Atwood screw jack maintenance

I have a 1958 Shasta with the original Atwood screw jack. The one with the tear drop tube. It was becoming harder to operate so I decided to do some maintenance on it. I filed down the mushroom end of the pin that holds the handle.and the assembly came out. I had to take a punch and hammer to remove the pin due to rust. After that the whole assembly came out. It has a thrust bearing at the top of the worm( two big washers with grooves with 1/4” ball bearings sandwiched in between. I cleaned the bearing surfaces of the washers and long worm and bought new ball bearings. Only place I could find the ball bearings was the bicycle shop. 1/4” bearings are common for bike hubs. I applied grease to one bearing surface of the washer then added the bearings then sandwiched the other washer with grease on top of the bearings. This held everything in place when I reinstalled the assembly. I coated the worm with a good NLG2 grease.
Re-assembly was easy, carefully reinstall the screw worm with the thrust bearing sleeve at top and bearing sleeve, handle with new 1/4” inch bolt and nylock nut. I sprayed the sleeve bearing surface at top with a thin lubricant to prevent binding.

I reinstalled the 4 nuts on the tongue.

What a difference it makes with smooth operation and less binding. It will be easy to re-grease by now just removing the bolt by the handle.

Hope this helps.