Craftsman 50139 3 ton floor jack repair

Tester had the first post after the original post. His advice was excellent and should have been taken and the problem solved. Now we are up to two pages and still have a non-functioning jack.

Parts don’t fit, return them and throw the rest away. No way to jam a 1mm oversized pin in.

I got it to work.

as an attempt at payback for the helpful suggestions:

from memory, off the top of my head, here’s what I did. I make no guarantees, warranties, claims, that any of this will ever work or be correct or anything. if you have one of these jacks, you will know what I am talking about.

warninghackjob method aheadyou better know what you are doing***

rotary tool grinder in the receiving hole for the pin. test fitment using socket. in my case, 7/16" was the best estimate. made pin fit damn good, I think. I COULD have waited another two weeks to have a most likely identical power unit sent to me. would have been interesting to know. then again, it might be something ELSE that doesn’t fit then. Also, they don’t have a replacement lateral pin. Quite disappointing, being ostensibly Sears and all. I thought they have any obscure part for everything they sell - until now.

hackjob method end*

cotter pin. done with the power pin fitment fiasco.

try to screw down the gear with the previous lock washer (maybe a new one is available, this one seems ok) on the release valve. did not go straight forward.

… the rest can inaccurately be described as jostling the pieces together. that includes in particular, the … I don’t know the terms - the pin that has a surface carved into it ; the big torsion spring - put something on the end of it, like a long hollow metal tube, or vise grips. I think I used an extension bar, but only one of my 5 or so bars allowed this. The jostling includes pulling up on the lever part to drag the power unit in (or was it out?). try to keep the torsion spring and its extension above the power unit, let it go when its all tight.

pull the assembly together by threading the allen bolts into the power unit.

tightened the bar in the back to keep it all tight. put oil in, bleed it, test it, work the gears together, tighten the release valve gear nut if needed.

some commentary:

was not pretty. not fun either. savings? off-sale, maybe saved eighty bucks vs. buying the same one… then there’s Harbor Freight. took like 2 hours, and that’s not even cleaning up the mess, or wasting time with the company that gets the thing to me. I had to do the jostling at least twice. one time, the lever-pin (that the carved pin above grabs) popped out, oil poured out. try to clean pin ; put pin back in ; put oil in. broke the drain plug - used the old one. one time, I thought I was careful and oil sprayed like crazy. I’m sure theres a proper order to jostling the things together but F if I’m going to figure out how I did it. The jack puts the car up and down a few times so far, no obvious leaks, for a day or so.

would I do it again? maybe. Worth doing once, I suppose.

having a jack work again? Now THAT is nice.

hope that helps someone… you know, next time I’d buy the drain plug, and have that ship out with the power unit. also I was lucky to have some jack oil around.

Good post OP. Sometimes you’ve got to give it the old college try, even if it doesn’t make $$$ and time sense, just to see if you can. I fully understand. Done this kind of thing myself on occasion, and never regretted it if only for the learning experience. Good for you.

For repair work I use, 2 jacks and 2 jackstands at minimum front or back axle.
For changing oil. I just need a little clearance so only one jack.