atwood jack repair

Thanks for the reply. With the help of a friend, we got the thing apart. Very carefully using my vehicle winch and a tree, a couple of lengths of chain, and quite a bit of safety gear...we pulled and tapped with a rubber mallet, pulled and tapped, pulled and tapped, then POP, the leg slid out. What We found was that the leg had swollen at the bottom and the seam where the anti-spin indention is located had swelled and split slightly. While I could have that welded and know it would hold....what we next found was even more interesting. The shaft was loose in the leg. After removing the retaining pins and sliding the ball screw shaft out, I turned the leg upside down and tapped it on the driveway several times. I bet we got at least two cups worth of debris, most of it metal, out of that leg. Upon further examination of the ball screw device, we found that several of the bearings were simply gone, some had fallen out and we found them in the debris pile and those that were still in place were rusty and various sizes. Clearly worn out. I'm trying to see if I can get just that part of the mechanism but I suspect if I want the leg to work properly, $325.00 plus shipping of a new leg is going to be involved.

Free spining sounds like the main shaft is dropping down allowing the roll pin to drop out of the bottom gear. Or the roll pin snapped which is unlikely.

On one of my older jacks, I had to add an extra washer below the main shaft roll bin to get it to maintain the correct height. This was was caused by a slightly bowed jack which required a decent force to raise it.

A jamming of the gears will be caused when the main gear drops down allowing the teeth to hit the teeth of the side gear instead of meshing with them. This is caused by the upper bearing being worn. A large flat washer under this bearing can help alleviate this issue.

Just remember when playing with making minor adjustments to correct wear, that the main shaft moves vertically a small amount as a load is put on the jack or you are trying to retract the jack.

I know this thread is a little old but it looks like it might be useful to me as well. My 1994 Lance (the jacks were added later by the second owner) has had one jack lock up. It won't go up or down. The motor seems okay. I took the motor off and tried it without the load of the leg and every thing seems to work okay. I cannot move the jack with the crank handle either. It just turns with very little resistance. I guess the jack could be broken inside. Anyone else have this kind of issue with the Atwoods?

Thanks!

thanks for taking the time to post up photos. I've done a lot of work with my TC, and the jacks are one of the few remaining items to deal with. lubing the upper gears and motor repairs were easy enough, but never found the time to get into the jack it's self. I have time to now to get this handled, and thanks to your input some insight to whats ahead.

I'll fix the pic when I get a chance, but notice that the two bushings above the cross pin are labeled wrong. They are brass bushings, not nylon.

Fantastic!! Thanks for all the hard work!

You welcome, glad it helps some.

kohldad wrote:
Add some pics and update the steps. If something isn't clear or you need another pics, let me know. This was a bent jack beyond repair that I took apart just to know how to do it.

Yes, a bearing distributor may be able to match it up. Shame that I forgot about using them, they have matched numerous bearings in the past when I was growing up on the farm.

Fantastic!! :B Thanks for all the hard work!

Add some pics and update the steps. If something isn't clear or you need another pics, let me know. This was a bent jack beyond repair that I took apart just to know how to do it.

Yes, a bearing distributor may be able to match it up. Shame that I forgot about using them, they have matched numerous bearings in the past when I was growing up on the farm.

For the thrust bearings, on the happijac, I went to an industrial bearing shop and they had the bearings in stock, maybe grainger would have something too. I doubt that Atwood would have a special bearing made for them but you never know!

This is the kind of info Im looking for, a few pictures would be great!

54suds wrote:
op asked about Atwood camper jacks

Right.......... but some info on a similar jack seemed better than no info at all. Some of what went on with the Happijac should be useful when diving into an Atwood. :C