help repairing a trolley jack

[brewdexta]

Guys

I promised a mate that I would mend his trolley jack by Monday but I forgot that a) the missus is out tonight so I'm babysitting b) the missus arranged some family stuff for mothering Sunday

This means I have an hour or so on Sunday evening to get it sorted, unless new seals are needed and I don't have 'em.

So, not having worked on one like this before I thought I might be able to speed up the process by picking your collective brains.

The symptoms are that the jack doesn't lift very high so I'm hoping its just fluid level.

Here's the business end of the jack.

And I'm guessing the right hand screw is where you add fluid and check the level, however when you take the off there is an obstruction, which could be a gauze filter, not sure yet, didn't have a torch/glasses in the 30 nanoseconds I had before having to take the kids out.

So, anybody worked on one of these before?
How do you check the level?
If its low what do you use to top it up with?
If its not fluid level then how do you get the piston/seals out?

I can probably work this out given time but if I can shorten this job I can get on with one of the other 30 jobs I've got going

Cheers
Andy

 

[johnik]

if it has a gauze filter then it will be the filler,lift the jack saddle by hand and add fluid,if it dont go all the way down with plug replaced,let some fluid out .

 

[simplysimon]

have a look on the main ram for a rubber/plastic plug

I have a Halfords Pro 3 ton trolley jack and looked into replacing the oil, on my one I would need to flip it over and on the ram there is a rubber plug, remove it with a blunt screwdriver fill with oil replace the plug pump it up a couple of times and it should be done... never got round to actually doing it at the time as I had no hydraulic oil

give it a good clean first, don't let any of that crap fall in to the oil ways as that's a sure fire way of damaging the seals and those two screw plugs next to the pump plunger are to do with pressure relief and safety valves and was told not to mess about with them, someone here will surely tell you what they are and if its safe to take them out.

 

[BrokenBiker]

my neighbours sealey 3 ton jack suffered the same issues, filled it with new oil, tighten cap up and pump it with valve open around 20 times to bleed it. may be worth a try on your mates jack

 

[Bill Edwards]

Fill it with oil and it'll work. Do this with the jack down as if the ram is extended it'll take too much oil and won't go down - or it will go down under force and blow the oil out.
It looks to me like the oil filler is the RH bung you think it is, though it does appear to be blocked off. It could be on the ram instead, but will probably be one of the two you can easily see.

Hydraulic oil would be the ideal choice, but any old mineral engine oil will work just fine.

 

[simplysimon]

here is a sealey video

 

[Rig Pig]

Without looking closer it's hard to say, it looks like it needs all the muck cleaning out of it! Best not to mix oils - jack will probably run 32 hyd. Oil, easy enough to find at any oil stock holder.

 

[brewdexta]

Cheers guys, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Halfords do cheap bottle of trolley jack oil. 1 bottle did a full oil change on my jack 3 times

 

[Wedg1e]

I've used Auto Transmission Fluid in jacks before; it's used in Power Steering racks as well and they're effectively hydraulic rams...

 

[graffian]

I've used Auto Transmission Fluid in jacks before; it's used in Power Steering racks as well and they're effectively hydraulic rams...

That's all I have ever used in jacks.

 

[Bill Edwards]

I suspect that synthetic oil may cause the seals to leak - it can in engines that aren't designed for it - but otherwise any oil will do provided it isn't ultra thin or very thick (i.e avoid gear oil).
They all lubricate and will pump and hold pressure, there isn't any heat or fast moving parts in a jack so there won't be any chemical changes or frothing, it won't be that critical.

 

[zzr1200]

Hope this helps.

see attached files

 

[brewdexta]

Cheers

I guess that means it must be a sealey or clone-u-like, there's no identifying marks on it. The main thing I've learned is to look elsewhere for the filler than just t'back-end

 

[BrokenBiker]

filler on my mates is on piston, filler on mine is at back and filler on my dads is under the handle mount, many many designs for such a simple tool

 

[Bill Edwards]

So, did filling it with oil do the trick...?

 

[brewdexta]

Well, we had a slight problem with an exploding child in the front seat of the Disco, just finished sluicing it down about half and hour ago then sneaked into the barn. I can't remember her eating any carrots, never mind that many.

Well it was a good job I asked on the forum, I would have attempted to shove the oil in one of the orifices at the back-end rather than the now blatantly obvious rubber bung tucked away on the cylinder. Took five minutes and now it goes all the way. Thanks guys

 

[brightspark]

it must have a small leak of a seal if it needed topping up .not that thats a problem