How often should you lube your Jack

[Cband55]

I accidentally chose G6 instead of G4 on the 4DTV and and I think the Actuator jack got stuck when it got to G6, I had to go up there and put some WD40 and slowly move it west.

In 13 years I never lubricated the actuator but that problem may be think I should more often.

 

[coinmaster32]

That's kind of a personal question don'tcha think?

 

[turbosat]

I just did that last week, before a little early cold snap. Usually I think of it about this time of year, when the temps start to fall around or near freezing. If your actuator lasted that long without any grease, you've been very lucky. Once a year is about all I do the greasing, too much grease in there is probably worse than too little.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I've had a couple of VonWeise movers apart and I don't remember seeing much of anything in them except rust on the screw. They use a plastic nut that looks like glass filled nylon which will work pretty good without lube but probably doesn't work too well with rust. Those movers don't even have a grease fitting on them so the only way to grease them is to take them apart, which is a PITA as you have to go back and reset limits and all that crap after you reassemble it.

The two that I redid with the brass nuts I made up got some really light grease that is very fluid and will flow inside the tube "some" and they got a bunch of it. I did put a hole in the lower part of the outter tube on the bottom side of one of them where I could pump some grease in but no faster than they turn I really don't think it needs any more in it.

About once a month I run the dish to both limits to help the nut pick up some of the grease that probably collects near the gearbox.

The SuperJack mover on my SAMI gets a few pumps once or twice a year as it does have a grease fitting for that. I also run that one full stroke monthly as well.

One of the things that probably get overlooked is the seal between the inner and outter tubes. I also put some grease on the outside of that inner tube so that the seal picks up some of it. That helps prevent it from rusting once the plating is off it and also lubes the seal to help it last longer. If that seal goes out or gets hard and starts leaking it will allow water to get inside that mover and that isn't good either. On one of mine I made a new seal out of a piece of radiator hose with a hose clamp on the end where the inner shaft goes in and out so I could adjust how much tension is applied to that to make it seal off. I check those about every three months or so.

 

[coinmaster32]

On a serious note, I have a couple books on large dishes, I never recall anything that talked about lubrication of the actuator.

 

[Dishman Dan]

A couple of my "jacks" have stickers on them that say to "Lubricate Annually".

One actuator has a sticker that was scratched (I dunno if on purpose or what!)

and now says "Lubricate An**ally"!

 

[whatchel1]

I've had a couple of VonWeise movers apart and I don't remember seeing much of anything in them except rust on the screw. They use a plastic nut that looks like glass filled nylon which will work pretty good without lube but probably doesn't work too well with rust. Those movers don't even have a grease fitting on them so the only way to grease them is to take them apart, which is a PITA as you have to go back and reset limits and all that crap after you reassemble it.

The two that I redid with the brass nuts I made up got some really light grease that is very fluid and will flow inside the tube "some" and they got a bunch of it. I did put a hole in the lower part of the outter tube on the bottom side of one of them where I could pump some grease in but no faster than they turn I really don't think it needs any more in it.

About once a month I run the dish to both limits to help the nut pick up some of the grease that probably collects near the gearbox.

The SuperJack mover on my SAMI gets a few pumps once or twice a year as it does have a grease fitting for that. I also run that one full stroke monthly as well.

One of the things that probably get overlooked is the seal between the inner and outter tubes. I also put some grease on the outside of that inner tube so that the seal picks up some of it. That helps prevent it from rusting once the plating is off it and also lubes the seal to help it last longer. If that seal goes out or gets hard and starts leaking it will allow water to get inside that mover and that isn't good either. On one of mine I made a new seal out of a piece of radiator hose with a hose clamp on the end where the inner shaft goes in and out so I could adjust how much tension is applied to that to make it seal off. I check those about every three months or so.

DON'T EVER PUT WD 40 on a jack like the Von Weiss. The nylon plastic nut will be destroyed by it. Only light weight oil on anything that uses the plastic, nylon type nuts: WD 40 dissolves those. Only grease the metal ones when they start drying up. Only use a light weight grease on those; this isn't the rear end of a truck guys that need HD grease. I started working w/ C-band back in the days before HBO scrambled. So I worked with allot of the different types of movers.

 

[Babadem]

That's kind of a personal question don'tcha think?

Isn't that what we do every time we post questions here?

 

[coinmaster32]

DON'T EVER PUT WD 40 on a jack like the Von Weiss. The nylon plastic nut will be destroyed by it.

Um.....only plastics WD-40 are harsh on is Polycarbonate (plastic googles, CD's), and Polystyrene(foam,cups,etc.), WD-40 is fine for other plastics.

 

[TheTechGuru]

I took mine apart and covered the entire screw shaft with black lithium grease. But mine has been rebuilt and is now metal threading though metal.

 

[Lone Gunman]

@ whatchel1, FYI I don't use WD-40 on my movers nor did I mention it in my post I made above? Don't know why you singled out my post to mention this??? Follow this link and you'll see the brass nut installation I did on my 3 VonWeise movers, which I mentioned in that post. Motorsports Village • View topic - Von Weise Acme Nut Repair

 

[Dee_Ann]

Silicone grease is the BEST thing to use. It's water proof and inert and will not harm any rubber or plastic parts.
Over the years I learned the hard way about the evils of hydrocarbon based lubricants.
I've tried to be self sufficient and do things myself but many times ended up doing things badly and in the most costly way.
Just last year I discovered, the hard way, that motor oil eats through heater hoses like nobody's business!
I greased the parts in my electric garage door opener and all the plastic parts cracked and broke within a week.
I had to buy a whole new opener.

It's also non-toxic so if you spill some on the ground no harm done..

My dad told me that the best thing to use is silicone, that you can't ruin anything with it even if you try. :

 

[jsattv]

Took my Von Weise Actuator apart and rebuilt and cleaned out all the rust used steel wool on the shaft a bit to get off the rust, then filled it with white lithium grease re Gabshere's 20 Step Actuator Rebuilding Instructions, somewhere on these pages, and it has been running well for 3 years now. There are some signs of rust on the shaft with our -30 degrees to 100 above temps here in Canada, so it's likely in need of an overhaul again.