mattblast
Well-known member
I have been looking for a nice jack for a while - OK since I joined this forum and saw what others have done to bring old jacks back to life. Over the last few months I just missed two jacks at estate sales (the guy right before me snagged them). Well, last weekend was good - found a sale in North New Jersey where they had a jack for $20. Got them down to $15, plus they threw in a US made metal toolbox full of tools. Not a bad deal.
The jack worked fine, but left a puddle of hydraulic fluid wherever it was used.
Name tag is all beat up and shows only the serial number, so I didn't know what I got until later.
Here is it after taking the pump out.
I never rebuild a hydraulic pump and didn't want to learn on this one as parts are hard to come by. So I am sending it off to Hiball to rebuild. That will take about 10 days. Gives me enough time to tear the rest down, blast it, and paint it.
Here is the worn tag
The lift arm pin is rusted in place. I tried to torque it, then press it with a 12t shop press, but it wouldn't budge.
A shot from the bottom
Put a 24in pipe wrench on it after a soak in PB blast and letting it sit in the sun to heat up. Not only would it not turn, but I ended up destroying the threads.
This is the point in a project when I think I should have just left it alone and it would have been fine, but I like my restore projects to be perfect and don't mind an adventure.
This morning I found a local machine shop. Stopped by on the way to work and they led me to the back room full of bridgeports, shapers, and what looked like a 6ft tall arbor press. They tried to free the pin, but it wouldn't budge. Then they moved to the hydraulic arbor and applied even more force. Still no go. Not wanting to harm it, they decided to drill it out. Should have it back in a few days. They will also make me a replacement pin. Not sure on the cost - I'll report back when I pick it up.
The two parallel links that are riveted to the side plates were very tight. So tight that one took two arms to move. I used the dremel to cut off the head, the pressed the rivet out. The dremel was handy for that, but I did use 3 or 4 small cut off wheels to get both rivets.
Here are is the rivet removed, and the side almost fully blasted. Just have to go back and hit the spot I couldn't get with the bar in the way.
I'm thinking of replacing the rivet with a shoulder bolt. The side plate could be threaded, then the shoulder bolt would allow the parallel link to move freely. Any other suggested of how to re-attach these?
The jack worked fine, but left a puddle of hydraulic fluid wherever it was used.
Name tag is all beat up and shows only the serial number, so I didn't know what I got until later.
Here is it after taking the pump out.
I never rebuild a hydraulic pump and didn't want to learn on this one as parts are hard to come by. So I am sending it off to Hiball to rebuild. That will take about 10 days. Gives me enough time to tear the rest down, blast it, and paint it.
Here is the worn tag
The lift arm pin is rusted in place. I tried to torque it, then press it with a 12t shop press, but it wouldn't budge.
A shot from the bottom
Put a 24in pipe wrench on it after a soak in PB blast and letting it sit in the sun to heat up. Not only would it not turn, but I ended up destroying the threads.
This is the point in a project when I think I should have just left it alone and it would have been fine, but I like my restore projects to be perfect and don't mind an adventure.
This morning I found a local machine shop. Stopped by on the way to work and they led me to the back room full of bridgeports, shapers, and what looked like a 6ft tall arbor press. They tried to free the pin, but it wouldn't budge. Then they moved to the hydraulic arbor and applied even more force. Still no go. Not wanting to harm it, they decided to drill it out. Should have it back in a few days. They will also make me a replacement pin. Not sure on the cost - I'll report back when I pick it up.
The two parallel links that are riveted to the side plates were very tight. So tight that one took two arms to move. I used the dremel to cut off the head, the pressed the rivet out. The dremel was handy for that, but I did use 3 or 4 small cut off wheels to get both rivets.
Here are is the rivet removed, and the side almost fully blasted. Just have to go back and hit the spot I couldn't get with the bar in the way.
I'm thinking of replacing the rivet with a shoulder bolt. The side plate could be threaded, then the shoulder bolt would allow the parallel link to move freely. Any other suggested of how to re-attach these?
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Hiball is the resident jack expert as you are probably already aware.