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Posted by NAPA Auto Parts Maintenance
Starting out a wrenching session by discovering your floor jack won’t lift can be a frustrating situation. Maybe it worked fine last time, or maybe it is new out of the box. Regardless of how things were before, the reality now is that your vehicle is staying on the ground. Before you give up and head to the store for a new jack, there’s a few quick simple steps that may just get you lifting again.
Your floor jack only has one job: lifting heavy things. It is actually quite amazing that your floor jack can transform the action of pumping the handle up and down into lifting a several ton vehicle. But what if your floor jack is experiencing the following problems:
These three problems can usually all be solved by bleeding the floor jack of trapped air.
Unlike hydraulic oil, air can be compressed. Since the main operating principle behind a floor jack is that fluid can’t be compressed, air can throw a wrench in the works. So you need to get the air out of the hydraulic oil. Luckily it is just takes a few easy steps:
That’s it! If you go through this process and still find that your floor jack won’t lift, it may be time for a rebuild or to pick up a new floor jack.
And remember a floor jack is purely a lifting device and NOT a holding device, so ALWAYS use jack stands.
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More than 90 years ago, the National Automotive Parts Association ("NAPA") was created to meet America’s growing need for an effective auto parts distribution system. Today, 91% of do-it-yourself customers recognize the NAPA brand name. We have over 6,000 NAPA AUTO PARTS Stores nationwide serving all 50 states with a unique inventory control system that helps you find the exact part that you need.
comHow to Hydraulic Rebuild Instructions
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How to Measure
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How to Identify Seals
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Lazzar's Floor Jack HCRCnow.com supplies repair parts for floor jacks and rams.
HCRCnow.com is a leading supplier of floor jack repair parts and floor jack seal kits for floor jacks, air hydraulic pumps, hand pumps, rams and many other items. Ask, if you do not see what you need.
We also sell Metric and Standard Seals.
Some of the brands we carry are:
Ajax (Walker), AFF/American Forge and Foundry, Astroline (Astro Pneumatic) ATD, Ausco, Bear, Blackhawk / Porto-Power, Branick, Buda, BVA, Case IH, CAT, Century-Fox, Chicago Pneumatic, Dayton / Westward / Grainger, Drednaut, Enerpac, Equiprite (Fastenal), Fleet, Fleetline, Gray, Greenlee, Hein-Werner, Lincoln, Mac Tools, Matco Tools, Milwaukee Hydraulic, NAPA, New Holland, Norco, Omega, OTC, Power-Team, Ram-Pac, Rotunda, Shinn Fu, Simplex/TK/Pine, Snap-On, U.
S. Jack, Walker, Weaver, and more.
And if this is not enough, call us or email us with the parts you need.
Every self-respecting motorist knows at least a dozen ways to use a good jack. And the fact that with its help they change the wheels is understandable. One of the most reliable designs of jacks remains hydraulic, and it has become available to a wide mass of motorists not so long ago. The fact is that the industry before that produced only heavy-duty hydraulic jacks, which could only be used stationary or transported in trucks. For passenger transport, these mechanisms were simply unsuitable. Large weight, dimensions and a large initial lifting level made their use possible only in boxes and at special service stations. nine0004
Content:
Now the situation has changed a lot and there are a lot more jacks with hydraulics, and they have become different both in part constructively and in size and load capacity.
Now everyone can choose a jack in their weight category and according to their needs. Now you do not need to buy a huge five-ton mechanism in order to raise the front of a small Daewoo. Such small models are compact, lightweight, fit in the trunk and can serve as a small press and a whole bunch of other jobs. nine0004
There are many types of hydraulic jacks, but if our favorite and only one breaks down, we don’t care what you can buy in stores:
The principle of operation is the same for everyone, and do-it-yourself repair of a hydraulic jack must be carried out on the basis of knowledge of its fundamental design, regardless of brand and load capacity. nine0004
Any hydraulic jack has a working fluid, oil, which has a very low compression ratio. For uninterrupted and stable operation of the hydraulic mechanism, periodic fluid replacement and system cleaning are required.
