Technical Exploding Engine Hoist

what "oldcars" said. what I bet happened was you refilled with oil and used the hoist, then let it down and this let the oil return into the resivoir. well the plug was in and I bet it's a rubber plug, so air was trapped in the resivoir, when the oil returned it compressed the air untill the bubber plug blew out and shot the oil out. Try to just refill with the cylinder all the way down. see what happens.

 

When you filled it up was the ram all the way down?

 

Something that no one is taking into account and I quote Will Rogers when I say this, "**** happens"

Sometimes our stuff just breaks, it doesn't have to have a reason it just breaks.

 

I bought my engine hoist 20 years ago from one of those tool auctions that used to be always present. I have no idea where it may have been made, but high quality is not one of its trademarks. I had to touch up a few of the welds before I even used it, and the original casters did not even have the wheels center hole drilled in the center of the wheels! Over the years, it has done a lot more then it probably should have, and it still functions.
One thing that became apparent early in its life was that I couldn't leave the host in any up position over night, it had to have the ram completely closed, or it would dump a pool of oil and would lower itself by morning, weather there was a load on it or not. It would hold anything at any height for several hours, but in the morning, it would be completely down with a pool of oil. If the ram was left down, it did not leak a drop.

I came to the conclusion it needed to rest at night, just like me, so I leave the ram down when I'm done for the day and jack it back up in the morning. Both of us are happy.

I guess my point is, was the ram left in tan up position? Also wonder if the ram was over filled? Also, if you filled the ram when it was cold, there was condensation inside the ram and probably the pump if it was a quart low, there is the water that probably froze and forced the fluid out. You might want to consider adding a few drops of alcohol to your oil to help dissipate the water, and if your going to use it a lot in cold conditions, you might want to consider using hydraulic snow plow oil. Gene

 

Whenever there's a thread about ****ty tools failing, someone always posts " Well, I bought the same thing 20 years ago, and it's been great."
Yeah, maybe, but the suppliers have found new corners to cut in the years since, to appeal to the price first crowd. I can think of a lot of things that were good once, but **** now.
My hoist was bought off of a pickup truck guy hustling tools back in the 80s. Cost $200 then, it's made in Taiwan, and has never failed me or others yet. I'd consider it pretty damn good compared to some of the **** being sold today.

 

50Dodge4x4,
Any hydraulic ram needs to be relieved when not in use, that goes for hydraulic jacks or rams on a hoist or lifts in a garage or even the rams on a tractor. At least that was what we used to be taught when I was a kid.
So what you do is a good practice. it is one of those things like making sure that you car isn't in gear before you hit the switch.

I don't know where my hoist was made it is certainly not the most expensive hoist on the market but I do know that at least part of my ram was made in USA because that it cast right into the end caps. of course I guess that could also mean USA Japan. I still drop it when not in use.

Williebill,
My hoist did fail about 2 years ago, one of the caster blew out.

I have only had mine since '97, it belonged to a fella that I worked with that took a mechanics course at one of those schools and was required equipment to take the course, purchased from the school of course. he discovered that even though he graduated he could not get a job as a mechanic after taking the course, and I got a pretty good hoist cheap.

 

Are you sure about that? I thought that was Mark Twain.

 

^this

 

I'm pretty sure the ram was all of the way down when I filled it, but it may have been up a slight bit. Then when I put it away, I lowered it down. Which would in turn build pressure if the ram wasn't fully down when I filled it, resulting in the plug flying out to relieve the pressure. That makes sense and is most likely what happened. Thanks guys....

 

Shhhhhh,
you can't tell them in any sensible way that if they bought it 20 years ago that it's not the same.

 

Never buy an engine hoist, always borrow one is a good rule of thumb.

 

Yea and young think it was Forest Gump.
Sam gets credited with a lot of things that he didn't do or say. Someplace I have a book of quotable quotes by Will Rogers and that is the only quote I ever remembered out of the book.

 

It wasn't stated totally correctly, air movement (chill factor) does not change the actual temperature (in a large area like the whole outdoors). But it does remove heat from a heat producing source, human, animal or radiator which removes heat..

