Dead and leaking Dexter model # E/H 1600 brake actuator

[WE3ZS]

Has anyone else with the hydraulic disc brakes on their rig experienced a condition where the actuator (pump) will not run when the brake pedal, manual brake controller or breakaway pin have been activated? Ours is the Dexter model E/H 1600 actuator.
Yesterday evening we were hitching up in preparation of our trip today and the truck dash kept setting the “trailer disconnected” message, after unplugging/pluggingthe 7 pin a few times with no change I realized that I didn’t hear the actuator running when the truck brakes were on. So I opened the actuator/battery compartment and saw that the actuator had leaked (2 to 3 oz) of brake fluid onto the compartment floor as well as nor running. My troubleshooting included pulling the breakaway pin with no change in the situation, verified a good ground connection, 13.7 VDC on the constant voltage wire and proper voltage cycling on the wire sending signals from the brake controller in the truck. Is there anything to check here?

 

[Oregon_Camper]

I had this happen and while the ground looked ok, I moved it to the actual ground busbar vs to the chassis...problem solved.

 

[WE3ZS]

I did remove and reseat the ground connection, but did not relocate it like you did.
We are actually back on the road and at a MD campground currently. We contacted both Alliance and Dexter as the actuator was still within the 2 year warranty period (by just about 2 weeks!). Dexter agreed that the actuator was bad from my troubleshooting results and a picture of the compartment with the leaked brake fluid. They authorized a warranty replacement that could be picked up at their nearest distributor that had one in stock, but that would have been a 6 hour round trip for us. Alliance said that they would try to help to keep Dexter moving on this if we needed their help, that turned out to not be an issue, but we appreciated the offer. . We found a more local (only a 1.5 hour round trip) retail shop that had one in stock and after several back and forth calls and e-mails between them and Dexter they agreed to give us one with Dexter agreeing to replenish their inventory with a new one. We then got very lucky with a local Mobil RV tech who was able to come to our house after juggling his schedule and swap them out (Dexter is paying him). All of this happened by 3:30PM the day after finding the problem at 5PM. Pretty amazing turnaround time thanks mostly to my awesome Bride who was burning up the phone lines and internet all morning to make it happen! We had planned to leave the house for this trip around noon originally and after all of the calls, email and running around we pulled out of the driveway at 4:15PM, not too bad all things considered!

 

[RockDr896]

Dexter was great to work with, when my disk brakes fell off on the first trip. Glad to hear, your experience was good as well.