thelazyl said:Thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity was the reason for the new springs to aid in their retracting? I have older HWH jacks any my rear ones often don't retract. I have to frequently wipe them down with silicone which works 80% of the time. Even then it's sometimes necessary to use a 2x4 to push them back up.
I am beginning to wonder if I should get new ones ...
Kevin Means said:PJ's suggestion to use WD-40 is exactly what I would recommend as well. I fought the same problem with one of my jacks for nearly a year. It either took forever to retract (more than half an hour) or it wouldn't fully retract. I doused it repeatedly with silicon spray, and often had to use a pry bar to "assist" it. I finally contacted HWH, and they said it wasn't considered "out of spec" until it took longer than 50 minutes to rully retract. (Yes, that's Five-Zero minutes!)
I thought that was utterly ridiculous, and I was just about to have that jack rebuilt, but decided to try spraying it down with WD-40 first. I didn't hold out much hope that it would work, because the silicon spray hadn't worked, but the WD-40 worked like a charm... and it continues to work to this day. Now I spray all the jack shafts with WD-40 about once a year, and I' never had a problem since.
Kev
John Stephens said:I, too, used to use silicone spray on my jacks but while at HWH three weeks ago, I asked about it and was told do not use silicone because it will gum up the seal. HWH suggests using WD-40 sprayed onto a rag and wipe the pistons down with the rag after using a different rag to wipe any dirt or sand off of them. They told me you can spray WD-40 onto the pistons if you want, but make sure you wipe off any excess before retracting the jacks.
Exactly, I even have it in my notes from a GNR seminar. I spray food grade silicone on the shafts and wipe it off. I was just cleaning a carburetor that I took off a lawn mower, put it in my ultrasonic cleaner which did a good job of getting most of the grime off. For a finale I soaked it in MEK solvent- bad idea. The rubber looking gasket for the bowl to carb housing started to disfigure. Fortunately I thought better of it several seconds later and removed the carb from the solvent. Apparently no harm done. Lesson learned was to use the right product for the job and don?t assume.John Hilley said:It's funny that for years HWH sold a silicon spray at their booth at the GNR and were adamantly opposed to WD40
I do the same any time I sit longer than a month, or if I've been camped in a very dusty area with jacks down.Old_Crow said:I live full time in my coach and tend to sit in one place all summer, and again all winter. Each time we get ready to move, the day before leaving I usually go around the coach and wipe down the jacks with WD-40 and a rag.
PJ Stough said:Did they give a reason for wiping off the excess? I have never wiped off the excess, and have not seen any negative consequences.
John Hilley said:It's funny that for years HWH sold a silicon spray at their booth at the GNR and were adamantly opposed to WD40