Fixing a floor jack.

[ryanator]

So I had a 10+ year old generic 2 ton hydraulic floor jack that was having issues keeping up the lift since over a year ago. Putting jack oil in it was only temporary so I looked into whether it was an internal or external leak or both.

I looked close and it had an external leak near the rear main body where there are these plastic looking teflon rings inside that are supposed to seal it. I took everything apart and found no physical issues and nothing apparent with the teflon rings, put everything together again, tightened it good, but still leaked.

Solution, finally got an excuse to buy the magical RV silicone gasket maker stuff that people say it's useful for many things and wow did it work! The floor jack now keeps its lift and no leaking.

 

[nodle]

Thanks for the post, my dad has one that has about the same problem. I looked it up a couple of years ago and I knew there was a fix, just need to take the time to do it.

 

[ryanator]

If it is one of those $40-50 department store trolley floor jacks and has the internals like the picture in my original post, then after cleaning any oil, you can generously coat both sides of the teflon rings (#20 and 23) with a liquid gasket maker, hand tighten, then after an hour, tighten fully, let cure for 24 hours.

All the orings were fine. Those are easier to replace, since you can get those anywhere, unless they are a very specific off size.

 

[nodle]

My dad fixed his about two weeks ago, it would always slowly start to lower itself. He said he watched a YouTube video on his model, and purged all his fluids then bled the air out and he said it's like brand new again. Then he went through the wheel bearing afterwards as well.