My new lift

#9

My garage floor is off flat by 0.02 deg. Fred, Al K, and I went together and bought a camber gauge last year so I had to figure out how flat my floor was.

#10

Scott, ask another question…is there a mechanical lock in addition to the hydraulic cylinder? You don’t want it if it does not have a mechanical locking system. CB

#11

I’m a E30 lurker but thought I would add my 02. cents on sissor lifts.
I have had a sissor lift for well over a year now. The best tool I have ever bought. I did not purchase the HF one, I bought one from Greg Smith Equipment. http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Pro6MR-Portable-Scissor-Lift-p/tppro6m.htm

I use it on my vintage 911 and can do everything (Engine/tranny drops etc.). It is very easy to drop the engine/trans with a car whose engine is in the right place :). What use to take 4 hours, now only takes 1 to 1.5 hours. I’m not sure on BMW engine/trans drops since I do not have one yet (Unless you call 2 Mazda Mx-6’s with BMW 325 front bodywork, BMW’s :)- Those are our Lemons racers.
The lift is very stable (I do not know why someone thinks they are very dangerous) Mine even stayed upright after an eathquake (California), however I lower it everytime after use just to be safe.

as for driving over it, it really easy. Get 4 10"x12’, two for each side and angle cut one end do drive up on. I then covered them with grey indoor/outdoor carpet with the help of a staple gun.
Here is a few pics.

#12

Pic attach prob-

http://files.me.com/chadplavan/p6q94n
http://files.me.com/chadplavan/vm09px
http://files.me.com/chadplavan/6a1ycu

#13

cwbaader wrote:

According to one of the reviews I read there’s a mechanical lock point every 2" or so.

Putting one’s life in the hands of a cheap Chinese hydraulic cylinder would be suicide. Wife would have my ass.

The fact that the reviews all seemed to agree that it was nice and beefy helped me pull the trigger. Had the reviews been lukewarm on it, I’d a gone for a higher end manufacturer. It also helps my peace of mind that I’ll be no where near it’s 6000lb limit.

#14

I hesitated over mentioning this because it’s sure to result in an ass-load of “I knew it”, “I told you so”, etc. But for the benefit of those that follow, I decided to suck it up and address the issue.

What do you do when your lift, doesn’t?

One of the hydraulic rams on my fabulous Harbor Freight lift leaks. At first it was no big deal, it was just kinda “seeping” a bit. But Wed the car was up on the lift and I couldn’t get it off. I couldn’t raise the lift the inch necessary to let me disengage the safety lock. Then I looked into the fluid reservoir and it was nearly empty. Which is explained by the leaky ram.

This was Wed night so I had 20hrs before that car needed to go on to the trailer for today’s roadtrip to VIR.

So with my usual optimism I bought some more hydraulic fluid and poured it into the reservoir last night. Then I turned on the lift, it raised up a bit, but “uh oh”, fluid poured out of the problem ram. Not seeped, but poured. Moving like my VIR weekend depended on it I rapidly disengaged the safety lock and let the car down.

So now I’m figuring out my options. I knew when I bought it that the 90day warranty was worthless. It required that I send the 900lb beast back in the event of problems. And there was no way I was going to do that. The warranty expired last month.

I need to get the ram off of the lift and either get it replaced or repaired. But there’s a problem. It’s not clear how the ram comes off of the lift. I won’t know for sure until I jack up the lift and get underneath it, but it looks like the ram is permanently welded on. That would mean that I’d need to get someone who knew what they were doing to show me how to best cut it off such that it could be welded back on.

I’ve had good luck with HF stuff for years, but I lost the roll of the dice this time. Bummer.

Later edit. I just got off the phone with HF. They are sending me a new hydraulic ram under warranty. It’ll take a month or two to get it…the slow boat from China, but it’s darn cool of them. Also…this means that once I get the lift up in the air so I can see how the ram is attached, I’m going to find that it’s removable. Whew.

#15

I bought a cheap ass chinese made engine hoist 12 years ago…it lives outside, it has been abused, tilted at wierd angles, left with the ram extended etc. The ram still works. I bought a replacement ram from HF 2 years ago just in case. I have used this hoist over 100 times. I don’t get it, I have had 18 jacks in the same time and they all failed…

I bought another HF lift for the place at VIR, it is much nicer than the original, will be interesting to see how long it lasts…

Al

#16

HF is a crap shoot. Some of their stuff is indestructible and some of it is Cheap crap. It is hard to tell most of the time.

They used to sell an awesome 24v impact gun, then it got replaced by a crap 24v impact gun, now I don’t even think they sell a 24v impact gun. It is a gamble some times.

#17

Any automotive equipment made in China is going to fail, and you are subjecting yourself to injury or even death. It is so not worth even spending the money on it. I always try to buy either european or US tools and equipment, it generally cost more but is worth it.

When I bought the rack for my shop I searched and looked for the best deals and really wanted to buy new. I was tempted by the price of the lower cost racks, but one my life depends on its safety, my business depends on it working correctly every single time, and the city I live in will not permit anything without a “ALI” certification.

