Leveling Jacks

[bheitman]

We own a 200 National Tradewind, one of my rear Leveling Jacks is leaking from the large bolt on top of the jack, I assume the seals are bad on the cylinder, they are the 500 series 16k jacks. Are they repairable or do you have to purchase a new jack?

[jimnkee]

Are they Power Gear jacks? I have a 1997 Tropical and had to replace the seals in one of my jacks this summer. It was pretty simple to do. I bought my new seal kit off of eBay for about $160.00. Here's the Power Gear web page showing their jacks and rebuild kits. Click on the Manuals tab.

Leveling System Power Gear Hydraulic

Jim Anderson
1997 Tropical
Jeep Liberty

[Bill WA6YBD]

Hi,

One of my jacks had a slight leak and I ran across some advice from Fred Cooper. Here is what he said to do;

I got one of mine (power gear system) to stop leaking with a temporary fix. It was a consistent leak. I could wipe down the exposed ram and then see a small line of fluid slowly running down the ram. This jack had been weeping for a while, but then got worse.

I was ready to remove the jack and take it to a local hydraulic shop for repair, but I needed to make a trip and did not have time to do the repair. Knowing that auto brake fluid will swell gaskets designed for petroleum based fluids, I did the following:

I fully extended the jacks, and wiped down the leaking jack's ram with a clean rag. I then coated the ram (thick coating) with auto brake fluid, and retracted the jack. After letting it sit for 15 minutes, I repeated this process.

We've now made three trips without any leak. If it starts leaking again, then I'll remove and repair.

Obviously, I give no warranty with this repair advice.

Fred
__________________
Fred & Vicki
Richmond Hill, Ga
2000 H.R.Endeavor/Freightliner/330 Cat
[/I]
I followed these instructions and it no longer leaks. I'm sure someday I will have to rebuild the cylinder but it has held for several years so far.

Good luck, Bill