4 post lift bridge jack woes

[PM-Performance]

Hello All,
I have a 4 post lift that I tried the cheap way with an Airbag jack to do wheels off work to no avail. I just recently found a steal on a bridge jack, so I snagged one up (i tried to get a pneumatic, but he only had manual left).
Now I am finding that the handle of the jack is not "pre bent" to give any clearance under my Vette to actually jack it up. I have tried rotating the pump to try the L bracket method, but there just is not good leverage on pushing the shaft forward and back, vs up and down.
I tried bending the handle as well to no avail with the tools I have.

Does anyone know where to buy the pre bent handles? Or is hacking this thing up, or converting to air my only real option here?

 

[dave*99]

How about a conduit bender and a piece of steel conduit (EMT) bend your own.

 

[BillK]

Stick the handle in a vise and bend it ??

 

[PM-Performance]

How about a conduit bender and a piece of steel conduit (EMT) bend your own.

I am waiting on my son in law to respond. He said he has a conduit bender, but I am not sure it will bend this one due to leverage to bend it.

Stick the handle in a vise and bend it ??

In my vise atleast it did not work. Admitingly, I do not have a good solidly mounted vise either, so there is that.

 

[58Yeoman]

Can you remove the jack from the frame and use it on the floor? You would have to slide under the car to use it that way until you get the handle bent. Looks like it only has one bolt holding it.

 

[PM-Performance]

Can you remove the jack from the frame and use it on the floor? You would have to slide under the car to use it that way until you get the handle bent. Looks like it only has one bolt holding it.

It would be 5' from the floor, so not really.
Sadly, there are 2 bolts holding it in which I am not fond of. I will be fixing that

 

[PM-Performance]

Well, I am not proud of this. Its not pretty, but it works now.
I beat the **** out of it with a small sledge while being propped up on my jacking tray on the concrete and it gave it just enough to work.

 

[DrinkMan]

Well, I am not proud of this. Its not pretty, but it works now.
I beat the **** out of it with a small sledge while being propped up on my jacking tray on the concrete and it gave it just enough to work.

I think you did a great job and should be proud of it.

 

[PM-Performance]

I think you did a great job and should be proud of it.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I was at the point of desperation and had a pneumatic pump in my car and said screw it, if I ruin this, it is what it is at this point. lol

 

[jetlag]

A torch goes a long way towards persuading steel to bend. Or a BFH.
I think it looks just fine, btw.

If it works, the aesthetics aren't really important, it is a tool.

 

[PM-Performance]

A torch goes a long way towards persuading steel to bend. Or a BFH.
I think it looks just fine, btw.

If it works, the aesthetics aren't really important, it is a tool.

That reminds me I need a better torch. I have a small one I was tempted to use, but figured it would not get hot enough.
True on it being a tool. I just hate "clearancing" new items, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

 

[jaybrown48]

Where did you get the deal on a rolling bridge jack? I have been wanting them for a long time and not come close to a good deal. I have the Bendpak 7W model.

 

[CraigStu]

Could the jack be mounted on the vertical steel behind it so the lever swings horizontally?

 

[pbon]

Where did you get the deal on a rolling bridge jack? I have been wanting them for a long time and not come close to a good deal. I have the Bendpak 7W model.

Somewhere there is a thread here that lists an alternative to the Bendpak bridge jack that costs much less. I can’t recall the other lift company, unfortunately.

 

[whateg01]

Could the jack be mounted on the vertical steel behind it so the lever swings horizontally?

The pickup is located at the bottom of the round cross section. Turning it on its side will have it sucking air, so no you can't turn a pump on it's side to use it.

I would make a platform that lowers so I could use the full stroke of the pump, but if op had the ability and tools to do that, behind the handle wouldn't have been a problem in the first place.

 

[ronr80]

Looks like a C5 or a C6 was it lowered , I work on lots of vettes and some that are lowered I put a plank on the hoist and it raises the car enough to give you room to jack it up, or maybe cut the handle off a few inches. R

 

[Shadowdog500]

Well, I am not proud of this. Its not pretty, but it works now.
I beat the **** out of it with a small sledge while being propped up on my jacking tray on the concrete and it gave it just enough to work.

I know this is what you are looking for, but if you can bend that handle or a new pipe down to the side of the reservoir, it will probably give you about the same amount of clearance. Most of the ones I saw have the straight handle like you have.

 

[brit vet]

Don't do what I did and leave the bridge jack at the front of the lift then drive a Corvette off and hitting the jack with the oil pan. Could have been very bad on the '66. Packing that handle with sand may have stopped the kink but it now works so win win

 

[jaybrown48]

Hello All,
I have a 4 post lift that I tried the cheap way with an Airbag jack to do wheels off work to no avail. I just recently found a steal on a bridge jack, so I snagged one up (i tried to get a pneumatic, but he only had manual left).
Now I am finding that the handle of the jack is not "pre bent" to give any clearance under my Vette to actually jack it up. I have tried rotating the pump to try the L bracket method, but there just is not good leverage on pushing the shaft forward and back, vs up and down.
I tried bending the handle as well to no avail with the tools I have.

Does anyone know where to buy the pre bent handles? Or is hacking this thing up, or converting to air my only real option here?

I am still too broke to buy a rolling bridge jack! When I bought my 4post lift I got 2 of the sliding jack trays. And I am having trouble getting the wheels off of the vehicles : Here are a few pictures for you to take a look at.
My " job " is to lift the vehicle tires off the ramps. : So I want to install bottle jacks,, or air bags under the lower control arms.
And ever time it put one of my different vehicles on the lift their is only about 4" - 7" of clearance from the lower control arm to the steel flat drive on ramps. - Can you see from my pictures, that when I want to lift the vehicle tires off the lift.

