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Cable tension and squaring the room

Fix a seal by taking up the cable that pulls the room into it, and give the opposing cable slack first. Then leave the opposing set about 1 in of total play and lock every jam nut.

The short version

Read the seal before you touch a nut

An out of square room shows up at the seal first. Run it fully out and look at the seal top and bottom on both sides, then close it and look again. Write down which corners gap, open and closed.

Check standoff alignment while you're at it. BAL has you stop the room within 6 in of fully out and again within 6 in of fully in, and confirm each standoff and cable lines up with its punched hole in the wall cap or jamb. A cable entering its hole at an angle frays at the standoff, and no amount of tension fixes that.

Measure the gap at the top, bottom and both sides with the room partly out and fully out. A room that's square at one end of travel and not the other is a cable problem. One that's off everywhere can be the room or the frame.

Find the right adjuster

On an Accu-Slide the adjusters are the four cable/chain connectors behind the access panel above the room. BAL's bracket figure has the In brackets setting the seal closed and the Out brackets setting it open, and notes that the top screw on a bracket moves the bottom of the room and the bottom screw moves the top. The figure's labels aren't consistent side to side, so prove it on the unit: tug the cable at the standoff and watch which stud moves.

On an XACT the connectors ride the chain in each jamb with coupling nuts and jam nuts. On a F.A.S.T. Track the cables thread through the cable drive blocks with 1/4-20 nuts and die springs. Lippert's F.A.S.T. Track seal guide (QR-074) and measurements sheet (S-016) are on support.lci1.com. The BAL play spec is a BAL number, so don't carry it over to a Lippert room.

Careful: Keep your hands out of the header and jamb while someone runs the switch. The chain and connectors move fast and the cables load hard as the room seats.

The Accu-Slide adjustment, in order

This is BAL's service manual sequence with the closing steps from the installation manual. Make one change, cycle the room, then look.

  1. Run the room fully out and check the seal top and bottom on both sides.
  2. If the room travels more than 24 in, note what it needs, then bring it in 6 to 10 in before you adjust.
  3. Before you tighten a nut, make sure the opposing cable at that corner has enough slack for the take-up.
  4. Tighten the nut for the corner that won't seal.
  5. Set the opposing cables so they move freely about 1/2 in up and down, at least 1 in total.
  6. Run the room in. If the closed seal is uneven, take up the In cable for that corner, loosening the Out cable in the same corner if it needs slack.
  7. Run the room out about 6 in and back in until it stops and seals, then all the way out. Recheck the play on both sets.
  8. Hold the coupling nut with one wrench and run the 1/4-20 jam nut tight against the adjuster bracket on every connection with the other. Reinstall the anti-vibration blocks.

Out of thread on a stud

If a corner needs more take-up than its stud has thread, BAL has you rebalance the chain. Put the room 1 to 2 in from full out. Turn both chain nuts on that side counterclockwise until 2 in of thread shows on both studs, and run the cable adjustment nuts out to the ends of the cable studs.

Lift the chain off the sprocket, move it the number of links needed to balance the take-up, and set it back on. Take the slack out of the chain and cables and adjust again. A corner that keeps running out of thread is telling you something is moving: a standoff pulling out of the wall or a cable stretching. Find it before you move links.

XACT and F.A.S.T. Track are set differently

XACT: check standoff alignment at 6 in from fully out and 6 in from fully in, and move brackets that don't line up. Then run the room all the way in, take the slack out of the interior bottom cables until snug, then the interior top cables until snug. BAL's user guide calls for minimal pretension because the control seats the room. If that doesn't give you a seal, BAL tech support is 877-557-7788.

F.A.S.T. Track: pull Lippert's service manual and the QR-074 seal guide before you turn a nut. The die springs on the drive blocks mean a BAL feel test doesn't translate.

On the job

  1. Cycle the room fully out and in and note which corners gap, open and closed.
  2. Check standoff alignment with the punched holes at 6 in from each end of travel.
  3. Paint-mark and photograph every nut before you adjust.
  4. Open-seal gap: slack the In cable at that corner, then take up its Out cable.
  5. Closed-seal gap: slack the Out cable at that corner, then take up its In cable.
  6. Set the opposing play at each end of travel: about 1 in total on an Accu-Slide.
  7. Lock every jam nut with two wrenches and reinstall the anti-vibration blocks.
  8. Cycle the room a few times and recheck both seals and the play.

Numbers

Shop tip

Adjust one corner, cycle the room, then look. Change two corners at once and you won't know which one fixed it or which one threw the next corner off.

Where this comes from