Electric jacks manual crank

I've never used my manual crank, but from what I understand, there is no switch. Maybe your jack is corroded or bent. Try a different one.

The Attwood jacks on my 2003 camper came with cranks; I guess in case the motors failed. I tried using them once just to see what it was like. They worked, both up and down. I didn't change anything or unhook anything to do it. After that experiment I just always used the motors.
All 4 of my jacks still worked fine in 2018 when I sold the camper.

^I’m pretty sure disconnecting the wires won’t make a bit of difference. Or am I missing something.

If you cannot get it repaired, try unplugging the feed wire from the camper on each jack. Then use the drill to raise and lower ... if you don't unplug it, you're raising and lowering, AND probably spinning the dead motor as well.

You may also be getting some resistance from the battery ... not sure how or if the battery would affect it. But, when I had a dead battery once, I had to life it with a drill to load it. Once I unplugged, the drill felt and sounded like much less a load on it and it lifted the camper much quicker.

I am surprised they lasted that long. Most of the older Atwood electric jacks were prone to water intrusion, killing the jack motors. If the jacks themselves are good, you should be able to get replacement motor units. The old jacks are no longer made but there are replacements. I had good luck with Tweety's getting information on the correct, upgraded part numbers.

Not sure. The old electric jacks on our camper had a lever that disengaged the electric motor.
If they crank up n down now from the manual attachment I don’t understand what the issue is.
I had one sticky jack I had to run with a drill for a while until I tore it apart and lubed it. But if I had to run all 4 that way, if 2 people were present it would make sense to run 2 drills at a time. So you don’t have to make 4x as many laps around the truck!