Antique floor jack

[burninbriar]

It does seem all the old floor jacks work better than the new ones. Funny how some have never been resealed and still dont leak, buy a new one and it leaks almost right away.

Thanks for the pics, I like old tools

Thats the difference between the $100 and $200 Napa models. The $200 model is guaranteed not to bleed off and the $100 model isn't.
That is the one really nice thing about mine, being all mechanical, it can never bleed off.

Thanks for the extra pics Chris, I wonder if Walker is still making floor jacks and what the quality is if they do?

[fjk]

cool pictures & it's nice to see old tools kept in service
rather than turned into razor blades

i wonder if there's a (small? not-so-small?) business to be had
by making new old tools like that?

f

[Some Creep]

I wonder if Walker is still making floor jacks and what the quality is if they do?

Walker, bought by Lincoln / Blackhawk still make them pretty much like this today. I've rebuilt MANY of them and own one myself. Pick one up at an auction if it isn't too rusty and then order a rebuild kit on-line. It will out live you. I've rebuilt ones older than me many times, some buried for years in dirt. Best jacks you'll ever find, then and now.

They sold these under the Snap-On name with a slightly bigger frame with a 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 ton rating. Chris' is the 1-1/2 to 2 ton power unit, but it can push a bit more. I like the newer ones like Chris' with the removable handle, but I rebuilt and gave the father-in-law an older one with the 'T' handle (non-removable) for Christmas one year and he loves it better.

OLD Walkers are really cool. The 20 to 50 ton units are HUGE.

[Steve]

And if you read the dirctions correctly you would never depend on the floor jack to hold anyting up while you crawled under and would use it to jack only, support with floor stands for the weight. To many people have been killed depending on hydraulics. Use proper blocking and not just the jack.

[fun4now]

good point. i always pop in my jack stands as soon as i get it to the hight i want it at. i have not noticed my jack leaking off presser as of yet, but don't want to find out the hard way. especially with the way all the new cr ap is made these days.

[burninbriar]

And if you read the dirctions correctly you would never depend on the floor jack to hold anyting up while you crawled under and would use it to jack only, support with floor stands for the weight. To many people have been killed depending on hydraulics. Use proper blocking and not just the jack.

That is an excellent point, the stuff I mentioned about the cheaper jack bleeding off and the expensive one not bleeding off is what the salesman at Napa told me.

[Some Creep]

Word of warning:
If you lift up a load and hear your jack 'popping' or 'clicking' but not dropping the load, it has a holding ball problem and should be rebuilt. The check ba!!s (nice censoring) are metal on metal and when a ball leaks it hammers the seat and produces a 'pop' or 'click' that you'll hear clearly. You might not be able to see it drop, but it is... VERY slowly. No leak to the outside, just a leak inside that will only get worse as the seat gets hammered. You can still use the jack, just DON'T TRUST IT! (Doesn't make much sense, but there it is).

Oh, also this:
If it your jack ever does start bleeding down, tightening the release handle harder seldom fixes the problem. That's a holding ball issue as well. All you are doing is jamming the release needle into its seat and ruining that! It's a whole separate hydraulic circuit back to the tank, not the part where the problem is. Couldn't count the number of times I've seen this. You can ruin it and make it non-rebuildable by damaging that seat!

[HMW]

Your right cheap jacks stink, but then most cheap tools stink anyway. I never buy cheap jacks as they are used in a fleet shop. Best ones we have are old walkers, gray makes nice stuff too but pricey, OTC seems OK, the worst I've had was Lincoln 10 ton. leaked brand new and I bought 5 of them. All leaked, sent em back came back still leaked, and we always use jack stands, but its bad when it wont stay up long enough to get the stand under the trailer.... Sent em back and bought snap-on, looks just liek the lincoln but have had no problems, who knows. Use the big ones mostly on trailers since we have lifts that will pickup all the trucks even the 10 wheelers.

ps: looked around shop and counted 12 floor jacks of various sizes...
since I was counting I counted , 10 lifts, [3] 36,000lbs, [5] 54,000lbs, and[2]10,000lb lifts. Who needs a floor jack anyway...ha ha

[Some Creep]

Best ones we have are old walkers, gray makes nice stuff too but pricey, OTC seems OK, the worst I've had was Lincoln 10 ton. leaked brand new and I bought 5 of them. All leaked, sent em back came back still leaked, and we always use jack stands, but its bad when it wont stay up long enough to get the stand under the trailer.... Sent em back and bought snap-on, looks just liek the lincoln but have had no problems,

Snap-Ons are Lincolns. They make bigger frames and bump the overloads up to rate at 2-1/2 tons. Same power unit as the 2-ton. Too spendy for me!

I've rebuilt many many 10 ton Lincolns. They rock, you musta got into a bad production run...??? OTC is a VERY good brand hydraulic rams and pumps (bead breakers too) but their jack line was acquired in a company purchase.

Thank god nobody has mentioned that import crap! BUY AMERICAN!!!

[HMW]

Funny you say that cause they sure did look like them, but no issues