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Manual override and cable replacement

Every cable slide here cranks from the motor with a flex shaft, and a broken cable is pulled through the pulleys by the old one. The job isn't done until the standoff is in line and the room is re-tensioned.

The short version

Cranking an Accu-Slide

The Accu-Slide motor has a 1/4 in hex fitting on its end, reached through the access panel at the top center of the room. The flex shaft comes in the owner's packet.

  1. Get the flex shaft out of the owner's packet.
  2. Attach it to the 1/4 in hex fitting on the end of the motor.
  3. Put a 1/4 in socket and ratchet, or a drill, on the other end and turn the direction that moves the room where you want it.
  4. If the cables tighten and the motor gets hard to turn, reverse direction.

Careful: BAL warns that over-torquing the drive can cause severe damage. Stop as soon as the room seats or the cables load up, and keep people clear of the room while it moves.

Cranking an XACT

Each XACT motor sits at the top of its side mechanism. Put the #3 square bit on the flex shaft, insert it in the end of the motor and run it with a cordless drill. BAL is plain about it: do not use an impact driver.

Move one side a few inches, then the other. Alternating keeps the room from wedging in the opening or swinging into cabinets. For a F.A.S.T. Track, Lippert's owner's manual and its operating video cover the override.

Replacing an Accu-Slide cable

BAL's cable repair kit is 22305. Do one cable at a time, and if you need two people, use them: one pulls from the adjuster while the other feeds from outside.

  1. Remove the jamb clamp from the interior wall on that cable's side.
  2. Jog the room to about half travel, keeping tension on the broken cable if you can.
  3. Remove the adjustment nut and take the cable out of its bracket. Replace the cable stud with the kit's eyebolt and thread the nut about 1/2 in onto it.
  4. Remove the damaged cable from the standoff and cut it cleanly, keeping as much of the old cable as you can.
  5. Attach the new cable to the standoff and replace the keeper grommet so the ball end can't pull back into the extrusion.
  6. Put both cables in the braided sleeve, spraying adhesive on the first 12 in of each if you have it. Tape the ends with about two wraps on the sleeve.
  7. Pull from the adjustment bracket until the splice clears the last corner pulley, with your helper feeding from outside. Remove the sleeve and discard the old cable.
  8. Put the I-bolt in the cable/chain connector bracket and thread the coupling nut on about 1/2 in.
  9. Slide the ferrule on, loop the cable through the I-bolt and back through the ferrule, pull out the slack and put 3 crimps on it.
  10. Reinstall the jamb clamp, check standoff alignment, and tighten the coupling nut to set tension.

Careful: Don't build up tape on the braided sleeve. BAL warns it can lodge the cable in a pulley partway through the pull.

XACT cable replacement

XACT replacement starts with the room at neutral, halfway in and out, the jamb clamp off, and the room supported with a floor jack and a wood block. Interior cables are 21700146 and exterior cables 21700147. The ferrule loop is about 1/2 to 1 in with 3 crimps, and the bottom cables loop through the second open link of the chain. Make sure the new cable isn't wrapped around the chain before you crimp.

Each cable gets tensioned at the coupling nut at the end of travel BAL's sheet calls for, then locked with a jam nut. Run the room in about 12 in before you reinstall the jamb clamp. A torn exterior cable patch (25041) gets a 13/64 in hole and its red 3M backing pressed onto a jamb cleaned with rubbing alcohol or mineral spirits.

Lippert F.A.S.T. Track cables

Lippert sells the F.A.S.T. Track cable (404090) in 1/2 in length increments, so measure the old one before you order. The cable anchor brackets come in versions for laminated and stick-and-tin walls. The system is listed as obsolete, so confirm parts before you promise the customer a date, and use Lippert's cable replacement video and service manual on support.lci1.com for the procedure.

Re-tension, reset and find why it broke

Setting the coupling nut on the new cable is only the start. If any other cable moved during the job, run the full adjustment: check both seals, set the opposing play, lock every jam nut with two wrenches and put the anti-vibration blocks back. On an XACT that had a motor changed, clear the learned memory.

Then find the cause. BAL says improperly aligned standoff brackets cause most cable failures. The cable should run straight into its punched hole with the room at either end of travel, and the Accu-Slide manual notes a shim may be needed under the outside standoff.

On the job

  1. Support the room before you work on cables; with one cable gone, the others can pull it out of line.
  2. Crank with the flex shaft: 1/4 in hex on an Accu-Slide, #3 square bit on an XACT, never an impact driver.
  3. Jog the room to about half travel and pull the jamb clamp.
  4. Photograph the connector and note the broken cable's color tag and position.
  5. Pull the new cable through with the old one in the braided sleeve, with only two wraps of tape on the sleeve.
  6. Put 3 crimps on the ferrule, set tension with the coupling nut and lock the jam nut.
  7. Check standoff alignment and shim if needed.
  8. Run the full adjustment, cycle the room and recheck both seals.

Numbers

Shop tip

Pull the splice slowly with someone outside feeding. If it hangs at a pulley, back it up an inch and try again. Forcing a splice through a pulley is how you end up with a sleeve stuck in the jamb.

Where this comes from