Jason,
After just having been to this movie last summer (LA to Glacier National Park and back to LA), my front jacks were really laboring.
Then I ran into a thread that I read on my trip.
It seems that Lippert didn't put zerk fittings for greasing the bearings, gears or threads inside the front jacks.
I struggled to find the top end of the gears (mine are shot from the grease drying out after 3 years of use and it was manufactured in 2009) from Lippert - but eventually found them, on etrailer's website.
After I ordered the parts and disassembled the entire thing I found:
All the grease was completely dried up.
The pins were bent from the strain of the motor to turn the gears inside.
The bearings had worn through the bottom cup and were missing some of the ball bearings (and Lippert doesn't sell replacement bearings!)
the threaded rod and the nut that it connects to had rust forming on the them.
the top gears were bent from the strain
the drive motor gears were completely dry from the grease drying out.
It's just a big frigging mess!
I cleaned the rust, regreased the entire assembly with marine grease and the jacks now lift like a new assembly.
The motor - which I thought was shot as well, turns out to be just fine, once all the components were lubricated properly.
I will need to replace my jacks at some point - and yes, they are about 150.00 each! If I could just buy the replacement bearings, I'd be golden, but because they are not available, I'll have to replace the entire assembly (which have zerk fittings on them - 3 of them!!!!).
More questions, drop me a note.
Josh
