HI guys - We've been out and about. I left Don about 30-40 minutes ago, I got the pictures so I get to post about it - LOL...
Basically the "fix" was pretty easy. The Awning is suspended on two scissoring arms that mount with 4 bolts flat and flush to the RV side. The awning is attached at the front end to a fitting that has the drive motor in it and at the aft end there is just basically a following idler gear. So with the awning disconnected from the arms we just unbolted the arms and they came down.
The front was a little tricky because there was wiring in the arm to power the motor and we are pretty sure there was a position sensor tied into the RV so that one could not drive off with the awning out. But they were all attached at the RV wall with swaged fittings so at Don's request we just cut all the wires.
The awning itself was in a permanent channel at the coach roof with a "stopper screw" to stop the awning sliding forward or backward. After removing the stopper screws we just pushed the awning out of the channel going forward and rolled it up.
The big question was whether the position indicator needed a "made" circuit or "open" circuit to enable the RV. So Don pulled the slides in, raised the jacks and drove the RV forward and backwards about 12 inches - thankfully an open circuit was good to go.
My kid finished up by reinstalling the mount bolts to stop any potential water ingress and then taping off the wires to avoid any potential shorts.
Our big debate is what to do with the awning. It looks like the driven end motor is a piece that could be ordered and appears to attach with 3 bolts.
Don is decided he is done with awnings and plans to leave it off. He's not the kind of RVer that hangs out and socializes on his front porch so he has a point. He's happy for me to bring my battery sawzall tomorrow, section it up and toss it in the dumpster - I am tempted to take it but TBH I have way to many broken things to just pile this up somewhere until I can figure out if I want it.
I probably will take the awning material and figure out some use for that on my property...
As they say - Pics or it didn't happen.
