Ducman82

my 3 1/2 ton craftsman jack is being iffy. some times it will lift, some times it wont and im not sure how to bleed it. So i might need to get a new one. i dont think ill go craftsman again so what do you guys use?

the flyin' scotsman

Should be able to get a kit for the Craftsman lift and rebuild.

I use a NAPA 3 ton low level trolley jack...............works well.

Rob Edwards

I bought an AC hydraulics DK20 about 10 years ago with the reasoning that there's no such thing as too good a floor jack. I paid about $225 then. They've gotten stupid expensive, tho.

Here's a good monster thread on floor jacks at corner-carvers.com, start on about page 6 or so. The AFF 200T looks like a good one.

http://corner-carvers.com/forums/sho...ght=floor+jack

lrpman

Went to Harbor freight and bought the (2) sizes of race jacks they have and the ATV lift Jack. They work great on these cars and other low cars. the ATV jack was used to lift the modified front end with no problem at all.
I think they wher elike $39.95 to about $149.95 for the ATV jack.

danglerb

Costco and Harbor Freight both sell decent cheap jacks that few report any issues with. Sears has a big string of bad jacks, and not just the cheap ones.

My personal garage jack is a tiny $20 Kragen special I can grab with one hand and pick up. Other than small size and lifting a car off the ground it has no special quality. I also have a 48" midrise lift.

Steve Martin

How old is the jack? Craftsman is a sears brand is it not? Are Craftsman tools not gauranteed for life? I had a rachet (from the 1600's probably) I inherited amongst other tools. I took the rachet to Sears and they tried fixing it, but in the end they gave me a new one.

Ducman82

hand tools have the warranty. jacks only have 1 year, and its 4 years old. im going to try "purging" the system one more time. then off to look for a new one, and or get this one fixed.

fraggle

My harbor freight aluminum one is 5+ years old and still rocks. You can get them with a coupon in MotorTrend for $60.

Mrmerlin

I got a nice low proifile 3 1/2 ton dual piston jack at Costco, best jack i have ever used, lifts quick and solid footing, similar to the floor jacks you find in most shops. About 69.00

JHowell37

I use Craftsman bottle jacks. I've got a 2-ton and a 4-ton. I prefer them because I can jack up the car and not have to worry about having enough room for jack stands. Plus they're cheap, since Sears always finds a reason to have a sale. They usually cost less that $20. If they start to leak after a year or two, they go in the trash and I get new ones.

dr bob

Ducman-

I have the same Craftsman jack, and went through the erratic operation. First it wouldn't go all the way up, then it started to bleed down on its own, then wouldn't go all the way down sometimes. I figured that it was a little low on oil, with one of the other symptoms being the small puddle of oil on the floor where it is stored. So I bought some new jack oil, and topped it off a little via what looked like a fill plug on the pump block. One of the crews next to the ones that say "do not adjust" I thought. With an extra ounce of oil it would not go all the way down no matter what, so I ended up with the cylinder body screw plug out to let some of that new oil back out. So the real problem wasn't really lack of oil. But I decided that with nothing to lose I would fiddle with those "do not adjust!" screws and see what happened. Started off with them at full-seated (counted turns and wrote the numbers down...) and proceeded to adjust them both symptomatically, lifting the car and lowering it again, adjusting, lift and lower, repeat, until everything was as it should be. I ended up within half a turn of where it was originally, both screws. But the pumping it up and letting it down dislodged whatever was blocking the stop valve originally and causing the bleed-down, and the minor adjustments made the initial fast-lift work better, and the transition to slow lift is better than ever now. I'm not sure it will last forever, but it is working fine again for now.

This jack was a gift from one of the locals here who felt sorry for me, seeing as how I was still using a 25yo mini 1.5T jack that I'd bought because it went low enough to get under the rear saddle of my race car, a little less than 2.5". Of course it only went up to 13" max but who's paying attention to that? That mini-roller went on to a new owner via the Goodwill truck, and the new one (five years old now) is back to decent form again. Maybe it will defy the rumors and keep on going.

FWIW, I've heard good and bad about the Costco jacks. Might depend on which one they are selling this week. Just a heads-up. Good part from them is they will take it back no questions if it's DUFO.

M. Requin

^^^ Hey, if you work on a 928 getting your jack to work right should be duck soup.

andy-gts

I have 2 at home and could give them both away. haven't used them since I got the 2 post.

dr bob

Yes, very true! Like everything else, including the 928, success is fun. The jack troubleshooting was interesting even though I still don't have a good feel for how the adjustments really work to make the two-speed hydraulic action correct. Good news is that 'failure' cost would have been less than $10 for the oil I didn't need, plus less than $100 for a replacement if I did end up needing one. Any fix for less than $100 is a good one I think.

Mrmerlin

DR Bob if you take your jack and lift it about 10 inches you should see a rubber plug on the body of the hydraulic cylinder if you remove this plug you can then add oil to your jack, as you stated it was leaving spots on the floor so the oil must be replenished.
I removed the jacking piston ( the plunger that is connected to the jack handle)and replaced it as it was pitted from rust also replaced the O ring seals in the valve body of the jacking piston it gave my other jack a few more years