4106 shore power quit working

[RottenBob]

Hey all,

I bought my 4106 three years ago and thus far have not had to ask any questions on this forum. But that all changed yesterday when I went into the bus and saw red lights on my Xantrex panel (see attached pic). The bus has not been driven at all this summer so I was a bit surprised.

I checked the shore power coming into the bus and a meter showed that I was getting 125V into and through my main cutoff switch and into my ATS, but nothing was coming through the switch (see attached pics). Inside the switch box are what appear to be two relays and I am pretty sure that until this week, when I plugged in the shore power I heard one of those relays activate. Today, the relays do not activate even though power is coming to them and even manually pushing them in does nothing, so no power is going on downstream.

Between my trifocals and my neck that doesn't bend too well any more, it is really difficult for me to look down into the relays to see if there are any burn marks, but I don't see any and don't smell any burn smell. So before I ante up the price for a new switch (that will be unreturnable) I wanted to check with y'all and see what you thought.

The switch is a Magnetek ATS 100 and I read that they are no longer around, so if this switch has to be replaced, it will be difficult for me to figure out which wire goes where since a replacement will undoubtedly have a different configuration. According to the PO, this thing is wired through a toggle switch on the dash which enables charging of house batteries by the bus alternator, but I don't have a clue where that loop ties in or how that works and I got no schematics of the home grown wiring with the bus, so I am on my own.

To make matters worse, when I opened the bay door to get to the wiring, the rubber hinge broke and the door fell off. I knew this day would come and had previously bought the rubber hinge material, which I am ready to replace. I managed to get the little screws out and am ready to slide the rubber pieces out of the channel. The question I have though is how do you slide the old piece out or the new piece in when there is no gap at either end of the body side channel to slide the rubber into the channel? I am sure I am the only one on this forum who does not know the answer to this, but it has me stumped (see attached pic) - there is no gap forward or aft.

I am leaving town for a month (without the bus thankfully) in a couple of days and can wait to fix the electrical problem, but I sure do want to get the bay doors back on before I leave, so any guidance would surely be appreciated.

thanks,
Bob Davidson AKA Rottenbob
Chapel Hill, NC
919-428-0010

[Utahclaimjumper]

 Most 06s had the gap at each end of the strip, both in the door and the coach. Some I have seen have the gap in the center of the groove on the coach and at each end of the door, obviously you have to position the rubber into the coach strip first. Use liquid dish soap as a lubricant, NEVER ANYTHING PETROLEUM .  Another tip, If you are unfortunate enough to loose a hinge strip while out on the road, no problem, the closing mechanism is designed to lock the door solidly into the hole, just center the door into the hole and latch it, it cannot fall out without being unlatched..>>>Dan

[wg4t50]

With low battery voltage & no charging, I would make sure you have the. 120 volts getting to the Xantrax box.

[Red Rider]

I can't offer any help with the "shore power" but I have changed all my bay hinges over the years. Utahclaimjumper has got it right. I might add, that you remove the old strips from the door and coach. Clean both tracks and install the replacement material on the coach track including the set screws. As said before "juice" the rubber up and slide the door onto the remaining hinge then install those screws and you're done. I found this information in my owners manual.The biggest problem I had was cleaning the track so the rubber could slide. Maybe a gun cleaning kit would help. 

[luvrbus]

Once you remove the hinge rubber take a 3 ft 3/16 or 1/4 inch wooded dowel((cheap at Ace,HD or Lowes) slit the end slide a piece of emery cloth into the slit the use a low speed drill it will clean the channels like new then use a tire mounting lube from NAPA like Murphy s, dish soap tends to dry to fast when working alone

With installed hinge rubber in channels take Vise Grips on each end and stretch as hard as possible any wrinkles will shorten the life of the hinge and miss align the door BTDT

[usbusin]

Bob, I had the same problem recently.  My batteries were "dead", therefore the shore power was not going through the inverter.  Bought new "house" batteries and everything is fine.  I see your inverter is showing very low voltage on your batteries.

HTH,

GaryD

[RottenBob]

Hi all - thanks for the responses. I am also glad to hear that a door that falls off can be locked in place on the road; that is one thing that has always bugged me since I knew these hinges would eventually fail.

luvrbus - thanks for the tops on cleaning the grooves - I will go to NAPA tomorrow and get some tire mounting lube

Dan - the picture I attached that shows no gap is representative of the whole bus; there are no gaps anyway to slide the rubber in to, either at the ends of the channel or anywhere in the middle. I guess I could cut a gap if I had to....

Dave - I plan also tomorrow to reroute the wiring around the ATS to the inverter since it might be a while before this all gets fixed.

Gary - I assumed the low voltage shown on the panel was because the the batteries had been discharging for a while now with no juice going into the bus to recharge them.  I sure didn't think though that 'dead' batteries would keep house current from getting to the inverter. The house batteries are old though and I had been planning to replace them before my next trip; I guess I will go ahead and bite the bullet sooner rather than later and pop for new ones.

[Utahclaimjumper]

 Obviously the present rubber got installed somehow, its not too difficult to cut off one end an inch if need be..>>>Dan

[chessie4905]

   That tire mounting lubricant is called Ruglide; been around for years. Good to keep around for other uses too, like installing windows or lubing rubber parts.

[Sam 4106]

There is a gap in the center of the hinge on the inside of the portion attached to the body. Insert one end of the rubber into the center gap and then the other end. The door has to be slid on from one end after the rubber is installed into the body.

The automatic transfer switch is for 50 amp shore power, but since the bus is wired for 30 amp shore power, only 2 terminals on each relay are used. The right side of the relays are the output from both shore and generator, since there are jumpers between the 2 relays on the right side. The top relay is for shore power. the bottom relay is for generator, since there are wires on the input (left) that go to the time delay, allowing the generator to get up to speed before the relay engages. If the transfer switch is working on shore power there should be power on both sides of the top relay.

The switch on the dash and the relay to allow charging of the house batteries has nothing to do with the transfer switch. That is strictly for the 12 volt DC system.

I notice that the remote panel for the inverter indicates "inverting" why do you have the inverter inverting when you are hooked to shore power? That just facilitates killing the batteries if you lose shore power.

Good luck, Sam 

[OneLapper]

The gap is in the center of the channel, visible from the bay if looking up at the channel.  It's approx 1.5" long.  Insert one end of the rubber, pull it to the end, then insert the end of the rubber and pull that to the opposite end. That's it.  It's there, just hard to see, especially when you don't know exactly what you're looking for. 

[RottenBob]

Yep, you are right - I expected the gap to be visible above the bay doors, not to have to crawl under and look up. Now I can finish the job - thanks!

Also, I talked to Sam4106 and I think I know how to proceed as far as figuring out the ATS problem - we both agreed that it is probably a faulty relay coil, which might be an easy fix.

Thanks for everyone for their input!

Bob Davidson
Chapel Hill, NC

[Don4107]

Luke passed on a hint for replacing hinges.  I have not tried it yet but he should know.  His suggestion was to cut a couple inch piece of the new hinge since they are over length and use it with plenty of water to clean and insure that the new hinge will slide all the way in.  Use nothing petroleum based to clean or install.

I bought a whole rack full of stuff at an auction that had an unopened gallon of Ruglide.  It will get used for sure.

Good luck
Don