PM -Performance: tell me how your experience with air bags went. Or others with ideas please share them.

 

[pbon]

My cars have jack points under the rocker panels and I have used lightweight aluminum floor jacks on the ramps to lift the car. I have 2 of the HF 1.5 ton aluminum jacks that I bought on sale for $59 each years ago. Not sure what the sale price is these days — $75 today 8/20 no coupon in store only

 

[racecougar]

Flip the jack tray over to gain the height you need for the bottle jack.

 

[pbon]

I don’t love jacks — especially bottle jacks with a small base and small lift pad — holding up a 66” wide car from a 36” wide jack tray.

 

[Skellyii]

Flip the jack tray over to gain the height you need for the bottle jack.

Hey @racecougar, good catch on that one!

I was looking at the pictures and thinking, "Hey does he have his jack tray upside down??"

 

[dave*99]

Hey @racecougar, good catch on that one!

I was looking at the pictures and thinking, "Hey does he have his jack tray upside down??"

I'm not saying it won't work if you flip it - but there appears to be wings that keep the bridge engaged in the side rails in it's current position. Flip it and they no longer engage. Just be sure it can carry the load when flipped. Are you relying on welds once it's flipped?

Bend Pak shows their plate in this orientation:

 

[Skellyii]

I'm not saying it won't work if you flip it - but there appears to be wings that keep the bridge engaged in the side rails in it's current position. Flip it and they no longer engage. Just be sure it can carry the load when flipped. Are you relying on welds once it's flipped?

Bend Pak shows their plate in this orientation:

Interesting, I've honestly never seen a jack tray that wasn't like this one:

That's what came with my Forward lifts, and I've seen similar offered with Atlas, Triumph and several others.

A quick perusing of the web shows Bendpak offering a model similar to mine for extra $$.

Of course, if you're going to have to shell out cash for a better/different jack tray, then you should probably just save your pennies for a proper sliding jack. IMHO

 

[jaybrown48]

Thank you all. I think I am going to try buying the 3ton air bags from Home Depot. I will post some pictures to the group when I get them in and can use them

 

[racecougar]

I don’t love jacks — especially bottle jacks with a small base and small lift pad — holding up a 66” wide car from a 36” wide jack tray.

Me either. BTDT, too sketchy. Bridge jacks are the way to go.

I'm not saying it won't work if you flip it - but there appears to be wings that keep the bridge engaged in the side rails in it's current position. Flip it and they no longer engage. Just be sure it can carry the load when flipped. Are you relying on welds once it's flipped?

Bend Pak shows their plate in this orientation:

Yeah, I don't know who at BendPak thought that either of those were a great design (both the design that you shared and the other deisgn that the jaybrown has). For jaybrown, flipping the tray would remove the reliance upon those welds.

Interesting, I've honestly never seen a jack tray that wasn't like this one:

That's what came with my Forward lifts, and I've seen similar offered with Atlas, Triumph and several others.

A quick perusing of the web shows Bendpak offering a model similar to mine for extra $$.

Of course, if you're going to have to shell out cash for a better/different jack tray, then you should probably just save your pennies for a proper sliding jack. IMHO

The 9K Forward / DirectLift's come with this style. I briefly used mine before picking up a pair of bridge jacks. Using a bottle jack never felt particularly safe.

 

[jaybrown48]

I got the air bags in and they seem fine check this out.

 

[jaybrown48]

but then I got really lucky and found 2x used Bendpak rolling lift jacks. I ordered in some rebuild kits and got those installed now.
Finally got my 4 post lift and a pair of rolling lift jacks.

 

[Burl]

but then I got really lucky and found 2x used Bendpak rolling lift jacks. I ordered in some rebuild kits and got those installed now.
Finally got my 4 post lift and a pair of rolling lift jacks.

What does a rebuild kit for a jack like this consist of?

 

[jaybrown48]

I found the mother lode of information for rebuilding these things. I am going to include two companies that I ordered parts from.

Lazzars HCRC

SVI

Both of these companies have links to a bunch of different manufacturers and PDF's that taught me which parts, go where. I have a Bendpak lift.
For years I have been searching: Facebook marketplace, craigslist, OfferUp all for rolling bridge jacks to fit my Bendpak lift. Frustrated lately I got to the point where I was willing to use any rolling jack model on my lift. ( Katool -- almost bought a used one off Facebook )

This is my 2cents--- no-one wants to sell a rolling jack that " MAY ?? " fit a different 4 post lift than it was not originally designed for. Understandably because of the liability and dangerous potentials.
That being said we have to decide are we willing to buy a " rolling jack " that has no guarantees to its safety or compatibility? or Should you spend the money to get the " approved " rolling jack. I ended up with a compromise that I am happy with. A Bendpak jack that " fits " my lift. It is not the exact model recommended for my lift but it fits the roller tracks for my system.

I would recommend calling the manufacturer for the lift you want a rolling bridge jack for, and finding out who does automotive lift service and sales your home area. Then contact those businesses. They will have a sales team that will buy older automotive lifts from businesses and sell them the newest models. Then the sales team will have used equipment for sale such as , lifts, tire machines, brake lathes, rolling jacks etc... that is where I bought from.

Depends on the deal you make with them, they may rebuild the items and sell them to you rebuilt or sell them to you and you build the equipment.

 

[nadogail]

That reminds me I need a better torch. I have a small one I was tempted to use, but figured it would not get hot enough.
True on it being a tool. I just hate "clearancing" new items, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

A Rosebud Tip on an Oxy: Acetylene torch can make the steel a lot easier to work with.
I like working with steel after it is glowing Orange.