Gator Power Lift Fail Repair

[beenthere]

The 15 yr old 4x2 Gator power lift failed. It literally stripped four cap screws out of the aluminum lower housing.
Replacement was $700-800 for a new lift (that is a bit on the steep side IMO).

I looked at a possible fix by drilling out and re-tapping the holes in the aluminum, but then thought I could drill out the holes all the way through the housing and put in bolts.

So drilled out the 3/16" holes, but could not find 3/16" bolts that were 3 1/2" long. Went to McMaster.com and found 3/16" threaded steel rod cut to 3 1/2" and 3/16" lock nuts. (ordered noon one day and the UPS truck delivered them at noon the following day ).

Used some gasket seal from a tube and put the power lift back together for about $14.

I will add some pics when I get them transferred to this new computer (using Carbonite to upload all my old computer files over to the new... works really slick but takes a few hours).

 

[beenthere]

First pic of the part in failed condition. The lower left shows one of the four cap screws that pulled out of the aluminum base.

Drilled holes completely through the base and bolted the lower unit to the upper. Worked like a charm, and saved a lot of $$$