Too Nice for the Bone Yard: Walker 867 floor jack rebuild

[Iron Beaver]

A few weeks ago I bought an old Walker 867 series B floor jack from the scrap yard. Thought it would be an easy pump seal and a refill of oil. Boy oh boy was I wrong.

I got the pump seal done in half an afternoon. Then I saw a small stream of oil from under the gland nut on the control valve. Turns out some genius had used the wrong control nut and welded it in (incompletely), causing a nice helpful leak, a nice helpful mess, and in general a nice helpful headache for me. I carefully cut it loose with an angle grinder.

I then tried to take the valve block and cylinder loose, but my wrenches only chewed up the bolt heads. I got three bolts out with the Makita 1/2" impact but the fourth was too close to a rear wheel mount. So I got out the angle grinder and just shaved the mount to where the impact socket would fit. That done, I removed the reservoir to find a small amount of horrid brown oily sludge.

I am now without the proper gland nut and it's a non-standard thread (best I could figure was 1/2-38? Hard to measure so kind of a shot in the dark. However, it would make me sick to let such a nice floor jack go to the bone yard, so stay tuned for machining and fusion welding!

 

[paulsomlo]

I had an old Walker, may have been a 7xx series. I seem to remember some sort of clearance issue with a fastener and one of the rear caster mounts. It had so many issues, I ended up giving it away for nothing. I had it on CL for $5, met the guy at a McDonalds down in Longmont CO, just gave it to him, didn't even take any money for it. I think he was into old Ford trucks, don't know if he ever turned it around or not.

 

[Iron Beaver]

This one seems solid except for the pump seal (which is now fixed and works flawlessly), the mess in the oil (which is now cleaned up) and that gland nut. My current floor jack is far inferior so I will be happy to have this one

 

[bonneyman]

I love to hear about restoration/saves like this. Thanks for sharing!

 

[jabberwoki]

Where the hell are the pix?

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Where the hell are the pix?

 

[Iron Beaver]

I hope to get some pictures soon. I spent yesterday concentrating on getting it done before dark and didn't stop for any pictures. Sorry guys, hopefully will have another second to work on it Monday

 

[ajchien]

Also looking forward to seeing pictures of your rebuild. Although, let me get this right though - what you’re missing is a gland nut that compresses the packing around the release stem?

https://www.hcrcnow.com/uploads/drawings/walker867floorjack1.5ton.pdf

By the way, anyone know what era the 867 is from? 1950s?

 

[Iron Beaver]

Correct. It is part 13, 12, 11, 10, or 9 on the diagram you sent. The chart referred me to a complete rebuild kit, part # RK-112. I have searched high and low for such a kit and come up empty. Unless this part is what Lazzar's floor jack calls a vent plug?

 

[Iron Beaver]

Arrrrggghh.

I played with it a little more this morning and I appear to be in deep trouble. The gland nut (part 9 in the diagram) appears to be a 17/32-32 thread. Through it is threaded a 5/16-28 rod to push on a ball to activate the check valve mechanism.

Good luck buying a 17/32-32 die. Why couldn't they at least use 9/16-32? Some engineer many decades ago really, really REALLY loved unique thread sizes

 

[Iron Beaver]

To clarify:

The minor diameter of the thread is .490. Cos(30)*1/32*2 is 0.054 Assuming an American National thread form (which due to the age, seems like a good assumption), that puts the major diameter at something like 0.544. 17/32 is about 0.533.

I wish I could believe that was a 9/16-32 thread but that just doesn't seem plausible. Nor is 1/2-32.

I'm stumped and frustrated. Maybe it's time for me to get a $7500 lathe with thread cutting ability to repair a $7.50 floor jack

 

[ajchien]

Ever consider contacting Hydraulic Parts Supply at 620-594-2247?

Those are the guys in Hiball’s signature line where he is sending people for seals etc. apparently they have been around for many decades / generations. Who knows if they’ve run into this before, maybe they have a spare parts jack or something equivalent to the RK-112.

Any chance you can post pics, especially of the release valve? Always possible that you’ll get some out of the box ideas to make it work.

 

[Iron Beaver]

I hope to post pics! It just slid down on the priority list while I forgot about the jack in frustration

 

[metlmunchr]

To clarify:

The minor diameter of the thread is .490. Cos(30)*1/32*2 is 0.054 Assuming an American National thread form (which due to the age, seems like a good assumption), that puts the major diameter at something like 0.544. 17/32 is about 0.533.

I wish I could believe that was a 9/16-32 thread but that just doesn't seem plausible. Nor is 1/2-32.

I'm stumped and frustrated. Maybe it's time for me to get a $7500 lathe with thread cutting ability to repair a $7.50 floor jack

Your calculation is for a full depth thread which, on an internal thread, is something almost never done in industry. If you use 0.531 as the major dia and subtract 0.490 you get .041". Divide that by the .054" theoretical full depth and you get .76, or a 76% thread depth. This would be well in line for what you'd expect to see for thread percentage in a casting. Your assumption that this is a 17/32-32 thread is correct.

FWIW, using ******* size threads on machinery was very much in vogue for a lot of years. I've always assumed this was in effort to lock the customer into the OEM for replacement parts that could then be sold at ridiculous prices as no aftermarket parts supplier would be interested in producing replacement parts for anything that would be relatively low volume and require non-standard tooling.

 

[Iron Beaver]

Yeah. American National was more usually full depth though right? I knew it was going to be a little off if the thread depth wasn't 100%, but I was mainly concerned with showing that 9/16 and 1/2 were pretty clearly out of the question

 

[Victor E]

A few weeks ago I bought an old Walker 867 series B floor jack from the scrap yard. Thought it would be an easy pump seal and a refill of oil. Boy oh boy was I wrong.

I got the pump seal done in half an afternoon. Then I saw a small stream of oil from under the gland nut on the control valve. Turns out some genius had used the wrong control nut and welded it in (incompletely), causing a nice helpful leak, a nice helpful mess, and in general a nice helpful headache for me. I carefully cut it loose with an angle grinder.

I then tried to take the valve block and cylinder loose, but my wrenches only chewed up the bolt heads. I got three bolts out with the Makita 1/2" impact but the fourth was too close to a rear wheel mount. So I got out the angle grinder and just shaved the mount to where the impact socket would fit. That done, I removed the reservoir to find a small amount of horrid brown oily sludge.

I am now without the proper gland nut and it's a non-standard thread (best I could figure was 1/2-38? Hard to measure so kind of a shot in the dark. However, it would make me sick to let such a nice floor jack go to the bone yard, so stay tuned for machining and fusion welding!

Hello, Where did you get your rebuild seal kit for Walker # 867?

 

[Victor E]

Vic
SA, TX

 

[paulsomlo]

Vic
SA, TX

Try Hydraulic Parts Supply in Sawyer KS, (620) 594-2247.