If your jack won't give you a full rise for each pump or won't go to full extension it's probably low on fluid. The good news is that Walmart carries bottles of jack fluid.
The bad news is that it's not always immediately evident WHERE to add said fluid.
My jack had 2 obvious metal screws just under the handle that appeared to be where you'd add it. NO, I don't know what those screws are, but they are oil lines and are under pressure even when the jack is down and if you try to remove them even more fluid will escape.
If you look carefully you'll find a fill plug on the jack cylinder itself. It will be on the top because these are rubber plugs.
The first time I added fluid I jacked my jack up until it stopped and then added fluid until I could raise it to the upper level. The jack seemed to work well.
I loaned my jack out to someone and it came back not working well so I figured I didn't add enough fluid the first time because the jack wasn't level and there was a big old air bubble. So this time I made sure the fill hole was the high side and filled the receptacle and then jacked it up. It seemed to be working well but after I got the jack up I decided to top it off with the rest of the fluid I had and put the plug back in. So far so good.
When I lowered the jack it wouldn't go all the way back down so being the bright guy that I am I leaned over the jack and pressed down on the platen.
Now here's the important thing to take away from all this - DON'T DO THAT!
It will place your face, underarms and body over the fill plug. Under the pressure of me pushing down it exploded with a geyser of jack fluid all up my nose, on my glasses, in my hair and I have the slickest underarms in the county.
After taking another shower I realized that if I hadn't put the plug back in then the excess fluid would have leaked out and I could have then put the plug in and it would have been topped up.
Now, where'd that darn plug go?
Thanks for the wisdom
