Bent Floor Jack. Should I Replace?

[HomeTheaterMan]

I have an old Made in Japan Craftsman 2 ton floor jack. Truthfully, this thing has a lot of sentimental value to me. It was my Grandfathers for many years and as I got interested in cars, we started using it to work on them together. It then got passed down to me and I've had it the last 10-12 years. About a month ago I had it rebuilt as the cylinder had started leaking fluid. It seemed like a no brainer since it does everything I've needed and I like it.

Well, fast forward to this past week. As I'm rolling it around I notice one of the front wheels isn't rolling. As I investigate further it appears the jack is slightly tweaked at the front. One side is maybe 1/4"-1/2" higher than the other side and with a level you can see this. I honestly have no idea how long it's been like this or when it happened. With the pressure of the car on it, it still seemed as stable as always in my driveway and worked fine. Now, I only use this to get the car off of the ground so that I can put jack stands under it. I'm not getting under a car with the jack holding it up anyway.

So at this point, I'm wondering if I should replace it or just keep using it and hope it doesn't buckle under the car. Has anyone had one fully fail? Even though I'm only using it to lift the car, I will occasionally pull a wheel off or something with it on the jack if I'm just rotating tires, so I'd hate to have it collapse. What are you guys thoughts?

 

[JJThrasher]

I've seen plenty of jacks tweaked and bent from loads getting dropped and stuff being lifted on a steep slope. IMO so long as they still work smoothly its ok. Like you said always use a jack stand.

 

[slip knot]

it may have been tweaked all along. unless there is some sort of structural damge I would use it.

 

[Hiball]

As long as all the wheels/axles are attached and secured, I wouldn't sweat it. Ive never heard of one just collapsing, it's a pretty common theme amongst floor jacks that have seen any use at all, more so if they are used on uneven surfaces/overloaded or older plate frames with no 90 degree bends.

 

[HomeTheaterMan]

As long as all the wheels/axles are attached and secured, I wouldn't sweat it. Ive never heard of one just collapsing, it's a pretty common theme amongst floor jacks that have seen any use at all, more so if they are used on uneven surfaces/overloaded.

Thanks guys. You guys are making me feel a lot better.
They are all attached, one of the front ones just doesn't touch the ground. This thing has been used a ton on the driveway which isn't always even. I have no idea how long it's been bent as I've never looked at it that closely before. (Probably bad I know)

 

[theoldwizard1]

Sentimental value alone, says you MUST keep it !

I have a pair of Dunlap slip joint pliers with rid slip on grips that were my Dad's. Nothing special, but I remember them so vividly from my childhood taht the first pair of pliers I ever bought I put red slip grips on them ! Sadly, Dad's tool box was so picked over my "friends and neighbors" there was nothing else worth keeping (my tool collection had exceeded his many year before he passed away).

 

[Griff93]

Check the front wheels for cracking. I had one fail on me. I had a friends camaro jacked up and was walking across the garage to grab a jackstand. One of the front wheels broke. The jack toppled over and wedged itself between the front tire and the wheel well. Got lucky, no damage to the car other than some scraping inside the wheel well and no damage to me.

 

[wil]

Of course, you can try to bend it back...prop up the wheel that touches the ground and
jack it up under the car. The other wheel will twist back to "normal" as the jack frame
twists back under load.

 

[HomeTheaterMan]

I don't see any cracks on the wheel. It may be slightly out of round, but that's it if it's even out of round. I gave it a few whacks with a hammer to see if it bent back, but it didn't budge.

 

[Hiball]

Of course, you can try to bend it back...prop up the wheel that touches the ground and
jack it up under the car. The other wheel will twist back to "normal" as the jack frame
twists back under load.

IME Unless you secure the bent frame with either a cross shaft/strap or reinforce the frame wall it's just a temporary fix. Once that frame wall weakness is found, you can straighten it all you want, it's coming back next time it meets a load/surface it doesn't agree with. The method I've had the best luck with is once you get it squared up, weld a 1/4" X 1" +/- piece of strap to the bottom side connecting the bottom of the 2 frame sections. Generally this will keep things together, it's out of the way etc.

 

[2oolhound]

I'm wondering if you can add some reinforcing to it somewhere. It would be great if it could be straightened 1st of coarse.

You beat me to it hiball and more precise.