Northpoint slideout seals and replacement

Lake Huron

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Messages
1,770
Location
Port Huron, Mi
I have 3 slides with 4 seals that need to be replaced. Need some help here. I did a search and really didn't come up with anything here.
Has anyone with a Northpoint, or unit that has my kind of seals, replaced them?
And which seals material do I need.
I've attached a pic of a seal that needs to be replaced. It's a flat wiper seal.
I would assume the black metal "plate" I'll call it is what the seal attaches to and probably has to be unscrewed from the side wall. I would also assume there is some kind of sealing tape material behind it??
Any help is appreciated.
TIA!
20230514_204437.jpg
 
The “black metal plate” is the H column. It is, to put it simply, the whole slide mechanism. Don’t take out the screws unless you know what you’re doing.
The wiper seal is stuck on with two sided type tape.
Look inside the trailer at the inside edge of the H column and find the sticker that has the “model” number on it.
Call Lippert parts and you can order new seals.
 
Thanks for the reply.
About 2 hours before your response post I was out doing exactly what you said NOT to do. But I didn't get into it much. I removed the bottom 3 screws and did a little tug on that black plate,... didn't budge. So I put the screws back in. At that point I figured it probably didn't have anything to do with getting that seal out. I went into Wreck-it Ralph mode on the seal starting at the bottom. It was already junk so what difference did it make if I made it more junk. Lol! I grabbed the bottom and started yanking on it and it started to peel off the black plate. So now I know what type and size of seal material I need, now I need to find it. I was scouring the interweb and finally stumbled across the exact one I needed. Only took and hour and a half. I decided to put my Amazon Prime membership payments to use and give Amazon a shot. Sure enough, the same exact seal by the same manufacturer for half the price AND it'll be here on Thursday.

Klassic, thanks for your help!!!
 
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When you put it back on, you’re going to want to pay attention to that screw at the top. That’s the motor retention screw. I haven’t dealt with putting new seals on yet, but I think you should take the screw out and see if they cut around it, or if they just make a hole and tighten the screw against it.
For the most part the screw is buried into the seal.
Make sure you DON’T active the slide with the screw out. It stops the motor mounts from lifting out of the bearing block.
 
Thanks for the info! I'll post back on my findings and progress with pics.
Without pics, it didn't happen. Lol!!
 
Thanks for the reply.
About 2 hours before your response post I was out doing exactly what you said NOT to do. But I didn't get into it much. I removed the bottom 3 screws and did a little tug on that black plate,... didn't budge. So I put the screws back in. At that point I figured it probably didn't have anything to do with getting that seal out. I went into Wreck-it Ralph mode on the seal starting at the bottom. It was already junk so what difference did it make if I made it more junk. Lol! I grabbed the bottom and started yanking on it and it started to peel off the black plate. So now I know what type and size of seal material I need, now I need to find it. I was scouring the interweb and finally stumbled across the exact one I needed. Only took and hour and a half. I decided to put my Amazon Prime membership payments to use and give Amazon a shot. Sure enough, the same exact seal by the same manufacturer for half the price AND it'll be here on Thursday.

Klassic, thanks for your help!!!

What seal did you find on Amazon? Please share.
 
So, here's the link to Amazon where I purchased the seal roll from.

AP Products 018-1723 Single... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0721KWWNM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

It comes in a 35' roll and cuts fairly easy to length with a pair of common household scissors. This stuff is an EXACT replacement.

I started at the bottom of the seal and pulled it off going up. Schwintek systems have a stop screw at the top like Klassic said. Remove that but don't move the slide.
20230521_180837.jpg

Here's what's left behind of the two way tape that needs to be removed
20230521_181150.jpg

Long and short of it I threw everything I had on the shelf in the garage at that stuff and it wouldn't come off. I ended up using Goo Gone and very surprisingly it worked. Here's the trick; make sure the adhesive is coated in it and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Use a new straight blade and SCRAPE, don't try to cut it off. The first round will take a little effort and will get a lot of it off. Coat it again for a second time and same thing, let it sit for 5-10 minutes and scrape it off. Most of the time it'll take a third time and you'll have it all off.
20230521_185504.jpg

While I was waiting for the Goo gone to soak in, I went to the workbench to cut out the seal for the slide track. I just gorilla taped the old one over the new seal and cut it out with a brand new blade in a utility knife. While it was taped down I also drilled the stop screw hole.
20230521_182146.jpg

