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Topic: 2004 Inspire malfunctioning stair well cover (Read 476 times) previous topic - next topic
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2004 Inspire malfunctioning stair well cover

Yahoo Message Number: 61922
No access to my slideing step cover so I decided to get into it and heres what I've done. First of all I slid a hack saw blade between the wood cover and metal face plate, after I cut the first screw, I drove a large screw driver between the two pieces and pushed down, the face plate came off as it was attached to the underside of the step with 5 screws. Then I pulled the face plate off. Inside I saw a long screw type rod connected to a motor that was attached to the rear of the open area. The front of the screwrod was supported near the front of the step with a Y type connection held in place by two screws fastened to the bottom of the slide step cover. A metal stop device was attached to the end of the rod with a set screw. The screw rod had an attachement allowing the cover to slide back and forth.I have removed the whole assembly and will operate the cover manually. I found the following to be the problem:

The only way to access the area was as I described above. Had my cover been in the open position, meaning if it was covering the steps, I could have seen under the front edge and accessed the hidden screws. It was still a chore to reach the attachment screws but I had enough extensions for my rachet to reach into the back.I found that the motor assembly was loosely mounted to a round L shapped hook like bracket that was attached to the back wall. once the front bracket was detached, the assembly slid off. The set screw that held the screw rod to the front bracket looks like a home made piece. The set screw in this piece is supposed to fit into sockets and be locked down with a double nut, mine was loose which allowed it to let the piece turn on the screw rod and not allow the step cover to slide. The motor was working but with all of the loose attachments it wouldn't slide the cover each time it was activated. We used to hear a grinding type sound when the cover was close to the end of it's travel, opening or closeing, I thought it was a gear grinding. It turns out the sound was the loose attachment on the screw rod moveing in and out of the sockets. When I put it all back together, I'm going to hard fasten the assembly so the rod runs true. I'm also going to add a piece of angle iron on the underside of the slide cover and attach the face plate to it so if I need to get into it in the future.

I hope this info will be of help.