MBeaty
Well-known member
I was working on a cheep aluminum 1.5 ton jack and need some input about how to proceed with a problem that I encountered. Initially the lifting motion of the jack was directly coupled to the handle. When I pumped the handle, the jack would lift, but as the handle went back up, the jack would come back right back down. Because of this I suspected that the check valve was the source of the problem.
I took the valve apart and could not find any problems with the balls or the springs and the entire assembly was clean. Then I noticed that the sealing surface that the lower ball should seal was pretty ragged.
In the picture, it would be the sealing face directly below the small ball. I attempted to re-seat the ball by using a screw as a press to push the ball into the assembly. This helped considerably, but there is still some oil that can bypass the ball and its sealing face.
What else is recommended in order to attempt to clean up the sealing face? I was considering completely disassembling the hydraulic unit and drilling a small amount of material out of the face to create a new surface, but I am nervous that it will not be much better than how it is now.
I took the valve apart and could not find any problems with the balls or the springs and the entire assembly was clean. Then I noticed that the sealing surface that the lower ball should seal was pretty ragged.
In the picture, it would be the sealing face directly below the small ball. I attempted to re-seat the ball by using a screw as a press to push the ball into the assembly. This helped considerably, but there is still some oil that can bypass the ball and its sealing face.
What else is recommended in order to attempt to clean up the sealing face? I was considering completely disassembling the hydraulic unit and drilling a small amount of material out of the face to create a new surface, but I am nervous that it will not be much better than how it is now.