Anyone rebuild a floor jack?

[Los_Control]

I really do appreciate the reply's .... made my old lazy arse get up and do something. .... I drove 6 blocks to the post office today and mailed a envelope ... I thought that was a good days work  

 

So I did swap the o-ring & plastic seal back around to see if it would help. It did not.

 

Yes I could only get the jack to go 1/2 way up ... it did not leak while holding this truck in the air for a couple hours.

Then I tried bleeding it some more & could not get the jack to go up at all. .... I got disgusted and let it sit for 5 days.

 

I tried the jack today and still would not go up ..... I swapped around the o-ring & it went up a 1/4 way the first try but did not move the 2nd try.

I tried bleeding it by hand several times & still can not get it to raise 1 inch.   It is done.

 

At this point the only thing I see is a total tear down and cleaned up and a new seal kit put back in it.

I'm going to share a photo, the jack has a lawn mower blade sitting on it. ..... only point is it is the worse blade I have ever seen. I went to the estate sale to buy a cheap riding lawnmower. .... took  home the jack with it.

The guy never did any basic maintenance on any of his equipment.  .... This jack has been used hard for decades. He had a small 8' strip of concrete in front of his shop with a gravel driveway .... I also bought a old roll around tool box filled with tools ..... was a couple 3/4" socket sets in it .... meaning he worked on large trucks. Several other tools also indicated that. He had a large industrial air compressor I could have got for $20 .... It was installed outside the shop in the sun with no roof over it for decades.

I spun the compressor over by hand, you could use a finger to do it there was no compression.  ..... Everything this guy had was flat wore out.

I think if I knew him when alive we might have been friends.

 

Point is the jack was used in the gravel to lift trucks over it's weight limit for decades .... I'm just not comfortable throwing $100 at it to see if I can fix it.

I paid a few bucks for it and used it for a few years.

 

My current project on my truck is to install the seat base now that my floor is finished welded.

My floor has a oil can affect or a bow in it. I need the jack to raise the floor flat so I can weld in the base .... so not having a working jack is stalling my project.

 

So when I look at this photo I'm saying look at that wonderful 1/4" plate for future projects .... I wonder if I could build a engine run stand with those caster wheels.

I'm not fixing this jack.

 

 

 

[Los_Control]

Just thought I would throw in ..... this is the best photo you will ever see of my first panel repair patch on the cab.

 

Just such a awkward spot I can not hammer dolly it  ... I worked on it forever but finally just ended up using a hammer to counter sink it.

It is welded solid, no light shines through it, seam sealer will be behind it ... bondo on top of it .... then the bed will hide it ..... nobody will ever see it again. .... While I'm alive.

 

Nothing I'm proud of .... but it gets the job done   ???

[Los_Control]

Sometimes I feel like a quitter .... what sold me on a new jack was the condition of the shaft when I removed it to replace the o-ring.

The shaft was so pitted I doubt a new o-ring would seal either.  I worked it over good with sandpaper to get it smoother again, but not perfect.

I was worried about removing too much material and never seal again. ..... I was only hoping I could replace the o-ring and it would be ok again.

 

Logic tells me, if the shaft is showing so much wear, only makes sense the rest of the internals of the jack is in the same condition.

It would be a real gamble to try & rebuild it.

So I just went ahead & bought a new one today .... tractor supply made in China ..... but it works. How long it continues to work will be the question.

 

 

[Eneto-55]

3 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Sometimes I feel like a quitter .... what sold me on a new jack was the condition of the shaft when I removed it to replace the o-ring.

The shaft was so pitted I doubt a new o-ring would seal either.  I worked it over good with sandpaper to get it smoother again, but not perfect.

I was worried about removing too much material and never seal again. ..... I was only hoping I could replace the o-ring and it would be ok again.

 

Logic tells me, if the shaft is showing so much wear, only makes sense the rest of the internals of the jack is in the same condition.

It would be a real gamble to try & rebuild it.

So I just went ahead & bought a new one today .... tractor supply made in China ..... but it works. How long it continues to work will be the question.

 

 

Big Red.  That's the brand I have.  I think I must have bought it soon after we moved here from Brazil, so maybe Fall of 2003 or so. 

 

(I bought it at a tractor repair shop that is no longer there.  Taken over by a mower repair shop.  I also bought the radiator shell, hood, and fuel tank from a Farm-All M they had out back - was going to build a small racer-tractor, somewhat like the 'CycleKarts" some guys build (powered by 6.5 HP one-lunger lawn mower engines), only mine was going to be a "rat-tractor".  Now even rat-rodding has moved on, and there's little if any demand for tractor radiator shells anymore.  Maybe I'll still do it, but need to get started back on the 46 Special De Luxe first.)