replacing manual tongue jack with electric

[Lumatic]

This must be an ancillary to Murphy's Law, when you think it's going to be easy it won't.

Got a Barker Electric tongue jack to replace the original Atwood manual jack on my 71. Apparently just in time because when I jacked up the tongue with a bottle jack the inner ram fell out from the bottom of the Atwood. I was surprised that after I removed the 3 bolts holding the old jack to the tongue it did not want to go anywhere. Looking under the tongue there is a welded plate the jack also fits through.

1. Is the jack just rusted to the lower tongue plate or permanently attached?
2. The 3 mounting holes on the new Barker should line up with the old holes in the tongue, right?
3. The Barker should fit through the hole in the lower tongue plate, right? Or will I have to do some cutting and grinding?

Thanks,
Marshall

[SteveH]

Originally Posted by Lumatic

This must be an ancillary to Murphy's Law, when you think it's going to be easy it won't.

Got a Barker Electric tongue jack to replace the original Atwood manual jack on my 71. Apparently just in time because when I jacked up the tongue with a bottle jack the inner ram fell out from the bottom of the Atwood. I was surprised that after I removed the 3 bolts holding the old jack to the tongue it did not want to go anywhere. Looking under the tongue there is a welded plate the jack also fits through.

1. Is the jack just rusted to the lower tongue plate or permanently attached?
2. The 3 mounting holes on the new Barker should line up with the old holes in the tongue, right?
3. The Barker should fit through the hole in the lower tongue plate, right? Or will I have to do some cutting and grinding?

Thanks,
Marshall

Marshall,

I have not seen the jacks attached to the lower plate, but that does not mean yours is not.

Yes, the bolt holes should line up with your new jack. And, the new jack should also fit thru the hole in the lower plate also. The key word here is "should".

Good luck with the jack change-out.

[Lumatic]

OK. A good soak with WD 40 and assertive blows to the recalcitrant jack with a big hammer and it is moving, in the right direction, up. There is 0 clearance between the ID and ODs of the jack and the hole.

[Janets Husband]

I have found that they are all tight. It will come but some force may be required. One thing that has happened to me is the outer tube was damaged and it flared out some, this required a Sawsall to lop off the bottom of the jack being removed. Look for dents in the outer tube.

[Lumatic]

Goterdun!
The bottom of the jack was burred from hammering on it trying to get it out. Got the burrs off with a grinder.

I also used the tongue weight with a bottle jack under the old jack which finally popped her out.

Similarly the lower plate hole was a smidge too tight and I ground off a little metal until I could get it in. I didn't have to take off much, probably the thickness of a piece of paper or less.

[Action]

Mine has spot welds. So to get it out there will be some grinding involved. I checked this out in the event I had to replace my OE power jack. Fortunately it was only a switch and not the jack. Not bad for a 42 yo power jack to be still working.

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