Summit Racing Transmission Jack

[92GreenGT]

Anyone bought this thing? I bought it about a month ago and finally went to use it today and it won't pick anything up. Either it's trapped air in the system or it's out of oil. It didn't come with any instructions on adding oil and there is nothing about it on their website. It has two places on the ram that you can remove plugs but I don't know which is the oil fill plug and nothing is labeled. When I started jacking the trans up it lifted it up and then lost pressure because fluid started coming out of one of the plugs so I had to let it down and by that time it was dead, lol. I must be too stupid to get this thing to work, any help/advice? Thanks

-Edit-
Link to said jack: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-917051/

 

[1991notchbackLX]

It sounds like a loose plug allowed the hydraulic fluid inside the jack to be pushed out rather than support the load placed on it. Is there any way you can add fluid back through the plug hole it came from originally?

Summit is one of the best around as far as customer service goes. A quick call and I guarantee they'll either talk you through what you need to do to get it to work, or have a new one on its way to you by the end of the conversation.

 

[jrichker]

How about a jack that does the same thing for less than $50?

I built an adapter frame to turn a floor jack into a transmission jack. I didn’t have any fancy metal working tools, so I used a jigsaw, circular saw and a 7 1/4" diameter abrasive metal cut off blade for the circular saw . If you are interested, send me your email address and I will email you the pictures. The 8MB+ zip file is too big to pass through Stangnet’s email gateway.

All the pieces came from Home Depot, including the metal cut off blade. There are 2x4’s, & 2x6's for the wood. You will need some 1 5/8" & 3" deck screws to fasten it together, along with some 2" angle iron. There is a piece of 7/16" threaded rod the the transmission mount pivots on. That allows you to tilt the transmission to aid aligning it up into place. I would recommend that you use some 3/4" plywood to brace the 2x6 mounts that fit the transmission curvature. I accidentally knocked off one of the transmission support upright corners and need to brace it. Oddly enough, the 2x6 will split and crack along the grain of the wood, and that is exactly what happened to me. Make a pair of cardboard templates to fit the transmission curvature and it will fit better and be easier to cut to the right shape. If you need specific dimensions, email me back and I will send them to you

The outrigger wheels can be an obstacle if you don't have the jackstands as close to the front wheel ball joints as possible. There is a 5/16” bolt on each side of the outrigger rails that bolts the fore & aft rails to the jack frame. It doesn't show in any of the pictures, but it is a must have item. It is about 6” back from the ½” hole for the axle where the jack wheels used to mount. With the outrigger setup, you remove the front jack wheels and use the axle to bolt down the fore & aft outrigger rails. They do add a lot of stability to the whole thing, since the transmission is pretty high up when you have it in position to stab back into the bellhousing.

 

[wythors]

Word: Summit's tools are the same cheap Chinese garbage that Harbor Freight sells. I made the mistake of buying a HF floor jack one time. I took it home and it wouldn't lift the car. I stood on the pad and it wouldn't even lift me. I took it back and the manager said "Yeah, those things almost never work" and gave me my money back. WTH?

 

[Mintsick]

I like that home brew transmission jack.

 

[wythors]

My question is, how do you get the car four feet in the air to get that thing under it with the transmission sitting in it? Cinder blocks? Cedar rounds? Block and tackle attached to a tree limb and a chain under the front fenders?

 

[92GreenGT]

Yeah the homemade one or an adapter would of been better probably. Sucks, it won't take any more fluid, guess I'll have to slide the trans off and get it out from under the car to see if I can get it going.

 

[Mintsick]

My question is, how do you get the car four feet in the air to get that thing under it with the transmission sitting in it? Cinder blocks? Cedar rounds? Block and tackle attached to a tree limb and a chain under the front fenders?

Haha that is a good point, last trans swap I did I had the front end up on ramps and the rear on the ground because I hate having the car up high, there was certainly zero room for any sort of trans jack.

 

[foxbodymike87]

Word: Summit's tools are the same cheap Chinese garbage that Harbor Freight sells. I made the mistake of buying a HF floor jack one time. I took it home and it wouldn't lift the car. I stood on the pad and it wouldn't even lift me. I took it back and the manager said "Yeah, those things almost never work" and gave me my money back. WTH?

harbor freight FTW!! ive gotten so much stuff from them for dirt cheap and it all works including the floor jack and engine hoist

 

[wythors]

harbor freight FTW!! ive gotten so much stuff from them for dirt cheap and it all works including the floor jack and engine hoist

The aluminum dust pan I got from them works. Everything else has been a smoking pile of excrement that either got returned or S-canned.

 

[92GreenGT]

Hate to bring this back to the top but I figured I should at least update it.

Ended up rolling it back out from under the car and sitting trans off of it. Raised the cylinder up, pulled fill plug out and let the cylinder compress and what oil that did come out of it was air bubble filled and the oil looked like it had water in it. After cleaning that bs out I filled the jack while raising the cylinder and when at the top put the plug back in and it's now working fine. Sucks that it happened that way but at least I got the trans in and have a working jack out of the deal. Either way, probably just my luck but at least it was fixable in the end, just cost me a bottle of oil and some hardware for the casters that was missing when it came in.

 

[jrichker]

My question is, how do you get the car four feet in the air to get that thing under it with the transmission sitting in it? Cinder blocks? Cedar rounds? Block and tackle attached to a tree limb and a chain under the front fenders?

Harbor Freight is your friend when it comes to stuff like jack stands. I have 4 tall SUV style jackstands that I got on sale which are perfect for transmission swaps. I get 22"-24" of height which works out OK to get the trans out from under the car.