Technical Tech Week: Tool to Remove Floor Jack Cylinder Cap for 12 Bucks

Got a nice old Hein Warner WSR floor jack for $30 that needed a rebuild, so I bought the kit online and started disassembly, but was stymied when I got to the removal of the cap on the cylinder. A pipe wrench and a four-foot cheater bar weren't budging it. Not only that, the teeth of the pipe wrench were buggering up the 12-pointed cast-iron cap.
Time for the Mother of Invention to intervene.
Went to my local metal supplier, bought 4 inches of 3-1/2 inch by .219 thick wall dom steel tubing and some 1/4-inch stainless steel round rod. I drilled four quarter-inch holes a half-inch in from the end of the tubing at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock, cut off four half-inch pieces of the stainless steel rod, inserted each into the holes, fitted the tubing with the stainless nubs onto the jack cylinder and welded the nubs in place. Then I put the jack cylinder in the vice (actually I put it in the 20-ton press for added stability), got my 270-pound former high school offensive lineman son to get on the leverage end of the pipe wrench and cheater bar and with the new tool in place around the jack cylinder, commenced to loosen the cap. Worked like a charm, and no harm done to the jack cylinder or cap! Cost for materials (not counting rewarding my son some barbecue ribs for the muscle) was $12.

 

Very neat idea and could I borrow your son for a week or so?


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I'd be glad to lend him out, but beware of what you ask. You might not be able to afford a week or two of groceries. Next on his dance card is lifting my 351W bare block out of the '29AA frame and putting it in the back of my Explorer for a trip to the machinist. I can't do it myself. For him, no problem.

 

Very nice work!! Randy


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Very cool. Send him to Tennessee. I can't lift shit anymore.

 

Why would you want to do that???

 

That's some heavy shit, man

 

..... In Tennessee, shit is the noun that refers to everything.
"Leave my shit alone"
"Bring that shit over here"
"I'm paying for our shit this time"
And the one I use the most..... "That's the shit, man "

We believe in word conservation in Tennessee. That way, we can get by with a smaller vocabulary. Very important here.

 

Great idea!

 

I will keep that idea for a jack that I have leaking on the floor now. A question.......did you try heating up the threaded portion with a torch? Being old and weak the torch is my best friend

 

@osage orange

Great post! Question for clarification......was the stainless 1/4” rod purposely chosen for being stainless, or just what was available in that dimension?

I am thinking cold roll steel rod would be tough enough (hot roll too soft).
Your thoughts?

Ray

 

That's a great solution.

 

Yes, I put a MAP to it but it wouldn't budge. I'm very cautious about heating anything that might expand and explode, but like you, heat has mostly been my friend when dealing with seized things.

 

I went with stainless steel because I knew it would be extremely hard, but cold-rolled steel might have also worked. You're right about the hot-rolled steel. Too iffy, and I only wanted to do it once. I bought a foot of the stainless and it cost me less than two bucks, so I still have some left for the next thing I come up with.

 

A 1/2" brass drift & a 3# hammer probably would have loosened that cap with a couple whacks , that's what those indents are for.

 

I like the idea. Little back story but I bought an old backhoe many years ago, as I got it running I soon found out that all the cylinders needed to be rebuilt.
I made up several spanner style wrenches with flat iron and studs to get the caps on the cylinders loose.
Those look like casted caps, steady pressure is better than whacking them with even a brass punch, ruins your day as they start to break off

 

Not necessarily. Being rust free doesn't necessarily make it hard or tough, which are two different things. Like carbon steels, there are different grades of stainless steel.

 

A better option than the stainless might be what is called "drill rod", like a drill bit without the drill flutes. I needed some for a project, got it at an industrial supply house.

 

I like the socket you made!

My grandfather was a colorful man to say the least. He used to say " Necessity may be the mother of invention, but needing things is a mother!"

 

There's a local fellow who has a sewer and septic tank pumping service who is said to "really know his shit"......or so I was told.

Lynn

 

A post-script: Hiball, who's a sage when it comes to hydraulic jacks, said to use Loctite 518 to seal the imperfections on the ends of the cylinder. Mine still leaked a little until I loosened it, applied the 518 to each end and re-tightened. Not a drop now, purged the air out without a problem and the jack is like new again.