Mighty Mule 502 repair

[Soundguy]

i would not open it up if under warranty....

 

[caricia78]

Ok so it worked about ten times and then today jammed up again when I opened it. If anyone can tell me.how to fix this is appreciate it because I really don't want to have to send this thing back in after I fished the wire 20 feer under my driveway and spliced it because the cord wasnt long enough to reach the board. Better yet I will pay wholesome to come fix this if they can come to San Diego.
Thanks, Rebecca

 

[Soundguy]

do your wires not disconnect at the arm from the board with lil quick terminals?

 

[caricia78]

do your wires not disconnect at the arm from the board with lil quick terminals?

yes they do... but the conduit runs under my driveway and is about 5 feet deep on each side...so Id have to dig out each side, pull the wire through..but the more difficult part would be installing the new one with having to hire an electrician to splice the wire again because the cord attached to the arm wasnt long enough to reach the board, and then fishing it through the conduit under the driveway again
got it working one more time with resetting the limits..but not sure how long it will last

 

[TractorGuy]

yes they do... but the conduit runs under my driveway and is about 5 feet deep on each side...so Id have to dig out each side, pull the wire through..but the more difficult part would be installing the new one with having to hire an electrician to splice the wire again because the cord attached to the arm wasnt long enough to reach the board, and then fishing it through the conduit under the driveway again
got it working one more time with resetting the limits..but not sure how long it will last

When you pull the wire out just tie a string on it to pull the new wire back through with.

 

[caricia78]

When you pull the wire out just tie a string on it to pull the new wire back through with.

good idea, thanks
big question is...does anyone know if its NOT okay to splice the cable from the arm to get it to reach to the control board? because the manual says you should never splice the wire, but in order to cross my 2 -10 foot gates that have an additional 3 feet of fencing on each side, and go down into the ground 4-5 feet on each side, I needed more wire than the 36 feet provided on the slave arm? its been working ok for 4 months, and now just started giving me trouble so doubt it is the splice...but I have no alternative to splicing anyways..
any thoughts?

 

[JimRB]

I would bet the manufacturer has seen lots of poorly done splices that corrode and cause gate malfunction or control board issues. A solution is to use waterproof splices that are packed with a silicone sealant or buy a longer and larger gauge 50' wire to connect to circuit board. 3M Products 3M63-NBM-A-25 Butt connector, Vinyl, 12-10 gauge/25 pack | TESSCO

 

[Soundguy]

electron flow is electron flw. a good splice can be done better than the connection that a plug makes.

I still don't see the problem with de-wireing the board.. no pulling involved..e tc.

 

[caricia78]

electron flow is electron flw. a good splice can be done better than the connection that a plug makes.

I still don't see the problem with de-wireing the board.. no pulling involved..e tc.

what do you mean by de-wireing the board?
well I called today and GTO customer service troubleshooted with me about 15 minutes then just told me to send in the slave arm and the control board to try to diagnose and fix it. they had me manually turn the arm so that it was screwed all teh way in, then turn it on and set the limit from that point, which didnt work.
the interesting thing is that every time I reset the limits, the gate works for 5-10 cycles repeated one after another right after I fix it. Then, it seems if I leave it alone for a while and then go back to actually use it for a purpose and get my car out of the driveway, the slave arm opens too far and jams up again. I have spent probably several hours now trying to figure it out.. and when I disconnect that arm from the gate, interestingly, I cant reproduce the problem. But when its connected, low and behold- it jams.
I was thinking of trying to just send them the control board first to avoid the hassle of removing all of my threaded cable and see if the control board is the issue.
but regarding the splicing, I clarified with them today and the cables are 6 foot and 32 foot on the arms, so I actually had to splice and extend the wiring on BOTH sides when I installed it...

 

[Soundguy]

i believe the splices will be a NON issue if done correctly, and kept dry and corrosion free. PS.. i'd reccomend soldering, shrink tubing and sealer.

I would suspect the problem is inthe actual limit sensors int he arm.. not the board.