Issue removing cover on interior stabilizer jack for routine maintenance

**GraniteStaters** · October 14, 2021

We have been cautioned by Oliver and forum contributors to periodically check the grease in the stabilizer head on all of our stabilizer jacks. I have done the tongue jack many times and was able to due the appropriate maintenance on the street side stabilizer under our LEII twin bed. I tried to do the curbside last year when I was winterizing and struggling with an AGM battery issue, so I gave up prematurely on that one. The problem I had was that the cover would allow itself to be removed. I opted not to force and had a very brief discussion with Oliver Service that got tossed due to our AGM issue. After our spring trip I began suspecting that I needed to really looking into that curbside stabilizer based on the different noise it made compared to the street side stabilizer. I finally set aside time to do them all. The tongue and street side were completed with out issue. When I went to de-install the curbside, it would not budge, but I very carefully pried it up with a flat bladed screw driver run around the gap created at the seam after gently moving the cover a modest amount with a small rubber coated mallet. As I worked my way around the entire body, I felt it was still quite tight, but proceeded very slowly. When I got the cover high enough it suddenly came free and to my surprise the middle gear was still in the cover. I was able to turn it and remove it, but it was tight. Clean up became my priority and as it turns out there was plenty of grease although it was pretty dark compared to the lithium grease I would install. Having this gear out gave me an opportunity to inspect the other gears. I found a SS bushing out of position for the middle gear and repositioned it after cleaning and the put some grease in and reinstalled the middle gear. There is a serpentine gear on the motor shaft that marries with the middle gear and a smaller gear on the bottom of the middle gear that marries with the stabilizer lifter which must act like a screw jack. After I put it back together and repositioned the gasket, I gently put the cover on and after a couple of wiggles and an additional inspection re-installed it. I tightened down bolts loosely using an alternating diagonal pattern and then finished tightening before testing. I used the hand crank to pretest before activating the electric motor and all was fine. I would like to say the noise is now the same for both rear stabilizers, but in our case it is not. Seems to be noisier on raising the pad than on dropping it.