Garage Lifts

[ryancassidy]

Good Advice on the water level. It never lies and you can't go wrong with the basics for sure. I'm assuming after about 10 trips up and down over the course of a few months the cables would have stretched right?

I talked to the lift manufacture... and the good news is the installer, the manual and the manufacture all differ in the bolts and how they are installed. Where I'm at though is a jam nut top and bottom of the top plate on the ladder bar, and 2 jam nuts on top of the plate only for the cable.

BTW.. I'm also a person that hates rattles. As I have a manual release for my locks, I found that the shperical rod ends would bang on the bolt heads each time the locks engaged. I put some light felt washers in there and noise gone. Just "sounds" a bit more solid.... FWIW

[Bill in Bama]

This seems to be a thread mostly about car storage lifts, but since a MaxJax owner just contributed I thought I would too. I got a MaxJax in 2011 (I think) and despite a few problems it has served me well all these years. I installed it in my main garage after discovering I had 5"+ of concrete which was plenty to support it. I installed it myself and have had both cylinders replaced under warranty due to leaks, had an ongoing problem with one side lifting higher than the other, which I've mostly lived with, and done countless oil changes, wheel R&R, a clutch job on my 987 Cayman S, and several other things. It has been used for changing oil in two Cayennes, a BMW 535i, and three Cayman(987, 981, 982). Yesterday I came out to find a puddle of hydraulic fluid surrounding one post. I had left the arms up about a foot with no weight on it, but I had done this before with no ill effects. I lowered it and then raised it back and fluid gushed out the bottom of the post, so I first decided the cylinder must have blown a seal. However, I'm not totally sure of this, might be the fittings since there have been many posts of poor quality fittings on other MaxJax's. Garage Journal has several threads going back many years on this subject. I'll see if I can't determine the cause of the fluid leak today and either get new fittings or seek a shop to install new seals. I don't trust myself to do this job, even though I've done it on Rotary lifts in my former working life. I'd like to hear from other MaxJax owners if there are any on this forum.

[dr bob]

I had some weeping-cylinder syndrome on one column since new. I was living in Glendale, about 45 mins from their location near the far end of the San Fernando Valley, but the weepage wasn't enough to get me to over there. Fast forward a dozen years, and I was getting tired of the mess. Looked around for cylinders, but they were on infinite backorder as they were absorbed by BendPak. Ended up pulling and disassembling the cylinders for a look. Leaking piston seals. Shop for them online by application and they are rare and expensive. So I took them to the local hydraulics shop. Ended up with 2"ODx1.625"IDx0.375" seal, a common size used on Bobcat accessories per the shop. The seals are cheap, like a few dollars each. They put them on the pistons for me no-charge, and I left a $20 tip for the instant and courteous service.

Use hydraulic oil (2 gal "farm oil" at WalMart) instead of ATF. Your description of one side higher than the other might be mismatched cylinders, or as easily could be air in one side. The hoses MUST slope up continuously from cylinder to pump while you purge air out, so bubbles will float back to the reservoir as you raise/lower the columns and bleed the tops of the cylinders. I have the pump wall-mounted and extended the hoses over the door and along the wall on the far side. I ended up pulling the hose out of its conduit sleeve and laying it on the floor to purge air out after I swapped the repaired cylinders back in. Once everything was completely hydraulic again, I put the long hose back in the sleeve and all is well again.

My early-model MaxJax came with cheap couplings, and every connect/disconnect left a dribble of fluid. Some folks on Garage Journal recommended some better couplings available on Amazon. These: https://smile.amazon.com/Hydraulic-Quic ... ast_sto_dp Or search "3/8" Flat Face Hydraulic Quick Connect Coupler Set w/Dust Caps, 3/8" NPT Thread" and look for Summit hydraulics couplings.

