HWH jacks issue

[njoylife]

I am having problems with my left rear hwh jack , it wont retract with the spring tension , I need to pry it back up with a bar to store it. Is there anyone out there who knows if the jacks are serviceable , is it just a matter of replacing the seal ? Looking forward to some input.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by njoylife I am having problems with my left rear hwh jack , it wont retract with the spring tension , I need to pry it back up with a bar to store it. Is there anyone out there who knows if the jacks are serviceable , is it just a matter of replacing the seal ? Looking forward to some input.

Did you know that HWH has replaced the square springs for tapered ones? They have a greater pulling power. I also use a Teflon spray made by 3-In-One

["007"]

Yes they are serviceable. I replaced my front drivers jack couple years ago. If your jack is hard to retract the "O" rings inside maybe twisted. I call HWH and got mine about $325.
First I would spray a heavy duty silicone on shafts a couple of times and wipe it off between sprays. Try to retract and see if that helps. If not may need new springs or new jack.

[njoylife]

Thanks Guys , I'm not sure what you mean by the shape of the coil . My coils are round but I'm not sure if you mean the shape of the coil wire or the whole spring assembly . I suspect it might be internal because spraying a silicone based spray on the shaft , it seams like the jack retracts easier but it still needs my help with the bar . so I'm probably looking at that twisted o ring .

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by njoylife Thanks Guys , I'm not sure what you mean by the shape of the coil . My coils are round but I'm not sure if you mean the shape of the coil wire or the whole spring assembly . .

njoylife, You want to look at the spring side on. You will either see that the attachment point to the pad is either squared looking or tapered where the coils get small in diameter on both ends of the spring as it approaches the attachment point.

[62Morgan]

njoylife,
You didn't give any indication of how much force you had needed to lever-it-up. If a steady 20-25 ft. lb. of pressure did the trick...suggest you try to rule-out the "spring tension" first. It's a far more plausable & easy-to-confirm item w/o throwing money at the more expensive rebuild. At his point, you have no confirmation the the ring seals are binding, and causing your problem.

FWIW: My slow-to-retract was simply a new spring remedy. As Cruzer mentioned, the newer style with tapered end coils are a much stronger and heavier-duty coil than the older springs. [As is common with all most any springs:They are always under tension, even when closed & get weaker with time and useage.] HWH's website shows a graphic of the springs & recommends the "tapered" style as your first line of remedy.

In troubleshooting mine...I decided to try adding a "helper" spring. Lowes has an 1" x 12" long spring for $4.50. Once I installed 2 of these on either side of the OEM springs...the jack retracted as it should. Therefore, I had weak springs. Ordered $22 a pair from HWH for ea. front 6,000# rated jack.

[njoylife]

Guys , I took the jack out and I am taking it to a hydraulic shop . I tried to take it appart but the trick to that , escapes me . I tried changing the springs but there was no change . It takes a minimum of 50 pounds of helf to retract the jack and thats with the valve open , so off to the hydraulic shop I go . I' ll let you Know how that went.

[Steve N Sal]

Can I get in on this? I too have been having a problem with my driver front jack. I just spoke with a guy at a hydraulic shop and he wanted to know if the jack could be taken apart. I assume it could be but didn't know what the procedure would be, so to help him and me can anyone help on the dissasembly question? I didn't quite know so that's what I am asking here. Iv've had to replace the selonoid to this particular jack twice now. When trying to retract the jack it will only go up about 2 inches. I have to then back off the nut on the selonoid and then just start the retract process with a pry bar and then the jack goes up by itself. The selonoid must be OK as deploying the jack is NO problem so far. ????? Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

[Tiaraguy]

njoylife
I had a similar problem with the right front jack on my 43ft Mountain Aire. Using a broom stick under the jack pad would enable me to retract the jack.
I have a spray lubricant left over from my boating days that I used to lubricate all of the jack cylinders --- end of problem. The spray is called Boeshield T-90, developed by Boeing airplane company and is available from West Marine.

[leedowney]

This seems to be a widespread problem. Why can't there be a simple well known fix. Here is my issue. I have had slow retracting jacks on my 10 year old Winnebago Journey for several months now. Over the past 3 or 4 trips, three out of four jacks won't retract at all without force from me and a 2x4. I took the initial advice from HWH and sprayed the shafts with WD-40 and wiped them off. This helped a little. I then took further advice from users on this forum as well as HWH and installed new springs on all 4 jacks today. I still have the same problem. 3 out of 4 jacks will not retract without much force from me.

I have cleaned up around each seal with Q-tips. I have checked all the fuses. I have opened all 4 T-handles on the solenoids and that made no difference at all with retraction. The new springs made no impovement at all. I have ruled out bad solenoids, blown fuses and weak springs. What's left? Please advise.

[njoylife]

I got my jack fixed at a hydraulic shop . They told me they are not meant to be repaired but he found a way . It was the third jack in a week . They cut the top of the jack , and the rod comes out from there .He then changed the seals and polished brass guide inside because it was too tight .He then rewelded the top of the jack and charged me 200$ . Hey the jack retracts faster now than the other 3 . I am happy and I can live with that .

[Mahlon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by njoylife I got my jack fixed at a hydraulic shop . They told me they are not meant to be repaired but he found a way . It was the third jack in a week . They cut the top of the jack , and the rod comes out from there .He then changed the seals and polished brass guide inside because it was too tight .He then rewelded the top of the jack and charged me 200$ . Hey the jack retracts faster now than the other 3 . I am happy and I can live with that .

HWH will exchange your jack cylinders for considerably less than that.

[namvet]

Sorry to be so late joining the discussion but thought I would add my two cents worth. I went through the process of replacing the springs. This helped initially but they "stuck" again. I then tried fork lift jack lubricant and that solved the problem for quite a while. I would suggest checking the hydraulic reservoir level first. Every time the jacks have not retracted, since using the fork lift jack lube, I have found the reservoir level to be low. The ultimate culprit was a loose connection on the slide out hydraulic hose.