Scissor Lift Wiring

[AlpinaB7]

I just purchased a mid-rise scissor lift that i'm excited about. I'm too old to be jacking cars up, setting jack stands and rolling under them. I have seen some other questions asked here about wiring for these but none of those questions is identical to mine. The lifts wires for power come off of a cam switch for power. It's a big red and yellow plastic switch that goes a quarter turn for power. The two wires coming from the switch to the plug or breaker are red and yellow. I assume these are the two power feeds for the 220v circuit. My confusion stems from no other wires in the pump cabinet. There is a yellow/green wire that comes off the pump that has been cut. I assume they use the same cord for their 120v version and just snip the green/yellow wire for the 220v installation.

I want to wire this with a plug (i have my compressor and welder with plugs and use the same 30 amp 220v outlet for them). So in wiring a similar plug for the lift I get that the red and blue wires need to make it back to the two poles of the breaker. Where do I wire the third wire from my power? Is it grounded on the motor somewhere? I'll try to post some pix in a minute in the hopes it makes more sense.

Wiring the compressor, the welder, the 220v circuit, etc was all pretty straightforward. This is not.

 

[AlpinaB7]

pix

 

[bobbydd21]

I just purchased a mid-rise scissor lift that i'm excited about. I'm too old to be jacking cars up, setting jack stands and rolling under them. I have seen some other questions asked here about wiring for these but none of those questions is identical to mine. The lifts wires for power come off of a cam switch for power. It's a big red and yellow plastic switch that goes a quarter turn for power. The two wires coming from the switch to the plug or breaker are red and yellow. I assume these are the two power feeds for the 220v circuit. My confusion stems from no other wires in the pump cabinet. There is a yellow/green wire that comes off the pump that has been cut. I assume they use the same cord for their 120v version and just snip the green/yellow wire for the 220v installation.

I want to wire this with a plug (i have my compressor and welder with plugs and use the same 30 amp 220v outlet for them). So in wiring a similar plug for the lift I get that the red and blue wires need to make it back to the two poles of the breaker. Where do I wire the third wire from my power? Is it grounded on the motor somewhere? I'll try to post some pix in a minute in the hopes it makes more sense.

Wiring the compressor, the welder, the 220v circuit, etc was all pretty straightforward. This is not.

So I don't have the 220v one, but I can try to help. Can you take a picture that shows the full inside electrical part up top? Also can you take a picture of the outside of the console. They originally sent me the wrong one. Does your lift have a white connector coming out of it for the electrical stuff?

 

[AlpinaB7]

I'll move it over to your original post. I didn't see anything a few days ago (before you posted) so I created the new post. So everything is together https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/scissor-lift-install-help.518208/#post-10193947

 

[dave*99]

The green wire is most likely the ground wire. No reason it should have been snipped. I'd connect by ground wire from the incoming power to the green wire. I'd also check continuity of the snipped wire to the motor frame.

 

[AlpinaB7]

Green wire on the motor shows continuity to the motor chassis and the cabinet (or to screws that go through the cabinet).

So run a 3 wire cable to a plug. Red and blue go to the poles on the 2 pole breaker. Green goes to the chassis with a self tapper (I think it’s a better connection than the nub of wire from the motor and a wire but) and then to the third prong on the plug (as long as it leads back to the bus bar that has the bare/ground wires going to it)?

 

[dave*99]

Yes however you get to ground. The nub could be longer if you cut back the jacket. But as long as you get to chassis ground it’s fine.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Someone didnt know what they were doing. Shouldnt have cut the green wire

 

[bobbydd21]

Green wire on the motor shows continuity to the motor chassis and the cabinet (or to screws that go through the cabinet).

So run a 3 wire cable to a plug. Red and blue go to the poles on the 2 pole breaker. Green goes to the chassis with a self tapper (I think it’s a better connection than the nub of wire from the motor and a wire but) and then to the third prong on the plug (as long as it leads back to the bus bar that has the bare/ground wires going to it)?

Curious if you got it up and running yet. Aston customer support is definitely an interesting experience…lol

 

[AlpinaB7]

Yes. Just now. I used to have lots of time and no money. Now I have lots of money and no time. So, it takes me forever to get stuff done. Up and running. I have not put a car on it yet. It will also come in handy for a table in the garage, say to cut a sheet of plywood, etc.

Aston owners manual is completely useless--it doesn't even have oil capacity. Customer service were not much help the one time I contacted them. I asked how much hydraulic oil I needed to buy to fill the reservoir. They said "good question" they would start with a gallon or two. It took two gallons and could probably use another quart to get to the level. As the owner of a few businesses I really don't understand how you could not come up with a better manual. It could really be done in a couple hours and would buoy customer satisfaction. Whenever possible I never leave an opening for my customers to be frustrated.

Lift was easy to set up. I used my plow lift and a ******** my truck to lift it off the pallet and then lowered it onto my driveway. I think you could probably get it off with a floor jack and some creativity. I put the wheels on while it was still in the air and then moved it into my garage.

The wiring is pretty straightforward. There are a couple of male/female bullet connectors for the locking mechanism. I grabbed 12 feet of 10 gauge/3 wire cable and a plug end at Home Depot because I have one 240v plug in my garage and run a compressor, welder and now the lift from it. I tapped the green wire of the motor to green and the two power leads to the black and white. Plugged it in and checked for voltage in various places on the chassis (I am ok with wiring but not a pro and wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong with 240v).

I attached the hydraulic hose to the pump (there seem to be three ports and they are hard to see and nothing is mentioned in the manual but it only fits one port). I added about 1.5 gallons of oil to start. Put the lift up and down 3 times to fill/purge the lines. Then I added the rest of the oil I had. It's 2 gallons but probably needs a little more.

It goes up in about 30 seconds. Takes a while to go down with no load. Floor to the top of the lift where the car rests is 47 inches. Many of these lifts are listed as lower, like 39-43 inches. I wasn't sure if this would be "47 inches" with some qualification like including the blocks, etc., but it lifts to 47 inches from the floor.

There are a few reasons I decided on this lift. I have limited height in my garage so a lift that goes all the way up would be great but I can't have one. Even with this lift I can't go all the way up unless I roll it into the driveway, which is easy to do. I have no idea what my floor is like in my garage and I don't want to have to figure it out, get it upgraded, etc. And my father has a mid rise 2 post lift and I would never feel safe under it unless I knew my floor could handle it. There are some scissor lifts that do not have the flat bottoms, but have steel wheels under one end. I didn't want one of those because it seems like it needs to scrape along the floor and the mechanism blocks access to the center. Other 4 post lifts make it hard to remove wheels, etc., if they are a storage type lift. I am certain I can drop a motor out of the bottom of the car with this, remove an exhaust, driveshaft, etc. Winter tires will be a breeze. And if I ever move or get a shop with high ceilings, i'll sell this and get a full height lift.

 

[auvie]

Hey @AlpinaB7 and @bobbydd21, are you both happy with your Aston scissor lifts, despite the initial wiring headaches? I'm considering purchasing one soon.

 

[nadogail]

I thought this post was about the scissor man lifts used on construction and maintenance projects.