 

Based on what I know about self-contained hydraulic jacks, I agree with the folks that are saying it was overfilled.

Regarding windchill, note that it is not an actual temperature of an object, it is just a measure of how quickly the object LOSES heat. It does affect inanimate objects as far as removing heat from the object. Ever blow on a piece of hot metal to cool it off quicker? If the temperature is 35 but the wind chill is 20, it means that an object (specifically a human body) will cool down as fast as it would at 20 degrees with no wind. If the temperature is above the freezing temperature of water, wind chill will not make the water freeze.

 

A quart low sounds like an awful lot of fluid for one of those cylinders.
I have one that I bought two years ago because the USA made one was so poorly made that one leg would twist when a load was on it. I went back where I bought it and they gave me another base. Slightly better but still not right. That caster on the twisted leg was a ***** to make roll the way you wanted it to go. To get the pin in the holes when you unfold the legs you have to pick up on the base. When you fold the legs up and roll the thing across a rough surface the legs beat on your knuckles. Also, when you put the jack handle in the holder and move the hoist the handle will slide down and drag on the ground. The HF hoist doesn't have any of these problems and was cheaper.

 

Cheap *** Chinese ram can't hold a m***ive overfill.
They just don't make them rubber plugs right.

 

I would never trust a Chinese rubber anyway......

 

Two years ago at a garage sale I bought one of those cheap hoists. The lady said her late husband had lost the bolts so I paid her the $40 and hauled it home. The ram had more rust on it then a 2 year old Vega. My neighbor has borrowed it several times and it hasn't blown apart. He says it works good. It really doesn't matter I don't like him anyway. I'll use the tubing for traction bars someday anyway.

 

BINGO WE HAVE THE WINNING ANSWER!!!!!!!!!
If the ram was extended a bit when you filled the reservoir with hyd fluid there is a good chance that sometime during the night when the ram let it's self down from the raised position you might have left it setting in after loading the engine pressure bled off enough to fill the reservoir beyond capacity and there went the plug and hyd fluid.

 

That's what my old neighbor used to think. He used my hoist more than I did, but it worked out well. I got to store it in HIS garage instead of mine, and could always borrow it back when I needed it.

 

I think you're probably right... But then how do you explain carburetor icing when the ambient temperature is above freezing?

 

Gay-lussac's law -
when temperature increases, pressure increases.
When pressure decreases, temperature decreases.

M***ive low pressure area at a carb throat

 

I've done this on a floor jack.

 

I apologize to all for speaking of he dreaded wind chill. I was only trying to school the OP on the difference and I did not want to launch a difficulty.

 

I've used my hoist to raise truck cabs/beds, my dad built a framework for it and used it as a jack to install a ceiling in his garage. I've even laid it on it's side and braced it to use as a come-along

 

Not at all. You didn't launch a difficulty. You launched an educational opportunity.

 

Do us all a favor never apologize for anything that you say or do, that way we will not feel obligated to do the same.

Wind chill is funny stuff, they say that it is "feels like temperature" but you can get frost bit faster at a higher ambient in the wind then not in the wind. Feels like does not have physical consequences. I could give a couple of other examples of wind chill having consequences but unless the ram was left out in the wind it is only subject to ambient temperature not wind chill.

Ok enough for the science lesson, the damned thing broke now all that is left is to replace it or repair it. right?

 

What slowmotion is the best . And as windchill goes , I have been married 32 years and that's like 40 years with the windchill

 

not sure if the vertical position of theses rams reacts the same way as a horizontal ram in a floor jack, but, when I top off my leaky floor jack (US made) yo need to bleed the ram to get the fluid to the correct side of the seals.
On my jack, you twist the handle (as if your lowering the car), open the fill plug and then slowly pump the handle several times. If this step was not done , I could see how the fluid pushed out the fill plug.
That's all that really happened here, the plug pushed out, It wasn't an exploding engine hoist.

We get into this HF discussion all the time at work, I now walk away when it starts since the answer is simple, If you don't like their stuff, don't buy it.
Im a cheap person, so I like cheap tools

jeff