[DeTomaso] Any ideas

[Erik Anderson]

Ooops, I was reading the viscosity of my ZF oil (80w90) rather than the 10 weight hydraulic fluid in my lift. Regardless, the fix and result were the same ...


----- Original Message -----
From: Erik Anderson
To: Dave Londry <davel at emspace.com>; Dan Mixon <tipo874 at comcast.net>
Cc: DeTomaso at realbig.com <DeTomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Sun Jan 04 20:19:43 2009
Subject: RE: [DeTomaso] Any ideas

I recently experienced the very same thing.  My garage is normally around 5 degrees Celsius, but this was a colder day.  I lowered my cat and she came down REALLY slow - about 5 times slower than usual.  Because I have the same opaque reservoir as Dave, I could actually see globs of hydraulic fluid (80w90 - I might add) streaming back from the cylinder.  I stopped the lift about half way down and then started to raise it.  I kept blowing the fuse circuit and decided that the pump was having too much of an issue with the viscosity of the oil.  To get back to normal, I lowered the car completely (so as to expose as much of the fluid as possible) and then placed a small heater about a foot away from the reservoir for about 10 mins.  (Of course, I supervised this step so as to avoid any fires or other catastrophes.)

Once heated, the pump had no problem injecting the fluid back into the cylinder and she went up without issue.  There is no doubt that the thickness of the oil was the issue.

EA
#3528

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On Behalf Of Dave Londry
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 10:03 PM
To: Dan Mixon
Cc: DeTomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Any ideas

Same story here.
I have a LiftKing 8, which looks like it has about 80% the same parts as 
a Bend Pak 9.
It's 25F in my garage right now and the lift is happy to go up and down.
I run tractor ATF in it and there are maybe 2 quarts in the bottom of 
the reservoir at full lift.
And even at full lift it has to lift 2 1/2" more before you can release 
the dogs to lower it.
dave

Dan Mixon wrote:
> I've got a Rotary 4 post. The pump reservoir is opaque and when the lift is
> fully up there is still several quarts in the reservoir. Are you sure the
> reservoir is empty when the lift is up? Rotary recommends automatic
> transmission fluid. What type of fluid are you using? Is it the recommended
> fluid? When my lift is latched in position, the hydraulics still has to pick
> the lift up before the latches can be released and gravity lowers the lift.
> I've used the lift in the 30 degree temperature range and it operates the
> same as in warm temperatures.  
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
> Behalf Of bwerner at live.com
> Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 12:06 PM
> To: DeTomaso at realbig.com
> Subject: [DeTomaso] Any ideas
>
> It is 20 degrees here this morning in Bend, Oregon.  I installed my new Bend
> Pak 4 post lift a couple of weeks ago when it was 60 degrees, and guess what
> it doesn't want to work in this temperature.  I installed it in the unheated
> portion of my shop.  Any ideas??  The lift is in the up position right now
> with one of my cars on it.  In the up postion all the hydralic oil is in the
> cylinder and lines.  I put a 100watt light bulb under the oil reservoir
> yesterday to no avail.  It isn't a problem to get the car down, gravity
> takes care of that.  I was thinking about putting one of those battery
> heater blankets around the reservoir in the down position so that all the
> oil would be down in the reservoir and heated.  If anyone out there has any
> ideas please drop me a note.  I just know that one of you guys or girls has
> any answer.  Thanks.
>   

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