Broken trolley jack - one piston won't return
Discussion
Family have gone out for the day, finally a chance to replace the gearbox oil... only the trolley jack won't seem to lift the car properly. 
When you push the handle down, it compresses two pistons to pump up the jack.
When you release the handle, the pistons come back up read for the next time.
Unfortunately, one of them doesn't come up any more and seems stuck.
I did manage to manually lift it and got a couple of pumps before it got stuck again.
I'm assuming it's not the helper spring or assembly, but instead the hydraulic piston - as I can't pull it up even by force.
The jack wasn't cheap (£100) so ideally I'd like to repair if possible. But I really *really* don't want it to get the car in the air but break again and be unable to get it down!
It's a 5 year old Arcan HJ2000EU.
When you push the handle down, it compresses two pistons to pump up the jack.
When you release the handle, the pistons come back up read for the next time.
Unfortunately, one of them doesn't come up any more and seems stuck.
I did manage to manually lift it and got a couple of pumps before it got stuck again.
I'm assuming it's not the helper spring or assembly, but instead the hydraulic piston - as I can't pull it up even by force.
The jack wasn't cheap (£100) so ideally I'd like to repair if possible. But I really *really* don't want it to get the car in the air but break again and be unable to get it down!
It's a 5 year old Arcan HJ2000EU.
usually this is caused by the frame bolts becoming slightly looser, then the valve body gets extra strain from weird directions and bends the piston.
Unfortunaly a new valve body for these is about £80 (or was last time I looked)
unless your good with machining (i.e. can make a new piston), and can check the valve body and piston for bends, theres really not a lot else you can do (believe me, I've had the same problem and tried to fix it).
Alternatively, you could be lucky and its just got crud/corrion inside, which with a good clean up and some new oil/seals would be good as new. Would be a lot of work though I would imagine as you would have to measure everything to get the right seals etc. Plus as its safety equipment, I would probably get someone qualified to check and rebuild/service it (unless you very familiar with hydraulic equipment) which would probably outweight the cost of a new jack.
Im going to buy a steel one next i think and periodically check everything is tight. If you do decide to go ahead and repair it though keep us updated as I enjoy stuff like this
theres plenty of broken aluminium jacks about to repair if you manage to get it working again
Unfortunaly a new valve body for these is about £80 (or was last time I looked)
unless your good with machining (i.e. can make a new piston), and can check the valve body and piston for bends, theres really not a lot else you can do (believe me, I've had the same problem and tried to fix it).
Alternatively, you could be lucky and its just got crud/corrion inside, which with a good clean up and some new oil/seals would be good as new. Would be a lot of work though I would imagine as you would have to measure everything to get the right seals etc. Plus as its safety equipment, I would probably get someone qualified to check and rebuild/service it (unless you very familiar with hydraulic equipment) which would probably outweight the cost of a new jack.
Im going to buy a steel one next i think and periodically check everything is tight. If you do decide to go ahead and repair it though keep us updated as I enjoy stuff like this
theres plenty of broken aluminium jacks about to repair if you manage to get it working again Edited by hkz286 on Thursday 3rd December 13:36
hkz286 said:
usually this is caused by the frame bolts becoming slightly looser, then the valve body gets extra strain from weird directions and bends the piston.
Unfortunaly a new valve body for these is about £80 (or was last time I looked)
unless your good with machining (i.e. can make a new piston), and can check the valve body and piston for bends, theres really not a lot else you can do (believe me, I've had the same problem and tried to fix it).
Alternatively, you could be lucky and its just got crud/corrion inside, which with a good clean up and some new oil/seals would be good as new. Would be a lot of work though I would imagine as you would have to measure everything to get the right seals etc. Plus as its safety equipment, I would probably get someone qualified to check and rebuild/service it (unless you very familiar with hydraulic equipment) which would probably outweight the cost of a new jack.
Im going to buy a steel one next i think and periodically check everything is tight. If you do decide to go ahead and repair it though keep us updated as I enjoy stuff like this theres plenty of broken aluminium jacks about to repair if you manage to get it working again
Thanks - although that's not what I wanted to hear!Unfortunaly a new valve body for these is about £80 (or was last time I looked)
unless your good with machining (i.e. can make a new piston), and can check the valve body and piston for bends, theres really not a lot else you can do (believe me, I've had the same problem and tried to fix it).
Alternatively, you could be lucky and its just got crud/corrion inside, which with a good clean up and some new oil/seals would be good as new. Would be a lot of work though I would imagine as you would have to measure everything to get the right seals etc. Plus as its safety equipment, I would probably get someone qualified to check and rebuild/service it (unless you very familiar with hydraulic equipment) which would probably outweight the cost of a new jack.
Im going to buy a steel one next i think and periodically check everything is tight. If you do decide to go ahead and repair it though keep us updated as I enjoy stuff like this
theres plenty of broken aluminium jacks about to repair if you manage to get it working again Edited by hkz286 on Thursday 3rd December 13:36
I stripped it down further - the bad piston is on the right. A big hammer got it out.
I agree that the piston must be bent - although I can't see it - purely based on how difficult it was to remove.
I can get a very similar jack for £102 on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sealey-RJAS1500-1-5tonne-...
Although unfortunately it's got a stupid central wheel - which I'm worried won't work well on my gravel drive.
It's a shame as Sealey do an exploded diagram of the parts - a new piston for the above jack is £4.
Most of Sealeys stuff is just rebranded - I wonder if the piston off either the RJAS1500 or 2001LE is compataible...
https://assets.sealeyb2b.co.uk/PDFs/Parts/RJAS1500...
https://assets.sealeyb2b.co.uk/PDFs/Parts/2001LE%2...
Edited by Jakg on Thursday 3rd December 15:33
Scrump said:
I replaced a sealey jack with an arcan one because I had similar problems with the sealey.
I've given in and bought a Sealey RJAS2500 - same spec as my Arcan, but can lift half a ton more. £122.
I wanted a lighter one, but all the 1.5 ton aluminium jacks lift about 10cm less...
I'll stick with aluminium as I have to carry it from the shed, and 26KG was already unpleasant enough.
Jakg said:
The new Sealey jack looks very similar to the Arcan one... I wonder...
I bought a piston from Sealey - it came to about £8. Luckily they are local so I could pick it up.Piston - RJAS2500V2P23 - £3.49 ex VAT,
Spring - RJAS2500V2P24 - £0.49 ex VAT,
Top Washer - RJAS2500V2P16 - £0.49 ex VAT,
Spring Cap - RJAS2500V2P17 £1.49 ex VAT.
Plus some new jack oil (compressor oil).
Disassembly was a bit of a pain, and I'm 100% sure the jack is overfilled, but...
We have liftof!
Good enough to keep as a spare I think. Just a shame I bought a replacement AND fix it!
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