Worth repairing an old 2T trolley jack?

[daytonavrs]

Worth repairing an old 2T trolley jack?
Its a master mechanic from Halfords prob 20 yr old.
It was not going to maximum lift so was not confident in its hydraulic pressure

Messing about with further operating it without load and it seemed to have st itself on the plunging side, as when I was on upstroke it decided to come out and depressurise pissing a load of fluid for good measure!

I'd had the plunger come in the past which probably isn't good, not sure if you can get the oring as well as replace that mushroom at the end?
I'd been able to just push it back it without really any force.
I I could perhaps try to add some bead of glue around the end if it sticks to make it more mushroomy end?
I can't budge the 19nut with normal tools either yet, will have to try it with the impact (If I replace the seals on the plunger).

I can't find any original manual or anything, just finding something similar 2t jacks like below with similar articles.
Worth just replacing the o-ring? It didn't leak from anywhere else yet.
I have aldi set of orings but this looks like its a more substancial one so better to get the proper seal

https://image.mamotorworksmedia.com/production/web...

[paintman]

If it's fallen apart on you in the past & sounds like it would need a bit of bodging to deal with that problem then I'd err on the side of caution & get rid.

Machine Mart/ebay/amazon list plenty of brand new 2 ton trolley jacks from around the £30 mark.

[E63eeeeee...]

I think 20 years is a good run for something that if it fails at the wrong moment could destroy your car, probably time for a new one.

[Bainbridge]

If the metalwork is in good shape and there is a replacement seal kit available, I'd be inclined to try and fix it.

[bearman68]

Get a 3 tonner for £80, and be safer with a bigger base, and more solid construction. It'll takes ages to fix the old one, and it will still be rubbish.

[daytonavrs]

Thanks maybe the best of both worlds, 2nd jack but won't throw away will look into possible seals. From what I've read 6x12x16 might be the end one like

(discussion on it here https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?...

https://www.123bearing.co.uk/seals/seal/hydraulic/...

[thetapeworm]

I have a 3 tonne Arcan XL I bought from Costco a long time ago (15+ years) and suspect it needs new seals as it drops when you try and lift anything despite the fluid being changed and any air purged.

It's too good to just bin (and it weights almost as much as it can lift) but I can't find anyone locally that services them or a seal kit online that will definitely work. With labour and trial and error on parts factored in I suspect just buying the latest Costco variant would be more cost effective as bearman68 says above.

I did wonder if there was somewhere in the UK I could just send the part with the pistons in for a service but aside from full on hydraulics companies I can't seem to find anything.

[daytonavrs]

I'm not sure it works but I found this I'm going to measure up against mine

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/355657058141

Then again I'm in no hurry to test it out, in no danger of getting under any vehicle using it without support of stands.
It was more of an idea to see if it will fix up as a spare, I like fixing things.

[Jakg]

thetapeworm said:

I have a 3 tonne Arcan XL I bought from Costco a long time ago (15+ years) and suspect it needs new seals as it drops when you try and lift anything despite the fluid being changed and any air purged.

I had a broken Arcan trolley jack and found that Sealey were selling the same model still - but Sealey have spares for all their stuff. Fixed for less than £20...

Might be worth a try.

[thetapeworm]

Jakg said:

I had a broken Arcan trolley jack and found that Sealey were selling the same model still - but Sealey have spares for all their stuff. Fixed for less than £20...

Might be worth a try.

Cheers, I'll do some more digging.

[droopsnoot]

Jakg said:

but Sealey have spares for all their stuff. Fixed for less than £20...

I have a Sealey "Rocket Lift" where the "rocket" bit doesn't work any more, and when I contacted them they said they don't carry spares for it. I asked if they had specs for the O-rings and seals so I could try to source them, but apparently they've thrown all that information away as well. Name owned by Machine Mart now, if I recall correctly.

[donkmeister]

In case it helps anyone else...

This thread put me in a mind to see about buying a few seal kits to keep on the shelf for my Clarke Strongarm. After finding the Clarke website looks suspiciously like the Machine mart website I found the PDF manual for my model and not only does it have an exploded diagram of the hydraulics, it actually specifies the o-ring dimensions and identifies what is included in the seal kit.

So, if I can't get an "official" Clarke kit I can just buy off the shelf parts in advance, knowing I have the right bits before I start.

[tux850]

droopsnoot said:

Name owned by Machine Mart now, if I recall correctly.

Might you be thinking of Clarke tools? (It's actually the other way round - the Clarke family own Machine Mart)

Sealey is still owned by the Sealey family .

droopsnoot said:

I have a Sealey "Rocket Lift" where the "rocket" bit doesn't work any more

What's the model number?

Edited by tux850 on Tuesday 22 October 18:18

[droopsnoot]

^ Yes, I'm thinking of Clarke, though I did think they were pretty much the same. It's a Clarke Rocket Lift, I think, though I'll have to check now.

(I tried to quote, but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment)

[tux850]

droopsnoot said:

^ Yes, I'm thinking of Clarke, though I did think they were pretty much the same.

Yeah there's a lot of similarity between jacks, almost certainly down to either common tooling at the OE manufacturer or simply a result of designs being copied.

[CoolHands]

Hmm I need new seal kit for the master mechanic 2 ton in the background. It creeps down. Found this link which might help me. On the other hand it might not be worth it in terms of time and effort! It’s over 20 years old

https://www.fpeseals.com/case-study/a-sentimental-...

[Jakg]

CoolHands said:

Hmm I need new seal kit for the master mechanic 2 ton in the background. It creeps down. Found this link which might help me. On the other hand it might not be worth it in terms of time and effort! It’s over 20 years old

That looks like a Sealey 1050CX, for which spares are available.

Personally though I'd think about upgrading...

[droopsnoot]

^ Or keep an eye on your local Facebook recycle groups - I've had quite a few jacks like that for free, to the extent that I don't look for them now as they're a pain to store. I relented on the last one that was given away because it was a Halfords low-entry jack like this one, but yellow:

https://www.halfords.com/tools/garage-workshop/axl...

[daytonavrs]

So the master mechanic 2T.

I got a new seal back In Dec
There were 2 parts, innie and outey.
I found I couldn't use the outey metal thread as I inadvertantly got the wrong size but the actual jack screw or whatever its called is same with new o ring and 11mm outer diam. So I paired that with my existing collar/thread that goes into the jack, fine.

To avoid the repitition of the fault ( that pissed out and wasted a lot of fluid as the seal literally pulled out from the trolley) - I don't think this was per se just the seal anyway so I think wear and tear had made the end top play out of tolerance so hammered the recessed part down and it looks like you can't overjack it now.

Had it from aliexpress and wasn't expensive. £4 delivered?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006260811983.h...

I've refilled with hydraulic fluid and pumped and bled ( I think ) it goes now very, very high to max - unlike before.

I'm not immediately using to check how far it keeps ( nor will ever trust to hold a car up as I have stands for that)
but will go back and check it soon and also do some further tests with it on load without removing any wheels to see how it stacks up with loads.

[LunarOne]

Good stuff. I love things being fixed (or mended if you're a flat cap wearing type) rather than being thrown out.