Hydraulic jack - dumb question

Open the valve (like you would to lower the car) and put your weight on the lifting part. It needs a little weight on it go all the way down.

Is the pivot stud of the vertical lifter jamming against the frame?

Henry

I tried that - I opened the valve and stood on the damn thing, and it didn't budge.

Zelda

"Zelda" wrote

Is the shiny part of the piston showing? A lot of them have an internal threaded section you can unscrew to make them taller before jacking.

Try standing on it, have a friend jack it all the way up, then open the valve so it goes all the way down in one motion. Any help?

It could be a trapped air bubble. Did you burp the jack before using it, as the instructions usually recommend?

I once drained the oil from a bottle jack to change it and decided to see how it would work before I refilled it. It turned out that it wouldn't hold up much weight, but it also wouldn't go down when I pressed on the shaft. So I refilled with fresh oil and burped the jack by pumping it several times with the valve opened, and eventually I was able to press the shaft down. My bottle jack had a rubber filler plug that had to be pried out, but others have a filler screw that you have to turn. I also learned that oil can dribble out when you burp it.

Was the correct handle included with your scissor jack? Because I bought a used vehicle with a mismatched jack handle that was horrible until I ground down its tip slightly. And with my Ford I thought that it was really stupid for the lug nut wrench to be the jack handle, but one day while cleaning the trunk I found a funny long rod under the floor mat that had never been removed from its holder, and it just happened to work perfectly as a jack handle. :(

Does anybody know how good the factory jacks are compared to the typical cheap jack sold by Wal-mart or AutoZone? I was told that the factory ones usually had higher capacity, and I don't trust my car being held up with just a no-name something made in China (and I mean for changing a tire because I'd never work on a car without at least two solid supports).

never had much luck with factory jacks unless i was on a perfectly level and flat surface, which occurs about .01% in the real world. i have a small 2 ton floor jack i carried in my trunk, and now in my truck box.

"MudPuppy1976

I will say this much for bumper jacks: The slots that they tab into are never too close to the pavement, and the handle is easily accessible.

I once suffered the terrible comedy of errors of changing the rear tire of a rwd car, facing downhill. The hydraulic jack did not fit under the axle, so I used the bumper jack. The vehicle started to roll downhill, but to my pleasant surprise, the rear bumper twisted a little, but remained firmly attached to the vehicle. I flag down a friendly motorist to push in my brake pedal,, while I use the hydraulic jack to free the bumper jack, after changing the tire. I lower the vehicle and find that the hydraulic jack is now pinned beneath the vehicle. It is now the bumper jack's turn to rescue the trapped hydraulic jack. With both jacks finally in the trunk, I thank the friendly motorist and continue on my way.

I am a fan of the horizontal jack they used in some gm cars.(pn.14036398) Its like the old bumper jack except the post lays down. It goes from 4" to 16" , it's very stable and goes up fast. You have to use some common sense on placement on unintended vehicles. You could even weld your own saddle to it.