I realize that this isn't totally related to a 4x4 vehicle, but I do use it to work on my rig.
My Allied 3 ton floor jack won't hold pressure any more. So basically it has turned into a useless hunk of metal. How do I go about rebuiling the cylinder, or finding a manual or someone who can fix it for me.
As far as I can tell, it is not leaking anything, so I am having a hard time finding out why it keep losing pressure. It has got to the point that it will not even lift my rig at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

well it could be a easy fix and just be low on oil. If thats not the case does it have the long handle to jack it up and also have a foot petal beside it for quick take up? I know on mine the roll pin broke on the main handle cylinder (high pressure) but when i pumped it it still pumped the foot pedal one which made it go up but not enought to actually lift anything. and of course it could be just worn out and need rebuilding or replacing.

i started calling the hydraulic places in the phone book until i found one that would rebuild my jack.

i paid $5 for it at an auction...and $75 to get it rebuilt.

for $80, you can get a nice new jack. my jack was old and very HD, so i chose to rebuild it.

Mine doesn't have a foot pedal, and it is only about 10 years old. I am pretty sure that none of the external pieces are broken. I have yet to tear it down, but everything looks okay on it. Harbor Freight has a sale on their three ton jacks right now, so maybe I should just get a new one and worry about fixing this one later.
That is if anybody else has an idea how I should go about fixing this one myself.

sears!

Weird.... I had almost the exact same thing happen to my allied jack within the last three weeks. I think I lost an internal seal, as it spurts fluiid out the fill plug when I pump it up. I bought another one from Harbor Freight, same as the ones from sears (even the "made in china" stickers were plastered all over them) for a lot less money. I'll try to rebuild mine at some point, so if someone has any tech info on these, please keep me posted as well.

Chad

Originally posted by ouibus
Mine doesn't have a foot pedal, and it is only about 10 years old. I am pretty sure that none of the external pieces are broken. I have yet to tear it down, but everything looks okay on it. Harbor Freight has a sale on their three ton jacks right now, so maybe I should just get a new one and worry about fixing this one later.
That is if anybody else has an idea how I should go about fixing this one myself.

I got one of the harbor freight specials about 3 years ago, and it already crapped out on me. I pulled the cylinder apart, took the o-rings down to napa, got some new ones, cleaned the inside of the cylinder with steal wool, and bled the system. Works great again.

Not very hard to disassemble or assemble for that matter.

Good luck

Thanks Jerky, but I was trying to avoid spending a boat load of money on a new one. Maybe if I had a membership to Sears hardware, I could pick up one of there 3 ton jack and jackstand deals for $49.99

Chad, sounds like we are in the same boat. Mine is actually not squirting fluid out at all, just losing pressure. As far as yours that is squirting fluid out of the fill plug, there is an o-ring that goes around the fill plug. Check that to see if it is broken. That should solve that problem for you.

Thanks GloNDark, I guess I will just have to try and see if I can rebuild this thing. It really shouldn't be too hard, I just have never done it before.

I go thru a few jacks a year at my shop and the thing that hurts them the most is overtightening the handle when lifting. The seat of that valve is very soft and usually gets scored and by-passes fluid. On a good jack they can be replaced...but on cheap jacks (made in china) they cant. Buy a good jack to start, treat it like the big $$$$'s you spent on it and it will last along time. I have had many a jack rebuilt and they usually dont last very long after that. I was spending about $50.00 to rebuild each jack....it's worth the $$ to buy a good one from the start. Remember to jack safely.....its your life.....or your $$$$ if it fails on someone else!!

Thanks for the info 1BDYJ. Well, it looks like I am going to have to either rebuild this one, or get it rebuilt. I tried putting more fluid in it, and no dice. This is frustrating because I really need it to work on my rig. I finally have the time and money to work on it, and then things like this happen. Oh well, time to rebuild it or go get a new one. Man, I am not looking forward to spending a chunk of change of a decent jack. Just one more set back in the road of life.

I have repaired many over the years..very simple since most just use o-rings that you can get locally, I had one that also had teflon rings on it...used aircraft parts to fix that one, most were under $15 total for the parts......

What is considered a good jack?

I have an MVP pos that has lasted 2 years. Now, if I don't tighten the handle after I let the vehicle down, it leaks oil all over the place. Hopefully just an o-ring.

I use Lincoln jacks model #w93642 profesional service jacks
with 2 ton capacity.....try to find "MADE IN USA" models...the import models are made cheaper.