New (to me) C'man trolley jack...

[treimers]

So I was down at my local metal scrapyard, looking around for a little piece of aluminum to use on an antenna.
Got my 6inx12in square piece of 1/8" aluminum handed to me for free, instead of $7.99 at Lowes/HD, since the scrapguy said it wasn't worth charging me for it.

I also obtained a Craftsman 2 1/2 ton trolley jack for $5.00
, one of the ones that's worth about $40 at Sears new.

What would people recommend I do to test and evaluate this jack?
I figured one test would be to just lift up my Nissan Frontier and leave it overnight to see if the jack slowly settles.

What else should I consider as a basic test before determining that it does or does not need a rebuild?
I know it's a cheapie considering that this is no 6 ton or 12 ton large
professional garage type, so it's not as worth putting money into a rebuild kit for, assuming it needs one.

 

[pop pop]

Don't know this "trolley" jack guy. What does he look like?

 

[toolslinger]

I have a higher dollar Sears...After using it perhaps 8-10 times over 2 years, it started seeping around the pump shaft. So I pulled it apart, and replaced the O-ring in there. It continued to seep. So I pulled it apart again, and really looked at it. I found the piston itself was worn a little... Being the kinda guy that hates to toss stuff, I replaced the piston rod with a piece of precision drill rod, and cut the correct groove for the O-ring... Put it back together, and it was fine for 2 uses... Then leaking around the same spot... Pulled it apart again... Break out the calipers... The bore is now worn...

I swear they are making the damn things out of peanut butter at this point... You couldn't give me a modern Sears jack at this point...

On the other hand, I just tried to take my Sears Allstate jack to a hydraulic jack place yesterday so they could do the seals... 50-60 years old mind you... They wouldn't touch it. Wouldn't even put it on a bench... Rat bastards had me drive 30 miles to their shop to tell me that when I had talked to them on the phone about it being that old...

So I brought it home, drained it, cleaned everything, reassembled, refilled, and its fine...

Hope you have good luck with your find, but I wouldn't bet on it lasting overly long...

 

[treimers]

Don't know this "trolley" jack guy. What does he look like?

I'll grab some pics when I'm down at the truck tonight.

Now I know where I got the term 'trolley jack' == written on it!
The jack was down in the truck when I was first posting...

well, I guess you can't respond to the email and post pics

So here it is attached via the webpage....

 

[mikegt4]

Just today I "rebuilt" my Buffalo brand (Taiwan) trolley jack that I picked up at a yard sale 20 years ago. It looks almost identical to yours. I just cleaned out the insides and put in fresh fluid and it works great again. Sears has free downloads of owners manuals with parts diagrams. There are a few variations of the jack sold under countless brand names. The test would be: does it work? If it does not just disassemble it and clean the inards, replace any worn seals and add fresh fluid.