Anyone Ever Seen A Quality Contemporary Jack?

ericr

ericr

Well-known member
the jacks that came with the car, at least the sheet metal ones, look flimsy to me....I'd be leery of trusting them, at least in certain applications.

Has anyone ever collected what looked like a portable high-quality jack from the Model "A" era?

I've see ads in the Literary Digest in the early '20s of an accessory jack that operated via a long chain that elevated or lowered the jack located several feet away. I think the ads were captioned "The Jack for Jill" and showed a proud father having his young daughter operate the jack. Naturally he had on a suit, tie and hat.
 
They may be hard to find,but the Nissans and Datsun trucks from the 80's had a jack that looks period correct.They looked to be built better than the trucks they came in.Somebody,somewhere suggested they were actually surplus jacks bought from us,or some other country.The quality of the jacks looks to be too good to be put in a low priced truck.I have some old toolboxes marked Komatsu.A military buff told me they were really Korean war-era shipping boxes that were left behind by the thousands.Stamp a logo on the cover and you have a spare parts box for the equipment.
 
I understand your wanting to stay period correct but I have an old scissor jack from who knows what id say 50's-70's with a unfolded 5 ft long handle that kinda attaches to the jack so you can push/pull it in and out with the handle so its absolutely not nescessary to be under the car at all.
 
First thing I did whenever I bought a new Jeep Wrangler is throw away the locking lug nuts and replace the OE jack with a Hi-Lift jack. I'm using a Jeep screw jack that is compact and easy to use. I really don't care what it looks like, but how it works.
 
Here's a photo of the AA jack that Tom mentioned - Looks like it could jack up a house :)
 

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There are several versions of original A jacks that are quite serviceable, i have used several versions of them and V8 jacks---even on modern cars,the screw versions with the handle, there are aftermarket ones too that are similar----it's always interesting to look on old automotice literature, pep boys ads,, western auto

I had one with the chain once, wasn't that easy to use, the long hand crank shaft ones were easier to push under the car and crank
 
Hicktick said:
Once you used a bumper jack on a 59 Fleetwood ,. nothing , no jack could scare you .,.,

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yea i dont know what idiot thought that the 3 ft bumper jacks were a great idea... my chevette has one and had to use it one day and it felt like a slight breeze was going to blow the car over....
 
The good thing about a bumper jack was that once you had the wheel off you could block the car up,put the wheel under the jack,and use the jack to break the bead down.Then you could change the tire by hand,squirt some ether in it to blow it back on the beads,air it up and reinstall it.
 
I was shown the ether trick when I worked at the GM dealership in the 70's, and I've used it a lot during my time there. My cousin's husband now owns a tire shop and says EPA will shut him down if he tries it. I've never had a problem using it, but people fear what they don't understand.
 
Tom Wesenberg, Post # 2, suggests AA jacks. Post # 7 mentions and pictures an AA jack.

In THE SWAP MEET section Don Turley has two types of AA jacks for sale: $100 and $65, with photos of each.
 
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