Problem with single post in ground lift

How far down is the water table? I have seen the casings rust through and leak. The greater pressure from raising the Queen Mary may have been the last straw.

 

I'm not sure the late, great, W.O. would appreciate one of his "offspring" being referred to as the Queen Mary.

IIRC, Clarkson described the Arnage as "Anne Hathaways cottage on wheels!"....

Cheers,
Ian

 

Are you sure that the pump is working correctly and there isn't a pressure relief valve that is malfunctioning. I would look at the pumping system. How did you loose all of that fluid in the first place. That would indicate a leak in the system. Also if the seals in the large piston are leaking by it will not lift to max capacity.

 

Exceeding the weight capacity could have cracked a case or a fitting and caused a leak.

Also, if your setup uses a remote reservoir or pump / valve body, check the lines --- even if they didn't break, they may be "weeping".

Typically the seal would leak first, but if another component was already weak / defective, it might have been the "fuse".

What is your lift rated at?
What does the Bent-hemoth weigh?

 

Sounds like you might have a Superfund site under your floor. The oil has to go somewhere and if you don't see it it must be in the ground.

 

Sounds like a fairly catastrophic failure / leak considering how much fluid you just added --- too bad. The good news is at least it didn't collapse abruptly and while someone was under there. Since it was going out anyway, it's best you found out quickly so you avoided an accident. I doubt lifting the Bentley caused the failure --- it just accelerated it.

 

no mechanical lock? that's scary

 

LMAO! You sir have an incredible way with words.

 

Sean,

I know you like to fix things yourself but when I put my lift in I did not want to die. So I ponied up the $$ and had it put in by a pro out of the yellow pages. There are hydralic specialists who do this kind of housecall work. If you can't find one in the yellowpages maybe a local mechanic can refer you to someone.

 

After adding oil did you try running it up all the way and back down again? When they run low some air gets into the rams and they act funny. I don't know about the single post lift but have had this happen with other hydrauic jack systems.

 

They almost never come down fast. Even a big failure takes a couple of seconds to go all the way down. If it is a rust/water table issue I have seen them installed in large sections of capped off plastic pipe to sel them.

The good news is single post in floor rams are often to be had free in exchange for just getting rid of them.

 

Even properly functioning units?

 

Yup. No one wants them anymore. Uusally go for scrap.

 

The "hard part" is digging it up.

 

Wow...can't complain if it is free

 

Having some expierence with single hoist instalation and removal, I would add a few thoughts, if I may.

1st, usually when a hoist is low on oil and you are raising the loaded lift they tend to shoot up the last couple of feet or so and in some cases jamb in the upright position, on the other side once up they tend to drop down a couple of feet after they have been up a while when low on oil.

2nd, When a hoist is losing that much oil either over time or suddenly the oil is excaping from the sealed system into the area surounding the hoist. This is called contamination!!!!!
If you let the Fedralies into the mix you are looking at a very very expensive EPA controlled clean up. They will test the ground and then determine the amount of soil to be removed and to what extent the soil will have to be treated. This can run into the many thousands of dollars even for 1 hoist.

Most service station changeovers to mini marts, just raised the hoist and cut ithe top off and then lowered it and capped it with cement, much less costly and no Fedral intervention.

3rd, If the top seal is worn and leaking you will see much evidence of oil around the piston and on the floor or in the hoist well. Remember the oil is above the air and the air pressure will push the oil out. The hoists I have been involved with were easily bled by loosening the filler plug and raising and then lowering the cylinder unloaded. Do not take the plug out just loosen on the threads. It will not require much air pressure and as it comes down the excess air will be removed. You should be able to go on line and get service information, the name of the hoist is usually on a name plate on the top arm plate. If memory serves the oil capacity is also noted.

Howard Musolf
1982 400i Cabriolet
Maserati spider
2 many brass era cars

 

Sean only ever uses 100% Virgin Oilive oil in that old hoist.. Or as our old oil guy used to say, its really just fertilizer. If you dont believe it look at the trees and weeds growing around old fuel oil tanks.

I saw an inground hoist fall once. He had a Camaro up on it, and suddenly it dropped about 3 feet, BANG! He had just stepped away to his tool box when it happened, turned him white as a sheet. The car jumped over and teetered on two points, messed it up good, but it didnt fall off. He'd accidently kicked the lock over

Dont think these above ground hoists are any safer. All those cables and pulleys and auto locks, lot of stuff that could fail. Always set a hoist down fully on the locks to check its safe, then boost it up just enough to take some strain off the locks but still engaged. Everything is like a chain, only as safe as its weakest link. Put some weight on the safety locks so if the worst happens you arent shocking them but you know they will hold.

 

I have seen far more failures, cars fall and people hurt with above ground hoists than I ever did with old single or 2 post below ground hoists. For one thing, everbody and his brother with a metal fab shop is building above ground hoists. There is a lot of trash out there.

 

+1000

Although I did drop an Alfa off a single post, probably the best thing for thar car! LOL