I wiped down the metal with white gas, Coleman fuel, and let it air dry. No residue left. I started at the top and peeled back the tape backer on the new seal and got it in place using the stop screw hole. Installed the screw and worked my way down. I kept the lip on the backside tight against the side of the metal so its always gonna be straight and doing about 12" at a time, I just pressed the seal against the metal with my fingers and peeled the tape backer off from the side of the seal. Once that seal is stuck on there, it's on there.
20230521_203731.jpg

One thing I would do different is I used the old seal as a template to cut out the slide track location. The top location would always line up, the bottom location, not so much. It was always a little lower, but not by much. I think what happened is when I pulled the old seal off it stretched it a little longer. Next time I'll cut the top location off the old seal, dry fit the new seal on the trailer and mark off the bottom location so it'll line up a little better.

Sorry about some of the pics being sideways.
 
Thanks for the great info and the link. I don’t think I will need to redo my seals this summer, but definitely on the list for next year.

I will use some 303 on them this season. As I clean them and spray them with 303 I will access each one closely.
 
This isn't related specifically to your seal, but might help in the future. I recently had a roller shade go bad. I found one on Amazon for $100, but I also contacted Jayco directly. I gave them my VIN and told them what I was looking for. They sent me an outline drawing/diagram of my 5th wheel that contained numbered call-outs for all of the shades in the RV. I responded with the call-out number (ie number 1, number 7 etc...) and they responded with the exact part number and instructions to contact my dealer to order the parts.

My Amazon shade arrived in a few days and is installed already. It would probably take another month or more to get the same shade from Jayco, but the point is that if you get stuck on finding the correct part, contacting Jayco to at least get the correct part number might be useful or helpful even if you don't purchase directly from Jayco.
 
Hey Lake Huron,

Thanks for the post, tips and link on where to get the side flapper.

The front side kitchen slide flapper was ripped on my trailer. Had been holding it together with Gorilla Tap :eek:
See attached pictures blow.
Your post showed me how I could replace it myself and save hundreds of $ by not having a dealership do it.

Here's the process I used (made some minor adjustments from what you did).
> Before removing the old flapper, I put the new one up and marked where the cut outs should be for the swintek slide rails.

> Then I removed the slide stop screw at the top.
Note: I also put some painter's tape over the slide button inside to make sure no one (i.e., me) moved the slide while I was working on it.

> To remove the old flapper, I used an old hair dryer to soften the 2-face tape and used a plastic scraper I got from Harbor Freight. I Used the narrow one from what's shown in the link.
This method got a lot of the 2-face tape off with the flapper.
A heat gun probably would have worked better, but you gotta use what you have :)

> Once the old flapper was off, I spayed the remining sticky residue with Goo Gone and scrapped that off with the scrapper.
One time through this process and I was able to remove all the residue.

> With all the residue removed, I then wiped down the side with denatured alcohol to ensure a clean area for applying the new flapper.

> I used the old flapper to mark where the hole for the slide stop screw should be on the new flapper and drilled a hole into he new flapper for the screw.
This also gave time to allow the denatured alcohol to flash off - typically it'll flash off in ~5min.

> When attaching the new flapper, I worked from the top down.
1st inserted the stop screw through the hole of the new flapper.
Removed 2-face tape paper to just below the screw.
Lined up the stop screw and got the screw threads started.
Then lined up the flapper around the screw and pushed to adhere the 2-face tape.
Then tightened the stop screw.
Aliened and attached the flapper the rest of the way down, working in about 1 foot sections at a time.

> Final step was to apply some rubber slide seal lubricant to the new flapper.

Overall it took me about 2 hours to do.

I've added some picture attachments below showing the results of various steps of the process.
I couldn't intermix them with the text because they're not up on a server accessibly via the internet.
Sorry for the pictures being sideways. Couldn't figure out how to get them aligned properly.

Again, thanks Lake Huron for all the help and hope this post helps others.
 

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Got the other side flapper of the kitchen slide done today (July 4th)
That side wasn't ripped as bad as the previous side, but it was starting.
So figured I would replace it also.

With a 35' roll, I have enough to do both swintek slides on our trailer.
Though the flappers on the bedroom slide are still good, so no reason to replace them now.

One thing that I forgot to do on the previous side, that I did on this one, was lub the swintek slide motor when the old flapper was removed.
Lubricating the swintek motor was a lot easier with the flapper removed.

Again ~2hrs to replace the side slide flapper.
Most time consuming was removing the 2-face tape residue.
 

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