Repairs on main awning

When I bought the Southwind,  I noticed a couple problems with the awning.  It appeared that the forward re-coil spring shaft was bent or maybe broke.  We tied the awning up with cord during the trip home as I was afraid it could completely break off and unravel on the side of the road.

We also noticed the foot brace on the bottom of the forward support was also broken.  I suspect sometime in its life,  the awning was not secure and managed to deploy in high wind or when traveling.  This bent the shaft and broke the foot.

Fixing the awning

We lowered the awning and removed the torsion springs on both ends.  I marked the position of the end cap in relation to the tube so we could put it back exactly where it was removed from. I drilled out the remaining rivets on the front end cap and removed the entire end cap, shaft and spring assembly.   Upon closer examination,  it appeared that the shaft was bent just as it enters the end cap.  The spring,  ratchet, and everything else looked OK.

I had originally thought I’d need to replace the entire end shaft and spring assembly,  but after placing it in a vise, I was able to bend the shaft back to straight, and it lined up with the end cap bearing ok.

I inspected the inside of the tube to make sure there were no rivet parts or anything inside the tube that could foul the ratchet.  I lubed the bearings and ratchet assembly and reinstalled the end cap.  I re-riveted the end cap to the tube after making sure my alignment marks were OK.

While the arms were down  I replaced the foot.  The old one was held on by a large rivet.  I installed the new one using 1/4 x 20 stainless screws and self locking nuts. REPLACEMENT FOOT

I re-tension both torsion springs by 13 turns.

The awning doesn’t seem like it wants to roll up as good as the awning on our old Mirada.  I’m not sure why,  but we had to kind of help it along until its about 2 ft from the top then it pulls in the rest of the way.  We’ll keep an eye on it,  but I suspect it will need new fabric.