Is it common
for rust to build inside of bottle jacks?
I tried to use my 40 year old (to me) 5 ton Bottle Jack to hold some
weight off a load of firewood overnight in my 4-Runner. With the body 2” from being bottomed I d/n
like the idea of leaving the weight on the springs.

My bottle
jack took the load off but the jack w/n let my garage door close. “Or let my
truck back down. I felt it had to be
rust but had not seen the problem in my Old Floor Jack or other Cylinders. I forced the Jack out and left the load on
the springs. The next day I started
breaking down the 5 Ton size Jack (marked CB9.05-2) with no luck getting the
Ram/Piston out of the cylinder. There
was fair looking oil on top and sludge and a few“small metal shots” in the
sludge. I never saw any rust but felt it
had to be holding the Ram/Piston in the cylinder. I stopped try after my 200 lbs and a 6’ cheater
w/n break the cylinder from the base.

I unloaded
the Red Oak the next morning onto my stack.
A friend had called about 4 PM saying, I have a Red Oak Limb Down at my neighbor’s,
“do you want it”? I’m Rolling! Less than 2 miles away the limb came down in
good “Hot Weather”. It was approx 50’+
long across the drive and approx14” dia at the tree and would have totaled a vehicle. No one witnessed it coming down and could
only say when it was not and later was. I wanted the smallest half that was a
load. The larger was left in 12” blocks for
the adjuster to see and I’ll probably split it on the Half later.