power wedge failure.

[tooblue2]

I had to remove the entire Wedge foil from the boat. I then tried to remove the bolt, no luck. I tried pounding the bolt out, but I had no luck with that. I then had to hacksaw the bolt so, I could get the actuator out? So, somehow the bolt got slightly bent in the actuator. I went to Bakes Marine and got a new actuator and replace it. The problem is solved. I will send a pic of the bad actuator so all can see. The actuator actually works, but the bolt being out of alignment with the other actuator. Bottom line is all good now. Not sure how I get that replaced under warranty... Thanks for all the help.

[Skin2Win]

So I just replaced both actuators on my 09 VLX this weekend. One was bad and caused the fuse to keep blowing. After a couple hours of getting the new ones installed (15060 part number which I got from this site... thank you) I decided to try them out before bolting them to the wedge in case they were out of sync. I had a guy under the boat spinning the paddle wheel, one guy inside pushing the up button and to my delight they worked and fully extended. So then I tried to get them to retract and got NOTHING! I should have been able to just hit deploy or down and should have worked. Instead I can only make them run when I hit UP. So I noticed that the wedge was reading down on the malivue, so I moved it up by hand and it is as though the sensor is not working because when the wedge is all the way up it still reads it to be down. Could this be the reason why the actuators will not work, because it thinks that the wedge is already down? Maybe I need a new sensor? I know that the new ones are 5 lobe and the control box in the boat is for 3 lobe, but I was told by the dealer that they would still work and I just wouldn't have it display right on the screen. Anyone have suggestions of what to try or test to make these work? So as it sits now, the wedge is all the way up and it reads that it is all the way down on the malivue and I nothing works. Any help would be great. Thanks

[tooblue2]

Skin2Win I had same problem with getting the Wedge to go back up. Just powering on my system did not do the trick I had to ensure I was logged into the Maliview and all systems were up then spin the paddle wheel. The person in the boat should see the speed change and then be able to run the Wedge up if things are working right. Also, there is a bypass on the fuse box that bypasses the controller you could give that a try and see if the wedge will go up bypassing the controller.

[J.Iverson]

Great, now I'm getting the "wedge fault, wait 10 seconds for reset....port actuator maxed current draw failure". In my case the boat/malview thinks the wedge is down when in reality it is all the way up. I was going across the lake and got the "caution slow down " saying the wedge was down yet it wasn't . I checked the battery terminals, they are all tight. All 3 fuses are fine. This is frustrating, just bought the boat used from dealer. First outing heater blows fuse, second outing now the wedge. I'm guessing it's either a software glitch, bad actuator, or an alignment issue. Any other advice? It won't let me deploy the wedge either since it thinks it is already down. The boat is now in a lift 2 hours from dealer, that means taking off the canopy so a storm doesn't flip the empty lift and taking off to drive 2 hours to dealer.

[Skin2Win]

J.Iverson that is the same issue I have with mine right now after I replaced the two actuators. Boat thinks it is down when it is actually all the way up, except I don't get any wedge fault reading. I am trying to find the Lenco control box under the helm and for the life of me I have no idea where it is. Could it be behind the arm rest?

[J.Iverson]

Frustrating. The 97 Malibu I sold to buy this boat I just had to add gas to have years of trouble free enjoyment. This has turned into an $80k headache. First the heater and now the wedge, only had it out 3 times and had issues every outing.

[wakeparadise]

Great, now I'm getting the "wedge fault, wait 10 seconds for reset....port actuator maxed current draw failure". In my case the boat/malview thinks the wedge is down when in reality it is all the way up. I was going across the lake and got the "caution slow down " saying the wedge was down yet it wasn't . I checked the battery terminals, they are all tight. All 3 fuses are fine. This is frustrating, just bought the boat used from dealer. First outing heater blows fuse, second outing now the wedge. I'm guessing it's either a software glitch, bad actuator, or an alignment issue. Any other advice? It won't let me deploy the wedge either since it thinks it is already down. The boat is now in a lift 2 hours from dealer, that means taking off the canopy so a storm doesn't flip the empty lift and taking off to drive 2 hours to dealer.

