Rant - floorjack

You'll need a few replacement parts. I suggest you get them for a high quality jack.

Get new wheels, frame, handle, pump, cylinder, etc., for a floor jack of known good quality. Assemble them and test to make sure you have a working unit (it may be easier to just buy a whole unit and cannibalize it for the appropriate parts).

Remove Sears floorjack from its nameplate.

Attach the new floorjack to the nameplate.

Throw out any excess packaging materials and left over parts.

Rebuild Complete!

Well, if you tear it down, you should be able to find the bad parts. If the ram is rusted, it may be hard to repair. If it is really only worn seals, then You might be able to find suitable replacement seals at a hydraulic repair shop. Bring them the cylinder and what's left of the seals, and they will at least be able to check their stock to see if they have a replacement seal available.

If you can't find a seal that will fit the thing, at least it is now in smaller pieces for disposal. My guess is a good hydraulic shop can find a workable seal for practically anything.

Jon

Tim, you're mean and nasty! (...and I heard your mother dresses you funny)

Chuckle. Oh well, I almost got 20 years out of it. Let's see.......that's about $3.75/ yr. Not too bad.

And that would be...?

Hell if I know. When _my_ Sears jack lets out I'll be asking here.

If it's just seals then you should be able to repair it. If a hydraulic place can't get what you want a seal house should. When I had a hard time finding good seals for a pair of 1966 Matchless forks I just called a local seal seller, gave him dimensions, told him the application, and he found a pair of seals that worked very well. ERS

Unless you've scored or rusted the ram, then it's usually easy to rebuild them. The seals are just plain O rings of standard sizes, if you do find a more complex lip seal in there (unlikely on a cheap jack) then a hydraulics specialist will usually have something the right size on the shelf. These are cheap mass-market products - they don't use complicated custom parts if they can avoid it.

The two things that usually suffer are the needle valve and seat used to lower the jack. These are best fixed by not over-tightening them in the first place! Otherwise it's some simple lathework to make a new needle valve pin from silver steel, then to harden it. Replacing the seat depends on whether it's removable or whether you need to make a new seat insert and fit that into a drilled and thread hole that you cut into the casting.

It's not usually _worth_ repairing a cheap jack, given the price of the things, but your desire to repair it anyway is something we'd probably all approve of around here.

I've had great luck with Blackhawk jacks, both bottle and automotive. I have no idea how their quality is now, but the ones I have are good jacks.

I agree, Andy, but I would rather fix something than throw it away, especially when it only cost a few bucks for seals and some of my time. I think I will tear the jack down and have a look. Who knows, maybe I can salvage another 20 years out of it. Nothing wrong with the rest of the hardware at all.

I bet the cylinder is welded together and has to be machined off to get at the seals. Cheap cylinders are done this way.. no threads to cut for the ends.

John

Hi all,

I used to work in a Sears service department and was asked many times for the rebuild kits. It made sense to me since my father had done the same in the past. When I could not find the parts for a rebuild kit several times over I called our west coast district manager and asked why.

The response I got was short and sweet... to prevent lawsuits from improperly rebuilt jacks the kits are no longer sold.

I personally think a lot of it has to do with most jacks coming out of China, or Mexico though and thus not real high quality.

Greg Krynen

Maybe you could swap in a bottle jack somehow

Jeez. I've got limited patience for tool snobs...

It's gonna take no time to pull the thing apart and see if you can get seals. It's worked OK for 20 years. If you can get it working properly, maybe it'll last another 20 years. Even if it doesn't, the thing you've learned by living with this floor jack is that one doesn't need to spend tons of money to get a servicable tool.

BTW, I've got two late '80s vintage Craftsman jacks that have seen a lot of use. One works fine and the other has just started to creep down when I use it.

Peter

I've never seen a jack that was welded shut. In fact I've see very few hydraulic cylinders that wouldn't come apart even the welded ones. Some are not obvious but they come apart. The only cylinders I can think of that are welded shut are the ones for my John Deere mower.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

If that fails, you may be able to fit a replacement, better-quality cylinder

I considered that, Daniel, but it would be far less expensive to just buy a complete new unit. The fabrication and rigging I would have to do to fit this particular application would just not be economically feasible.

I think the OP or whomever wants to know, should ask at the aforementioned hydraulic repair shop. They oughta know.

For what it's worth, we carry a line of jacks called American Forge. Yes, they are imports but they appear to be a cut above the HF variety, and are priced accordingly. Repair parts are listed for them.