I just bought an 83 jayco cardinal. I am trying to fix the broken lifting mechanism. I have blocked it up with 2by4 s. All of the cables and crank are hidden behing cabinets and in the front. How do I diagnose and fix this without tearing all of the cabinets and benches out? Would I be better of to buy a new lifting system like the kind with the folding arms on the sides? Mine is a 19 ft box and the roof is really really heavy.
av8tinGetting to the Jayco lift system is the hardest part. They are quite simple, once you get to them. Just a wild guess, but you likely have a bad pulley. Of the problems that I ve heard of with Jayco lift systems, that is far and away the most common. Often this is caused by the pulleys not being lined up properly. The other common cause is not tightening the lift system up after lowering the roof (just till you start to feel resistance). This slack will allow the cable to bounce off the pulley.
I have a '97 Jayco 1007 and have had a number of similar troubles with it. This one, all of the cable guide pulleys were plastic! A couple have split, thereby dropping the cable to the axle of the pulley and crimping the cable. Others have broken just a bit off the rim and then wedged the cable along side between the pulley and the support frame for it. Both totally jammed the unit from lifting OR lowering! Now have replaced all with steel pulleys and no more trouble from that point.
Good Luck!
Ken