Happijac Blowing Fuses

[deminimis]

Blowing fuse for left rear jack. Found some old posts and a couple of things to try (removing motor, blowing it out and re-oiling bearing seems to be the best solution short of replacing the motor). Rain gutter and extension causes water to fall right on top of this jack, so it's probably the ol' water in the motor issue. Guess it was jsut a matter of time. Just thought I'd reach out in case anyone has any additional tips/ideas regarding this repair. Thanks.

[Sliding-into-ho]

covered wagon wrote:
You have to cover the jack heads during storage and once a year oil the electric motor bearings each year.

The small hole at the bottom of the electric motor cover is to help removal with 25 lbs of compressed air with a rubber tip nozzle it slides right off.

With the covers off you can squirt oil in the very small oiling holes at the bottom of each motor. Use enough so that you fill up the bearing cup/ recess in metal housing in the middle bottom. Excess oil won't hurt but I wouldn't flood it.

After a couple years doing this you may find the plastic white cover is falling off on hot summer days so you'll have to add one automotive screw clamp to each cover and tighten down.

Your motor bearing is frozen creating too much load on the electric system. Might need to replace the bad motor.

Also the fuse sizes are too big to provide any real protection to the circuit board.

Covered Wagon to the rescue!

Bumping this thread as it is about the only place online that had this information. Compressed air worked like a charm and motor housing underneath was soaked. I backed out the two screws on the bottom and a bunch more water came out. 2018 northern lite, so the jacks are basically new. Needless to say, I'm not impressed with happijac's weather sealing.

In other news, I can't figure out where to put the oil. Also, I have gear oil (like for oil bath hubs), 30hd, and 10w-30 at home. Is a trip to the auto parts store in my future?

Thank you!

[covered_wagon]

deminimis wrote:
Done/fixed. Popped cap off (after melting ice inside). Blew dry. Wd40. Blew that out and dribbled 20wt in there as best I could. Will do a more thoughtful job when not so far below freezing. For those that have toron into these, I assume, based on end housing shape, that it actually has sintered bronze bushings and not bearings. Is that correct? If so, 20wt (3 in 1) is ideal. Just went through this with a pellet stove blower. Thanks. Oh, a couple of wraps with a screwdriver handle in the bushing location freed the motor.

Watch the lube job on top of the screw jacks (under the gear head)... in the manual position you disengage the electric motor and the clutch can be lubed too much to hold and the jack will let the camper come down. Very dangerous.

[deminimis]

Done/fixed. Popped cap off (after melting ice inside). Blew dry. Wd40. Blew that out and dribbled 20wt in there as best I could. Will do a more thoughtful job when not so far below freezing. For those that have torn into these, I assume, based on motor end housing shape, that it actually has sintered bronze bushings and not bearings. Is that correct? If so, 20wt (3 in 1) is ideal. Just went through this with a pellet stove blower. Thanks. Oh, a couple of raps with a screwdriver handle in the bushing location freed the motor.

[54suds]

welcome to the ever growing world of crappi jacks, if these jacks worked ok for a long history I would suggest cleaning (wire brush the plug connections in each jacks wall penenetration junction box). this costs nothing and can only help in reducing line resistance.

[covered_wagon]

You have to cover the jack heads during storage and once a year oil the electric motor bearings each year.

The small hole at the bottom of the electric motor cover is to help removal with 25 lbs of compressed air with a rubber tip nozzle it slides right off.

With the covers off you can squirt oil in the very small oiling holes at the bottom of each motor. Use enough so that you fill up the bearing cup/ recess in metal housing in the middle bottom. Excess oil won't hurt but I wouldn't flood it.

After a couple years doing this you may find the plastic white cover is falling off on hot summer days so you'll have to add one automotive screw clamp to each cover and tighten down.

Your motor bearing is frozen creating too much load on the electric system. Might need to replace the bad motor.

Also the fuse sizes are too big to provide any real protection to the circuit board.

[work2much]

Found this, that might help.

http://forums.woodalls.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28681926/print/true.cfm

[work2much]

If it turns smooth by hand than I believe you are correct. Electrical short.

[deminimis]

Turns smooth as silk with the crank. I'm almost certain water intrusion is the culprit. Unless I can find some decent, even longer gutter sports to keep water from pouring down upon the rear jacks, I'm going to ry the cloth pin trick to deal with the water issue. I'll report my findings once I service the motor.

[Boatycall]

With your TC on the truck(assuming you can get it on the truck), raise the jack off the ground, then try cranking it with the emergency hand crank. It should be smooth and relatively easy, if not, you could have worn out/rusted out worm gears causing the motor to work too hard, drawing too many amps, and popping fuses.

If it's smooth with the hand crank, take the motor head off and see how easily the spur gear turns.

[work2much]

Have you tried turning the jack manually? That might be able to get it working again. This is a good reminder that I should service my jacks.

[jimh406]

Call Happijac if you haven't or look on their site for how to clean it.

I would try isolating to the jack or not. That is, unplug the jack and see if the fuse still blows. Then, I'd take it apart and clean it or hit it with WD 40 or other water displacing spray.

If you can get to the control, you could also try bipassing the wire to the jack to see if the wiring to the jack might bad. You could also do that by moving the jack to a different position. There would only be a few bolts to take loose to move it.