My Curt Swivel Trailer Jack is Harder to Lubricate after Adding Grease

Question:

My jack wasnt working to good, so I removed the gear housing top of jack. I put some more lithium grease in there and put grease on shaft and now it is twice as hard to crank. What type of grease should I use for this area, gears? What should I lubricate the outer shaft with? Thank you

asked by: Joe

Expert Reply:

Since you are still having problems cranking the jack after adding more grease to the gears, I would assume you have some rust or corrosion on the inner tube or on the main screw. Also, if the old grease in the jack was not lithium grease, there could be a possibility that the the old grease and the new grease had an adverse chemical reaction. This can often lead to rust, pitting, scoring and breakdown of the greases ability to lubricate.

I recommend greasing the inner tube, you can use the lithium grease for this and cleaning out all of the new and old grease in the gear housing. Make sure only one type of grease or compatible greases are used when greasing the gears or shaft.

If you continue to have problems, the main screw may be rusted. This is more difficult to get to and many people simply end up buying a new jack if it is easy enough to replace.

expert reply by: John H