I did a thing the other day. I hate dealing with broken bolts and have quite an arsenal of "oh ****" tools over the course of my nearly 40-year career, but one relatively new tool to the game that I have been eyeballing for a couple of years now finally made its way to my shop. The MAC Tools RBRT extractor set. I try to stay off the tool trucks unless there is something specific that I need but a few months ago I was on our MAC truck and looking at these but couldn't pull the trigger. The other day our MAC rep. caught me and told me he had a promo and would be willing to make a deal on the RBRT extractors that I was inquiring about.
Well, after a bit of negotiating, I pulled the trigger.
I have to admit, MAC really stepped up their game on their blow molded cases, look at that hinge.
Personally, I think they could have used a bit smaller case though. But at the price of these things, maybe they wanted you to feel like you're getting more for your money.
The thing I like about these are that they are a straight fluted extractor, so less chance of exerting more force on the fastener in the hole.
But the problem with most straight fluted fasteners are twofold. First, they are difficult to remove if you need to add a bit of heat while extracting or once the broken piece is extracted they can be somewhat difficult to pull the straight fluted end out of the extracted piece. Plus with a straight fluted extractor, you can work the tool in both directions to try and break the broken fastener free whereas with a spiral extractor, they only work in CCW direction. I have a couple other straight fluted extractors but I really like this built in threaded end that pushed the piece off, or pushed the tool out of the drilled hole, whichever you are trying to accomplish.
This is one of those drawers that I hate to have to open because it means something went to ****, hence why I call it my "oh ****" drawer.
Upon arriving home yesterday I had some time so I cleaned out the rectangular tubing running across the chassis of our coach that had some hydraulic fluid in it, and then inserted the freshly rebuilt slideout cylinder.
Once it was nestled into position, the retaining bolts were installed and then the hoses could be connected.
After reconnecting the hydraulic lines, I went about bleeding the system and running the cylinders in and out multiple times before attempting to connect the rods to the slideout. I probably ran the cylinderes in/out a dozen times before the wife arrived home to help me. I wanted her to run the slideout cylinders while I watched their movement from underneath to verify they were moving in sync with one another.
While I was waiting for my wife to arrive home, I tackled repairing the stainless steel lock plate above the rear of the slide. It never has really hit dead on where the front one does but it was starting to rub through after all these years and cycles. I drilled the rivets out last week before disconnecting the rods from the slide so I could weld up the groove that was worn and then made a small template to add a little sliver of material to the bottom of the radius to provide more surface area for the arm to push against as the lock engages.
I cut a small crescent shaped piece of 304 SS and welded it to the radius of the plate, then metal finished it. This should provide a bit more surface area for the arm engagement and hopefully last another 23+ years.
Now for the rest of the story...... When the wife arrived home from work I gave her instructions on the slide operation while I went out underneath the slide to watch the cylinders extend and retract and ensure they were moving in unison. As I gave her the go ahead to run the cylinders out I heard a click but nothing else. She said she was pushing the extend button and nothing was happening, but I could hear an audible clicking with each push of the button from underneath the coach.
My first thought was that I had either left a compartment door open, or that I had multiple doors open throughout the week and one of them must not have engaged the door's safety lockout switch, but as I was crawling out from under the coach I thought that didn't make sense because the door switches are tied into the control side of the relay and won't even let the pump motor solenoid engage and by the sound of the clicking it sounded like the solenoid was engaging.
Well, I dismissed the wife for the time being so she wasn't standing around waiting on me and grabbed the meter and crawled under the front of the coach where the hydraulic pump and reservoir are located. I connected the meter and stuck it out far enough that I could see it remotely and when the switch was activated, sure enough, the solenoid was sending power to the pump motor. Next was the pump motor terminal and it was also getting power but no activity. I moved some wires around and saw the 2 ga. cable from the solenoid to the pump motor move on the stud.
Grabbed some wrenches, a wire brush and some NOCO battery terminal goop and crawled back under the coach. Sure enough, there was a connection issue but it was ironic that I had run the slide cylinders in and out probably a dozen times throughout the afternoon as well as all of the times over the course of the 18+ years we've owned it and never once did it faulter. Then at that moment when we were going to connect the rods that it decided to fail.
At first I was a bit upset, but then I quickly changed my thinking to the fact that at least it happened at home in the shop and not when we were breaking camp somewhere on a rainy afternoon and I had to crawl underneath in less than desirable conditions. That helped convince myself that the timing was in fact, perfect. I could locate the issue and correct it immediately before we had issues on vacation. This was actually the best time to have an issue.
I called the wife back out and the rest of the install went successfully without any issues. I was able to reconnect the rods to the slideout box and run it in and out a few times with everything operating in sync.
Thanks for looking.