I called around a few places and found out that due to the tank in the economy, dealers and auto shops where folding in huge number therefore placing a large amount of used racks into inventory.

I got a very nice 9,000lb lift for $1,000. It is a older challenger model, which is good because it was still fully made and built in the US and had all certification tags/stickers in place. I have been using it for 2 years straight now without a issue. The rack was 4 years old and came from a custom auto shop that probably used it every day for those 4 years.

So in the end it cost me $1,000 for the rack and $750 for delivery and installation. $1,750 for a full size 9000lb lift with the height extenders. Flawless. The point of the story is its better to find a good used quality rack then to buy a sketchy chinese made rack with no certifications or standards.

Personally I would get the ram replaced and get rid of that lift before you or someone else gets hurt badly.


#18

As a redundant solution, I’m going to take the bad hydraulic ram to a hydraulic repair shop and have them fix it. I bet they can do it a helova lot faster then 6-8 weeks. Once I got the 900lb beastie up in the air a bit, the ram came off easily enough.

#19

Ranger wrote:

The ram is at the shop. They estimate $100 to repair. Whoohoo.

15min prior to that working out about as well as it possibly could, a work crisis that I’ve been fighting for a month turned a corner for the better. That means I won’t have to sue the 2nd vender this month. And then someone walked into the office and handed me a piece of pizza. It’s really turning out to be a good day.

#20

Ranger wrote:

[quote]Ranger wrote:

The ram is at the shop. They estimate $100 to repair. Whoohoo.

15min prior to that working out about as well as it possibly could, a work crisis that I’ve been fighting for a month turned a corner for the better. That means I won’t have to sue the 2nd vender this month. And then someone walked into the office and handed me a piece of pizza. It’s really turning out to be a good day.[/quote]

better quit while your ahead :slight_smile:

#21

And that, boys and girls, is a SpecE30 up on a lift.

#22

Down with the Chinese crap! Not only am I done with HF but im done buying Northern and Sears as well.

#23

Agree, my $200 aluminum CrapsMan racing jack failed after 2 years. It decided to fail when i had the car up on it, luckily I had a jack stand under there. Time to look for a quality replacement, it’s not worth getting injured due to cheap equipment.

#24

Ranger, You should have come by Tom’s house and saw our lift. It wasn’t cheap even used, but for lack of a better description, it’s a giant pallet forklift! It’s made by BendPak, so it’s good and very heavy. It wheels around just like a big pallet handtruck and has “fingers” that go all the way under the car.

Looking for a picture and if I find it, I’ll post!

Like this but much heavier duty looking!

#25

My Harbor Freight engine hoist doesn’t stay up. That was a real pita the last couple of times I had to mate engine with tranny. And it was a pita this past week as I moved an engine block around and disassembled it.

I finally resolved to do something about it last night. I pulled the ram off and put it in the trunk of the car. I figured that I’d call up HF and if I didn’t like what I heard I could take the ram to the same local hydraulic shop that repaired the lift’s ram.

The downside of getting the ram repaired is that a new lift can be bought on sale for only $100, so I didn’t know if spending that much for the repair was wise.

So I called up HF this morning and talked to some Indian lady. She sold me a replacement ram for $25 + $8 to ship the 30 lb beast. $25 for a hydraulic ram? $8 to ship a 36" long 35lb box? Dang! Those Chinese are so going to kick our asses.

What especially amused me about the conversation with the Indian lady, who’s English was better and less accented than mine even if the call quality was rough, is that she pronounced “three” as “tree”, as all good USMC radio operators are taught. 30yrs ago, when you were on a radio net and heard someone that pronounced 3 as “tree” it told you that someone on the net was squared away and could be depended upon to keep their shit wired tight. As the Indian lady did.

#26

My HF engine hoist also leaks profusely and wont stay up. I have to top it off before every use. I figured I would eventually get a good ram. One with a chrome plated piston like any good shock absorber or hydraulic ram ever made has. You can’t expect a seal to work with bare iron piston covered in lathe marks. Northern has the same thing as hf painted red. I suggest you go the fleet farm or tractor supply or whatever is closest and buy a ram that will last 50 years.

#27

jhall1957 wrote:

[quote]Ranger, You should have come by Tom’s house and saw our lift. It wasn’t cheap even used, but for lack of a better description, it’s a giant pallet forklift! It’s made by BendPak, so it’s good and very heavy. It wheels around just like a big pallet handtruck and has “fingers” that go all the way under the car.

Looking for a picture and if I find it, I’ll post!

Like this but much heavier duty looking! [/quote]

I searched all over the bendpak website and couldn’t find anything like that. Do you have a link?

#28

Ive been thinking about just getting a 4 post lift so that I can store the e30 on the top and still have room for another car under it, while still allowing the little lady a spot in the garage. And with the added jacking point you can lift the car off the lift to do brakes and tires and such, and the entire center of the car is accessible underneath. I was looking at a bendpak, and backyard buddy but there are a few other cheaper ones, from china, that im looking at too. Any one have any suggestions on those?