Electric Jack on my '68 Tradewind

[mpovah]

Hello all,

This year the (I believe original equipment) power jack on my venerable Airstream seems to have quit. For some reason, it will go down, but will not raise. The type is the same as in this image (http://motorheadltd.com/Thingy.jpg) I found online - seems like it is basically a starter motor with a three way switch and some sort of a worm gear on the top that raises or lowers the central support pipe thingie.

I am a bit at a loss as to how to fix this. Does anyone have experience with these? Could it be just the switch?

Thanks much in advance,

Matt

[mpovah]

Today I removed the tongue jack from the trailer by loosening then removing the three bolts that thread into the tongue frame and attach the jack assembly. Wiring was simple, just a single hot wire to the trailer wiring (ground is through frame contact.) The assembly itself doesn't look easy to take apart. There are 4 Philips screws in the bottom of the rectangular shaped (gear case?) at the top of the jack assembly. On the electric motor there are two flathead screws and a nut that fits over the actual toggle switch. The nut is quite corroded.

Can anyone confirm if this basic system was in fact OE?

Will post results of repair efforts.

[mpovah]

A local electrical motor wizard repaired my jack for me and I reinstalled it yesterday. Corrosion was apparently the issue. He replaced the copper wire leading to the motor. I have installed a slide-away manual crank jack as well for instances where the battery is low or dead - this one was a 70 dollar hobby from Canadian Tire that mounts to the side of one of the frame parts of the tongue. With both types of tongue jack now installed, I feel comfortable I can hitch the trailer effectively no matter what the conditions are.