Quick fix for a leaking hydraulic bottle jack.Recently I helped a friend clean out a storage room at a self storage facility she manages. The Tennant had emptied out everything he wanted and paid for the full month (even though it was only the first week of the month) and said she could have the "goodies" if she would dispose of the trash. It was mostly auto parts, lost of new stuff, several years old, like oil filters and air filters, and a bunch of other odd stuff like a Weiand spread bore intake for a small block cheby (gotta ebay it yet) Well one of the items was a 12 ton hydraulic bottle jack, an older one, probably 20 years old, made in Taiwan ROC (not mainland China PRC) and it was wrapped in oil soaked rags. I took it home and cleaned it off and found it out of fluid, so I service it with some Mobil DTE 24 hydraulic oil I had for my Dake press. It worked great so I set it on a shelf and left it. Later I noticed oil on the shelf and discovered the jack was leaking around the release valve, that�s the screw in/out valve near the base of the jack, with the flattened head that you turn to lower the jack. I laid it on its side so it couldn't leak and left it. Tonite I decided to see if I could fix it. Turned out the seal was 3/8 ID and 5/8 OD and about 7/16 long or deep. Got to ratting around and discovered that the black Gates 3/8 fuel hose I had was a perfect push in tight fit to replace the old hardened seal, so I cut off a section and pressed it in, and screwed the valve back in and guess what? It works great and no leaks!!! Free jack and works good! Charles
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