This morning I took a diversion to repair one of my two floor jacks.
If you're like me, you'll remember pretty much where and when you acquired most of your tools, and I've gotta say, I love tools and, in a period of unemployment, did some extensive reading on the histories of many of America's tool manufacturers because I perceived (was told) I had an "in" at Stanley, a Connecticut company and owner of many other excellent brands, from consumer grade stuff like Black & Decker, to Matco and Proto (I have a thing for Proto tools....kind of like the Volvo of hand tools: all of the quality but less of the glitz than, say, SnapOn, Matco or MAC). Anyhow, beyond two interviews with guys who clearly DIDN'T want to be speaking with me, that career path came to naught.
Of my two jacks, one really belongs to my old friend and college-garage-business partner, Godfrey, but stayed with me. (GB, if you want it back, it's yours!) It's a Japanese made Craftsman 2-ton unit finished in hammer-tone blue and white. It's never failed me and is the perfect weight/size/capacity combination for working on things like Alfa's, 2002's, Karmann Ghia's and older, less obese P-cars. At least two friends have the same jack and always speak glowingly of them. Funny, huh?
The second jack came to me from a neighbor I never got to know well, because shortly after we moved in, he and his wife split up and moved out. He disposed of some of his stuff via a yard sale, whence I picked up some Adrian Steel truck cabinets, which I repurposed into garage cabinets. I also obtained his jack, a 2.5-ton Big Red, also Made in Japan, but with a larger frame than the Craftsman. It's a burly sonofagun, and relatively speaking, slightly unwieldy but still key for those times when you need two jacks at the same time.
This is the one upon which I mounted the transmission fixture my son picked up (at someone else's yard sale). I've showed it before, during the transaxle removal:
I realized it was bleeding off pressure, which caused some belly-scratching as I pondered my options...and the jack's fate. One one hand, HF jacks seem pretty good nowadays; on the other, I'm always complaining about spending money; on yet another, this was a big chunk of metal to send to the landfill. Then, to that modern solution to most problems, YouTube, where I found an excellent video by 805RoadKing (who must be from the Philly area , based on his characterful accent), which laid out the necessary steps. I ordered parts from a shop in Signal Hill, Los Angeles (remember the Signal Hill Sheriffs brutality scandal from, when, the late 80's?) and spend this morning overhauling the jack's hydraulic unit.
I'll save you from the blow-by-blow details, but I'm guessing it must have spent some years outside, like an unloved pitbull, because there was more corrosion in certain places than I'd have guessed, which resulted in it not wanting to separate into its constituent parts quite as easily as the one 805Roadking's did, and required some considerable biffing to break down and even the use of my Miller to get one of the access ports unscrewed, but 3 hours and $52 later, it seems to be working properly again.
If I wasn't in the thick of the 924 project, maybe I'd have gone full-silly and refinished it, but that wasn't on today's menu. Apparently, just about all imported floor jacks from this era use the same basic hydraulic unit, so if the blue and white Craftsman ever blows a seal (there's a joke about that somewhere), I'll know how to fix it.
John