Noob Alert: floor jack questions

[gravyface]

Bought a nice heavy-duty 3-ton floor jack; tried it out today, have a couple of questions:

1. when you're lowering the floor jack, you're supposed to "SLOWLY" turn counter-clockwise to lower the car.  However, it seems like there's only one speed: quick!  Once you feel it release, it just goes down -- you can brake by turning clockwise again, but if there's not much distance (like lifting halfway up to change a tire or whatever), you'd need to be a ninja master with cat-like reflexes to stop it.  Obviously I'm doing something wrong.

2. secondly, there's a foot pedal that I have no idea what it's for; the manual doesn't mention it either.

Thanks guys

[xwill112x]

1) bring the jackstand up to the car, not the car to the jackstand.

2) no idea either, post pics?

[jscribble]

The foot pedal is likely a quick lift pedal. Press it down, and it will raise the jack up to the surface you want to lift. It won't lift any real weight, but it's a nice feature.

You may have gotten a cheap on, or one with a crappy valve. If it's too much of a pain, junk it.

[gravyface]

1) bring the jackstand up to the car, not the car to the jackstand.

Ah ok, so raise the car past the jackstand's (optimal height - 1) notch, and then notch the jackstand up as high as it can go, release the jack?  

2) no idea either, post pics?

It does raise it, just without any weight -- handy to get it up to where you need it quickly.

I have been playing with it a bit more with my wifey kindly providing some weight (had to tread carefully here with "weight" and "wifey" in the equation) and as long as I don't crank it clockwise (closed), it does release alot smoother and lower easier.

[xwill112x]

glad it seems you got everything figured out


ahaa and try not to use the wife and weight in the same sentence. lol