in that area?

[KimD]

Update: spoke with both Lippert and Grand Design Techs..
1. Fully extend the slide and trim the wear tabs so that you can slide them in between the inner and outer rail. This was very tricky but it was possible. Then jack up the rail to apply pressure to the rail so that the wear tabs lock into the wear tab holes.

2. Adjust vertical alignment so that the measurements between the rail and the floor is the same next to the inner rail as it is by the end of the slide or higher by the end of the slide..this should be done when the slide is out about 10".

After we did both of these adjustments, our gear teeth no longer jumps and the slide runs smoother than it ever has.
The lippert tech was crucial in explaining this to us!!

[Cate&Rob]

KimD

Thanks for the update . . . good to learn that this is working. Could you expand on your 2nd point about vertical adjustment? I am not understanding what you are saying.

Rob

[Jlawles2]

Cate&Rob Rob, From what I read in that statement, extend the slide approx 10". Once extended use the bottom of the slide floor as reference and set the extending portion (inner tube of the assembly) to be the same height at the slide outer wall as the outer tube is next to the inner wall.

This almost needs a sketch. extremely confusing wording.

[Cate&Rob]

Jlawles2 Hi Joseph,

Thanks for your input into this. KimD s description makes more sense with your interpretation. Hopefully they will chime back in to confirm . . .

Rob

[KimD]

I really can't explain it better as this is how the lippert tech described it..basically you want the vertical measurements in close to the rail and out near the end of the rail or slide to be the same or higher at the end of the slide. This was not as crucial as installing the wear tabs.

[emcee]

I really can't explain it better as this is how the lippert tech described it..basically you want the vertical measurements in close to the rail and out near the end of the rail or slide to be the same or higher at the end of the slide. This was not as crucial as installing the wear tabs.

The vertical adjustment procedure is shown in the linked video (https://youtu.be/X1A2q55BfLs?si=_mzzzGy4ocqqIoVG). The vertical adjustment will raise or lower the slide wall as required.

In my case, the slide was adjusted too high from the factory. This caused the outer tube to bend up (crown) when the slide closed. I suspect the initial adjustment was set to align the siding in the slide wall with the siding on the trailer wall.