Mucho Frustration...and, eventually, a Small Triumph

A number of years ago now, I purchased two 12-ton bottle jacks to use to level up the JayBee whenever it got off kilter. Right off the bat, I rendered one inoperable due to misinterpreting something in the instructions. I figured out my mistake before I ruined the other one and, ever since then, I have successfully used the other one (and just the one) to level up the house.

Now that the JayBee needs some substantial leveling, I've been thinking it would be nice to use the two jacks in tandem to level it up. I was determined to fix the inoperable jack so I'd have two functional jacks to use.

Normally, I love following directions. As in assembling things, or fixing things. You know, laying out all the parts, and following step-by-step assembly instructions. And, if I do say so myself, I write thorough, well-illustrated, easy-to-follow directions as well. Because of all this, I can be very critical of poorly-done instructions.

The puny instruction booklet that came with the bottle jacks is abysmal. I'm sure it didn't help that I really knew nothing about hydraulic jacks when I started this repair job. I didn't know how they work, I didn't know the terms used for the different parts, I had no idea how its internal parts look, etc. The only illustration in the entire booklet is the one below--without a single thing on it labeled.

My recollection from when I'd ruined the one jack was that I'd loosened what I finally decided is called the "release valve" too much, and hydraulic oil had leaked out. My plan for fixing the jack was to add hydraulic oil to it and see if I could restore its function.

In the "Checking Oil Level" section of the manual, the instructions said to "remove the inspection plate, and remove the oil plug." Does anything on this jack look like an "inspection plate" or "oil plug" to you? Exactly. I see a label, but nothing that looks like a plate. Frustrated, I turned the jack around and around, and puzzled over it for days.

I ended up deciding that this big piece on the top of the jack might be the "inspection plate."

I had a pipe wrench that would just barely fit around this part but, for the life of me, I could not loosen this "plate." Over the course of three different days, I wrestled with this task by brainstorming and trying various techniques. Finally, today, I managed to loosen the plate and remove it. (The successful technique involved standing on the jack on its side on the ground and applying my body weight to help torque the wrench.) It turns out that the "oil plug" is really this long cylinder (upside down below, with the inspection plate on the bottom). Not at all how I imagined an "oil plug" might look.

Next, the instructions said to pour in hydraulic jack oil until it is "level with the bottom of the fill hole." Look inside this thing--below. Do you know where the "bottom of the fill hole" is? Hmm, neither do I. I think it was at about this point that I started thinking, "I bet my frustration level is similar to most folks' frustration when they're trying to follow instructions I think are 'good.'"

I poured in a little oil, and watched it slowly sink down until it looked like the level of it was the same as it had been when I started. I repeated this move several times. The last time I added a dollop of oil, it didn't sink down. I worried that this might mean I'd poured in too much. I had no way to really know, though, so I re-installed the oil plug and inspection plate.

Sure enough, I couldn't fully retract the hydraulic lift. I figured that meant I'd poured in too much oil. I took the whole thing apart again, removed some oil, and reassembled it. I purged air out of the system following the instructions, and inferring steps where the instructions were incomplete.

Voilà! I fixed this jack!

Even though the other jack had always worked, I thought this might be a good time to take it apart, check the oil level, etc. Nice idea, but I could not get it apart. Okay, I'm not a complete dummy. I cut my losses, and called this good enough. Two working bottle jacks!

I have been futzing around with several other small things on the JayBee recently, so I'll try to add more updates in the next few days.