Because tools and equipment have gotten so much cheaper over the years, we all tend to throw away something that doesn’t work instead of bringing it back to life in the garage. What’s funny about this is how quick we are to bitch about how Automotive Technicians, the guys we used to call Mechanics, no longer fix things but instead they just replace them. I remember when a bad master cylinder, or brake cylinders, were rebuilt in the garage with a kit that cost just a couple bucks. I remember when a floor jack was a real tool that was appreciated and if it wasn’t working right you either bought a rebuild kit and did it at home or took it to your local hydraulics shop where they would work on it and make it work as smooth as silk. But now that we buy floor jacks for $79, and bottle jacks for $29, when they quit working we just toss them in the trash and go grab another one.

The fact that we have to do this every few years pisses us off, but we keep doing it! I know that I’ve been guilty of this in the past, but I also know that my dad’s got both cheap floor jacks and a really nice floor jack, and the nice one is older than I am but works amazing. It’s been rebuilt before, and in fact it still has a sticker on it from some hydraulics shop in Santa Clara CA where he had it rebuilt 40 years ago.

Now, I’m going to encourage you to either find you local shop and have them rebuild yours, or do it yourself at home. Yes you are going to have to find a rebuild kit, and sometimes that can be a bit of a hassle, but we’ve found that if you can’t find them online then a local shop will be able to help you. These videos is show you just how simple and easy it is to do so, while showing you just how a hydraulic jack really works. This isn’t rocket science folks, but it is pretty cool.