Depending on the load class, the jack can have a two- or three-stage telescopic stem design. Often jacks are equipped with threaded extensions that allow you to adjust the initial lifting height. nine0004
Working hydraulic part consists of:
It is quite easy to deal with all this economy and we will start with the causes of a malfunction in the hydraulic part of the device.
The first cause of hydraulic failure is damage to the plunger mirrors and the working cylinder.
In this case, the device does not hold pressure, the oil easily flows from the working chamber to the over-piston chamber, so such a jack simply either does not work or does not hold the load well. Damage to mirrors occurs due to the negligence of the owner. Firstly, the jack cannot be stored and transported horizontally if the manufacturer has not provided for this possibility. The result is leaked working fluid, airing of the hydraulic system, and where there is air, there is corrosion. nine0004
Secondly, when corrosion occurs on the mirrors of the working surfaces of the jack, the cuffs and seals wear out instantly - rubber is not iron. As a result of this history, even more foreign debris, cuff wear products, corrosion products appear in the oil, which leads to clogging of oil passages and valves. Therefore, it is necessary to replace the fluid and flush the hydraulic system.
Repair of hydraulics comes down to draining the old fluid, completely disassembling the jack and replacing seals and cuffs.
There is nothing complicated about this, since the jack does not require any complex adjustments, only diagnostics, maintenance and, if necessary, replacement. And all sealing elements and cuffs, without exception, are subject to replacement. We strongly recommend that you do not go to workshops, and even more so do not look for original seals - it is practically useless. The fact is that almost all sizes of hydraulic jacks, more precisely, its seals, are standard and can be sold at any point dealing with consumables for tractor and automobile hydraulics. It will be three times cheaper, the main thing is to measure rubber parts or take them with you. nine0004
A rolling hydraulic jack differs from a bottle jack only in a more complex mechanical part and hydraulics, which is designed to work in a horizontal position. If it is completely disassembled, the hydraulic part will have very minor changes compared to the vertical jack.
The mechanical part is repaired as problems arise, and they can be expressed in the wear of the lever-lift system, the wear of the hinges and joints, as well as in the adjustment of the support mechanism. nine0004
After the jack has been repaired and reassembled, the system must be bled of air and pumped with new fluid. The liquid is poured to the eyeballs, after which the structure is pumped several times until the jack stably holds the rated load. After that, the system is checked for fluid leaks and the jack is ready for use. Lift weights carefully, and good luck to everyone!
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Do-it-yourself hydraulic jack repair
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Hoist repair - the main activity of our workshop. Our organization produces repairs of absolutely any type of jacks such as bottle jacks, rolling jacks, etc.
Own warehouse of spare parts, modern tool base and high qualification of craftsmen, marked with manufacturer's certificates, allows to carry out repairs of jack at a high level in the shortest possible time. The fixed cost of the services of the service center allows you to save as much as possible on repair jack .
There is a list of common jacking problems that our workshop has to deal with, and a number of unusual tasks that our craftsmen can also handle. If we combine both, then we get the following list of operations that we regularly perform:
Restoring the load hold time. Due to the quality of the materials from which the seals are made and the frequency of use of the jack, some components may fail; nine0004
Cleaning and restoration of the lifting mechanism, or its replacement in case of impossibility of repair;
We will separately touch upon rolling jacks .
This tool belongs to the power hydraulic ruler. Dismantling the rolling jack for subsequent repairs requires special tools and fixtures. A modern line of jack manufacturers allows you to choose a tool according to your needs. From small rolling jacks of one and a half tons to industrial ten-ton ones. nine0004
Repair of professional jacks requires the use of original repair kits and hydraulic fluid. Such components are designed for frost. And the equipment will work like new after the repair of the rolling jack in our workshop. Repair of a rolling jack with the replacement of the main components: cardan shaft, working plungers, wheels and even the main cylinder. All with a 6 month warranty.
Repair of railway jacks is much more complicated and troublesome. The shape of the working cylinder of the railway jack allows you to work in narrow places. This design with compact dimensions allows you to lift a mass of more than 10 tons.