I also added 3/8" hose pigtails directly from the cylinder and got rid of the mess of angle adapters and extensions. The hose gets tied up with the same bungie cords I use to hold the arms when the columns are hanging in "storage position". Those hooks are a mix of cheap rope hooks and hangers from Home Depot. The hook on the hose end is a bit of sculpted steel gas-welding rod with a copper coating on it, so it hangs on the top of the lift column while stored.

The seal:

[dr bob]

The hose support and the arm hangers:

[Bill in Bama]

Good info, thanks for your reply. Yes, I replaced my quick couplings and the supplied fittings with better quality hardware early on. The arm hangers are neat, I'll have to get some if I can't find my old bike hangers.

I did manage to locate a hydraulic shop that can probably rebuild with new seals, gotta contact him when I get time. I'm not sure if it's the cylinder leaking or the fittings, but I've just replaced all the piping with black pipe fittings extended out far enough to clear the wheels and lay flat on the floor. I also have a replacement divider block that I can try if that is the reason for the uneven lifting. I'll report once I've tried all these fixes.

[Tom]

I guess my BP rolling bridge jack wasn't an isolated problem. It leaked right out of the box. BP had to send me two replacements just to get one that worked and was leak free... The first one seemed to be leaking in multiple places....

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[dr bob]

Good info, thanks for your reply. Yes, I replaced my quick couplings and the supplied fittings with better quality hardware early on. The arm hangers are neat, I'll have to get some if I can't find my old bike hangers.

I did manage to locate a hydraulic shop that can probably rebuild with new seals, gotta contact him when I get time. I'm not sure if it's the cylinder leaking or the fittings, but I've just replaced all the piping with black pipe fittings extended out far enough to clear the wheels and lay flat on the floor. I also have a replacement divider block that I can try if that is the reason for the uneven lifting. I'll report once I've tried all these fixes.

I looked hard at and tried a few different fitting options, with the same goal of the plumbing laying flat. But any step or other pressure on the end of the fittings was causing leaks as pieces unscrewed. The risk of having the car up and no way to fix a fitting close to the cylinder was more than I was willing to worry about. So, a hose screwed into the cylinder directly, and all that worry went away. The pigtail reaches to the connecting fitting by the wall, so no extra hose to coil up when moving the column out of the way.

And a reminder that common hardware-store schedule-40 black pipe is not suitable for the hydraulic duty. Everything needs to be rated at 3500+ to do it properly. The right fittings are really cheap from Jeff B's garage warehouse, as are the 6' hose pigtails I used.

Disassembling the cylinders is pretty easy. Secure the cylinder body so it won't turn, tilted with the open end down a little with a catch bucket under the end. My tool collection has a ring spanner with the right size pin for the nut on the end of the cylinder, but that nut isn't super tight. You could do it with the right pin punch in a hole to get it started. Then it comes off by hand. Don't risk scratching the piston end by using a pipe wrench or Channellocks on the nut. Slide the piston out carefully, and capture the oil. Once the piston is out, wipe it and wrap it in cardboard, take it to the hydraulic shop and let them replace the seal on the piston. They have tools and much better techniques than I do apparently, and will get the new seal on there with no damage to either the seal or the groove in the piston. Get it home, lubricate the seal, and slide it back into the cylinder. Slide the nut back on while you hold the rod centered in the bore. Tighten it enough that it won't fall off. Good to go...

[Bill in Bama]

Dr. Bob, thanks for the help. I'm going to use pigtails instead of pipe so that should fix mich of my problems. I can't find anything on Jeff B, do you have a link?

[Bill in Bama]

Well I got all the parts in and installed the hose pigtails but failed to allow for the bolt in the center position so the pipe exiting from the cylinder blocks it. I'm going to have to put an el in the line to add clearance. Dumb!

[dr bob]

Apology for the lagged response --

I just tug sideways on the hose so it doesn't sit right over the bolt. My goal was to eliminate fittings and places it might leak.

And my reference to "Jeff B" is Bezos and Amazon. Sorry if that wasn't more obvious.