Hi All, About 8 years ago, I broke down and bought a good 2-1/4 ton jack. I needed it to move a car sideways in a pinch, and NAPA was the closest. I haven't done any maintenance to it since, it's always worked flawlessly. Recently, if I only push it up a few pumps, it doesn't hold. It slowly starts to back down if it's not at least 90 degrees vertical. Today, I thought I'd try to add some jack oil to it, figuring it was low. I first unscrewed the big bolt in the jack base, you can see it to the left in the first pic. Oil started oozing out all over. So I screwed it back in. I don't know what the smaller screw to the right of it does, but it seems to be spring loaded and wouldn't come all the way out, so I screwed IT back in too. I figure it has something to do with the pressure. Remembering my engine hoist is filled thru the rubber plug on the side of the body of the jack, I pulled the rubber plug (second pic), and filled it 'till the oil came out. After trying it again, it's still no better. What am I doing wrong?
Pump up the jack so you can see the cylinder under the lift arm. Look at the tank that is just aft of the ram as it's coming out of the cylinder. You will see the ram (the big shiney cylinder), then the packing nut directly back from that. Just aft of the nut is the tank that holds the fluid. Look for a screw or plug somewhere on the tank. It will have a rubber seal or gasket under the head. Remove the plug and fill the reservoir just enough for the jack to reach full lift. It might take a couple of tests to determine the amount needed. DO NOT OVERFILL, if you do the jack won't return to down position. The plug might be on the bottom side of the jack. If so roll the jack over and fill it with the jack collapsed. Frank
Thanks Frank. I did flip the jack over, nothing to fill from that side. I'll take another peek tomorrow...
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