Can anyone tell me the correct way to lubricate an original , manual crank tongue jack from my '65 Caravel? I have been squirting oil under the crank but I know it really needs grease.
Ok, I figured this one out for myself. The original owners manual suggests oiling the jack every 1000 miles. Oil? OK, I'm more of a grease kind of guy but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to take this thing apart and slather grease over the main screw and thrust bearings.
The manual goes on to say that the oil point is at under the handle and I take this to mean that the washer under there needs to be lifted up so I can get the tip of my oil gun in there. Otherwise the oil just comes out and runs down the outside of the jack body.
After lubing the jack like this, oil eventually trickles down over the inner telescoping member, coating it, then filling up my jack foot. Of course I suppose sand and grit are going to stick to it so I usually wipe this off as soon as the oil stops seeping- after a couple days, and then dump out the jack foot.
I noticed a 1990's Bambi owners manual says don't oil and use grease....
I guess whether you need to lube or not is whether you hear the thing complaining - metal on metal screeching. I would do whatever it took to silence it.
There is a way if you prefer to grease them over oil, at least most of them not all but most.
Take a grease gun with the long solid rod & tip (and these are hard to find),
Run the jack as far out as possible, run the level pads down, place some jack stands under the hitch frame, raise the jack back up inside 1/2 way, remove the foot, stick the grease gun rod up into the shaft and you should be able to feel the cross piece that the screw mechanism is attached to and work your way past that cross piece to the threads, skwert the grease onto the threads as best you can.
If you have placed the jack stands under the hitch and you feel comfortable that it is secure enough that it will not move, you can take a flashlight and look up into the jack pipe and see if you did get grease on the threads, if you did then all you have to do is to run the jack full in and out a few times to spread the grease up and down the threads.
When I did this I not only had the front level pads down, jack stands under the frame near where the jack stand connects, I also had my tow truck attached to the tongue itself. So there was no way the trailer was comming down. I no longer drive tow truck so I have a freind who has a 9000 lb front bumper mounted winch that I hook up in addition to the level pads & jack stands.
I only perform this once per year, I would say that one could wait as long as 5 years depending on how often the jack is used.
Thanks for all the tips! It looks like I'll have to go the Boeshield route. Turns out the bottom of the jack is closed off so I can't grease it from that direction. For now I oiled it heavily and wiped down the black puddle it made.
Thanks for all the tips! It looks like I'll have to go the Boeshield route. Turns out the bottom of the jack is closed off so I can't grease it from that direction. For now I oiled it heavily and wiped down the black puddle it made.
Yes some jacks have a thin tin plate tacked inside to prevent dirt from getting up inside the Jack and that is the only purpose for that plate. It can be easly removed with a few taps of a hammer and a chisel, or you can do like another person I know did and drill a hole in the plate so to allow you to get the grease tip through to the threads.
Have you looked at your jack top, many of them have 2 screws that can be removed allowing the raising of the top enough to access the threads and again allow you to stick the grease tip down inside the jack and grease/oil the threads.
I asked a trailer dealer freind of mine and he said on a new trailer for warrenty purposes-You might check with the place that you purchased the trailer from and see about a small hole located near the top of the jack and then rubber plug the hole, if it is used then you have no warrenty issues to worry about, contact a dealer and let him look at the particular type jack you have and see if a small hole can be placed near the top of the jack to allow access to the threads. Worse case senerio if you mess it up new electric jacks cost very little and you can replace it.
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