If you feel "stuck" you could as a temporary solution just remove the actuators and the wedge itself, it's not difficult to remove or replace. Also, when you have the actuators removed you could cycle them with a 12 v battery and see if they fully extend/retract. While you're doing that check for water coming out of them and If there is then they are most likely shot. If one is maxed out (the current draw issue you mentioned) it's because it's forcing itself to work while the other one isn't doing its job (mostly because it's probably water-logged and can't perform) .

I would take a few hours, take them off and have a proper look at what's going on. as long as they're working the system should allow them to cycle up and down, and if the gauge doesn't know what position they're in all it needs is a complete cycle to know where they're at.

Remember, you can't ever bring the wedge up if he boat isn't registering a speed... It needs to see movement of the boat before it will allow you to retract (for safety reasons)

[Skin2Win]

Going up works just fine with spinning the paddle wheel. It is the down that is not working with or without spinning the wheel. I tried to cycle when not attached to the wedge so no binding issues to worry about there. It just registers that it is down on the Mali-view when it is actually up. Is there a setup screen on the Mali-view that I should be trying to "calibrate or reset" with? I didn't even think to go through those options?

[Ndawg12]

Not sure if this helps you guys or if you all ready know it, but you can disconnect the actuator from the wedge and spin the shaft to get them to retract or extend, no need for 12v power.

[tooblue2]

Select the setup button on your Maliview and there is are 2 Wedge settings make sure you either recalibrate the Wedge or Disable/Enable Automatic wedge deploy etc. You can see this in the setup window on your Maliview screen. This might help you to calibrate the screen with the wedge. Also, make sure you didn't connect the leads backwards as that is easy to do. And you can test them with a 12Volt source to ensure they are working the same. I know my single actuator the bolt that holds the end of the wedge closest to transom, was slightly bent causing my problems. if you were to look you would have never seen the alignment issue, but that slight difference between the 2 actuators wouldn't allow mine to deploy at all.

[caw32073]

Im having the same problem today first time out this year. Wedge is up but Mali view says it is down and I can tmove it at all. Tried everything. Where is the fuse for the wedge located (pictures).

Thanks for any help.

[wakeparadise]

Im having the same problem today first time out this year. Wedge is up but Mali view says it is down and I can tmove it at all. Tried everything. Where is the fuse for the wedge located (pictures).

Thanks for any help.

Under the dash in a covered rubberish fuse holder, 20 amp I think?

[Bigdaddy143]

Having a wedge issue as well, I can hear the actuator running but there is no movement in the wedge. Noticed the spinning graphic on the dash as we were riding and didn't think much about it, then changed riders and could hear the actuator running. Tried to put it in the stow position on the way back to the dock and it would not stow. Still waiting on a call from the dealer. Anyone else had this type of issue?

[Skin2Win]

No luck this weekend with the calibration procedure. I went on the setup screen, hit calibrate, asked me to put wedge all the way down, I could not get it to go down and a "can not calibrate" message came up. I am guessing that I am going to need to replace the whole control box to make the new 5 lobe actuators work correctly. Is it the entire viper box that I need to replace? I have looked for a separate lenco control box and cannot find it.

[ncarilli]

I just had this problem over the weekend, I took the wedge off and replaced the fuse and sure enough only one actuator was working. I took the one that was not working apart, there was no water inside but what I did notice the small screw that connects the bottom gear to the shaft had actually come out and the keyed part of the shaft slid down. I put the screw back in, put the actuator back together, and made sure they were both exact and everything works perfect. Don't throw your old actuator away until you take it apart to see what actually happened!

[wazzajohno]

I have a 2013 vlx, we are at lake Powell and can not get any movement from the wedge. The fuzes are all good. Found the 20 amp it's good. It's in the lake now so I can't check the wedge itself. No noise when pressing up or on(down). No warnings or errors  Has any one had these problems? 

