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Beware - Scissor Jacks and Impact Drivers.

Yande

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Perhaps I should add Inexperience also?

Had the need to take my four wheels off, one at a time, in my driveway the other day. I got lazy, (smart I thought) and used my Makita Impact Driver to power the spindle on the Scissor Jack that came stock for my VX Wagon. All went as planned until I came to the last wheel.

In retrospect, perhaps I noticed the Drill working a bit harder jacking up the vehicle on that last wheel, but did not put two and two together. I took the wheel out from under the car where I had placed it whilst working on the car, put it back on the car and started to lower the jack and "vrrrrrump," down it was!
I figure the drill had stripped the thread off the nut on the jack, not the spindle, so even if you did look, you would not see any obvious damage. (See pic. of thread coming out of nut)
Had I used my ratchet, as I usually do, after loosening the nuts with my Torque Bar, I'm pretty sure I would have felt the thread being stripped.
At this stage I intend to find myself another Spindle Jack as they are a convenient fit in the car, but also buy a Trolley Jack for around the house. Driveway is concrete, though on a slight angle, but as I always chock and brake the car, it should be ok.

I posted this thread just as a heads up and so others may learn from my mistake.



 

dgp

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That’s a good safety share to help others avoid the same issue, good on you.
 

Smitty

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oem scissor jacks are for emergency infrequent use

get a decent jack if you want to do something like you did
 
H

harrop.senator

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Never had the issue and have done the exact thing before lol. Wondering if something bound up and the gun overpowered it and stripped it.
 

Immortality

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I'm with Smitty on this but if you must, at least lubricate the threads on the scissor jack to help prevent something like this occurring.
 

losh1971

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I've never thought of using the rattler but I might now.
 

figjam

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I just have to share this story about a scissor jack.
Have recently completed trip to Birdsville and back, during which I saw probably the dumbest thing any mechanically minded person will ever see.

About halfway between Windorah and Birdsville, we stopped at a rest spot where there were a few cars and caravans. The subject combination was a newish 4WD ute, big wheels, loaded with bulbar, canopy and boat on top, attached to a double axle off-road caravan …… and the ute had a flat rear tyre.
From a distance, we watched as the driver jacked the ute up and removed the flat, then we realised that he was using a small scissor jack, and that the caravan was still attached to the back of the ute. Dumb decision ? It got worse.
Alarm bells started to ring when he rolled the flat aside, then crawled under the ute and started winding down the spare wheel.
One of our party decided that was it. He went over, told the old bloke to get out from under the ute before something bad happened, chucked the flat under the ute and cautiously extracted the spare and put it on for him.
The bloke was so old he could hardly walk, and he wanted advice as to the nearest place where he could get the flat tyre fixed.
Really, some people are a real danger to themselves, and have no idea about travelling in remote areas. Very hard to think about the results if the worst had happened.
 

losh1971

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Far out. I carry a fairly big 12v compressor and tyre repair kit because I travel along a road with no mob reception.
 

Yande

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" .... then crawled under the ute and started winding down the spare wheel...."
I cringed when I read that.
I was hitchhiking back from Darwin, some many years ago. Great trip. 3 lifts from Darwin to Townsvile. First one put me up for the night, in Batchelor, some k's off the Hwy. Next morning he drove me to the Hwy, handed me a pack of sandwiches and a coule of litres of water. Next lift, we drank beer to "3 Ways", some 1000+k's down the track. Spent the night beside the road, and upon waking (somewhat dusty!) got picked up in a Holden V8, (not sure of model.) Within a minute we were sitting on 150kph, with the driver explaining that there was no speed limit in The Territory, (back then) and the Boss was paying for the fuel until we hit the Qld border. I never felt uncomfortable for I realised that this guy could really drive, later becoming more evident when coming down the Ranges into Townsville. Unforgettable trip as I drank some water out of a tap somewhere!!!
Anyways, some k's into Qld., We came accross a 4WD that had broken down and they were preparing to tow it to get it fixed. They were heading to Birdsville, down the Birdsville Track (circa 1992) and the only ropes they had were not long enough for the tow. They had attempted to tie a knot to join them, but they were still too short. Having spent a coupe of years on Prawn Trawlers, it was up to me to splice the ropes together, therefore giving them just enough length for a tow. Like the above, these people had great plans, but little sense and not a decent piece of rope between them.
BTW. Have replaced scissor jack and looking at options for a floor jack
 
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Immortality

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Natural selection?
 
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