I've had the J&S jack for about a year and use it all the time.
I jack my bike up over the winter,keeps it off the concrete floor and makes it easy to move around the garage.
Well I was moving it the other day and I noticed the jack piston had come out of the ring on the crossbar and my 2007 Ultra was now being held up by the two safety dogs. OH CRAP!!!!!!
I don't have ANY fuggin' idea how this happened and I was too busy thinking how it get it down safely to take any pictures, sorry guys.
I have the yellow sears jack also and I called a buddy who has a bike jack to bring it and get on over.
We lock my forks so the it won't move and jacked up the front and rear wheels simultaneously with the bike in gear.
Once high enough I lowered the J&S replaced the piston in the collar and jacked the bike back up again.
I was shocked it was a piece of cake, took all of two minutes bit it scared the S**t out of me.
I definitely had visions of by bike laying on it's side after it fell of the jacks.
Just wanted to put the word out, did this ever happen to anyone else?

 

Not too late for picture just use photo shops to point to the area you’re referring to? Glad your bud was quick to help out.

 

I would think that you jacked it up originally that way and didn't notice.

I've done that by grabbing the crossbar that the ring is on while moving jack around when the bike wasn't on the jack. Then jacked it up without looking.

Just gotta pay attention I figure. You MAY be dissing the J&S for your mistake? Have you EVER moved jack around, getiing it centered maybe, by the crossbar?

I'm just sayin...........

 

I'm not dissing J&S I love the jack. It was just something unusual that all.
The jack will not lift the motorcycle if the piston is not inserted in the ring.
I always use the safety dogs too.
I've been trying to figure it out.
I set the dogs in place by letting a little pressure out of the jack.
Maybe with the weight of the bike the piston went down a little more then came out when I was moving the bike around. Either way the bike didn't suddenly drop or lurch.
That's my best explanation.

 

Never had that happen before, but thanks for bringing that to our attention. I suppose it's something good to keep an eye on in the future

 

The jack upper piston shaft fits in the lifting bar pocket. You can pull it out very easily just by lifting up on the lifting bar and the jack piston will fall out of the pocket.....Just the way it's designed.

J&S instructions tell you that the jack is most stable when at full lift and resting on locking bars....So actually neither you or the jack are at fault......You did exactly as J&S directs, you jacked up bike engaged locking bars, the released pressure on jack so that it rested on locking bars.........All you failed to do was take care to shut off pressure release before jack shaft dropped out of the pocket.

As you saw, it's easy to reinsert jack shaft into pocket, just hold it in position and pump up jack.

 

I had that happen last year, and I KNOW it was my own fault. I jacked up the bike, and released pressure to "Set" the locking bars. I forgot to retighten the pressure release, and the piston lowered over night. I simply locked the pressure, jacked up the piston while guiding it into the pocket it goes into..No problem, and It has NEVER happened again..I learned my lesson..

 

I wish mine was that easy. I couldn't line up he piston and the collar there was too much weight on the jack. That's why I had to jack up the wheels to relieve the pressure and align the piston/collar.

 

Sorry you had a problem and everything has turned out ok, Ive owned a J&S Jack for about 4 years, completely problem free. The bike sits on it javked all the way up all winter for about four months. As others have said if the valve is not tight it will weep off, mine too. But all in all I think its the best jack on the market. RIDE SAFE .Tim

 

I understand how you couldn't align the piston up. Happened to me after locking bike in next to last slots and releasing pressure. Did you have the jack all the way up? Were the locks in the last slots? On mine I had to screw the pad out of the piston to allow the jack to reach vertical/last lock slots. As others have said jack was fine on the just the locks, but sooner or later had to be dealt with as you did.