[Fman]

49 minutes ago, wazzajohno said:

I have a 2013 vlx, we are at lake Powell and can not get any movement from the wedge. The fuzes are all good. Found the 20 amp it's good. It's in the lake now so I can't check the wedge itself. No noise when pressing up or on(down). No warnings or errors  Has any one had these problems? 

I would try this...

Complete reboot of maliview - batteries off for 30 seconds then back on.

Double check all connections under the helm.

Recalibrate wedge (see below)

You have already checked the fuses, not sure other than the above what more you can do.

Here is wedge calibration directions:

Main LCD

Setup

Service

Power Wedge

Scroll Down and Select Calibrate Down

Manually hit down button and put the wedge all the way down

click E button on LCD to confirm and calibrate down

Scroll down and Select Calibrate Up

Manually hit up button and put the wedge all the way up

click E button on LCD to confirm and calibrate up

Done Calibrating. 

Edited August 10, 2017 by Fman

[wazzajohno]

Reset the maliview and turned off batteries still non responsive. I have batteries set to 1&2. I don't have a service option on my LCD. I have wedge setup it only toggles the wedge enabled and auto wedge enabled. 

[wilster]

you probably have a bad actuator if your fuses are all good.  i had the same thing happen on my '13 LSV and i pulled the boat out of the water and removed the wedge and actuators.  i took apart one of the actuators and it was full of water/mud.  this bad design was one of the reasons i went to the '15 as they went with a single hydraulic system and i have 200 hours with no wedge problems.

[wazzajohno]

Wilster Did you get a 2015 boat or new wedge? If wedge, how does it integrate with Maliview and where did you get parts? How do you take apart an actuator? 

I got home, I took the wedge off last night and the actuators will both go down (In), but not up.  I moved the 5 amp fuse to the bypass and it still won't go up, tried spinning the wheel below.  How can I bypass the computer to power them in the up direction?

On 8/11/2017 at 11:41 AM, wilster said:

you probably have a bad actuator if your fuses are all good.  i had the same thing happen on my '13 LSV and i pulled the boat out of the water and removed the wedge and actuators.  i took apart one of the actuators and it was full of water/mud.  this bad design was one of the reasons i went to the '15 as they went with a single hydraulic system and i have 200 hours with no wedge problems.

 

[Ndawg12]

Make sure you have plenty of slack and cut the wire leads back by the transom and hook them directly to a 12volt battery.

[wilster]

22 hours ago, wazzajohno said:

Wilster Did you get a 2015 boat or new wedge? If wedge, how does it integrate with Maliview and where did you get parts? How do you take apart an actuator? 

I got home, I took the wedge off last night and the actuators will both go down (In), but not up.  I moved the 5 amp fuse to the bypass and it still won't go up, tried spinning the wheel below.  How can I bypass the computer to power them in the up direction?

 

I sold the 2013 boat and got a 2015 boat.  when i had actuator problems on the '13 boat they would always go down fine (probably due to gravity and no resistance) but they would never go back up, that's when i took the cap off the top of one of them and it was full of water and sludge and if one actuator doesn't work i think the computer won't let the other one work due to imbalance failure, etc.  I think people that own those model years probably just need to treat these actuators like props, you should always have a spare set ($400) in case they go bad on a trip.

[norrisvtx]

I was out on my 2013 VTX and I heard a grinding noise, I turned every thing off and the noise didn't go away It was the wedge.  We weren't even using it.  The wedge was trying to go up even though it was already it an up position.   I pulled the fuse and it stopped, put a new fuse in and it started back up. so I left the fuse out and continued my day.    

[wazzajohno]

With the wedge off, I found harness connectors leading to the two actuators.  I powered the actuators up and down individually  port and starboard both work.  I used a 500 amp battery pack and a fused wire power the actuators.  Does anyone think it is still actuators?  I am having a low voltage alert occasionally and my batteries are 3 years old.  The boat starts easy and the batteries both read 12.6 with MultiMeter.  Dash shows 11.1 or 1.5 volts less when on the charger.  

[Ndawg12]

tie them back together and run in and out at the same time to compare travel speeds.  Shake them and listen for water sloshing around inside of them.