AFF 450 lb Low Profile Manual Transmission Jack

This is the low-profile jack you reach for when the car is on ramps or a low-rise lift and a telescoping trans jack simply will not fit underneath it. Collapsed height is 7.25 inches, so the saddle slides beneath the pan of a car sitting on jack stands, and it winds up to 22.5 inches to clear the crossmember on the way out. Capacity is 450 lb, which covers most transverse front-drive units, light four- and five-speed rear-drive cases, transfer cases and fuel tanks.

It is a scissor-lift design driven by a 1/2-inch drive ratchet rather than a hydraulic ram. The ratchet is not included, and that is the point: there is no pump seal to weep, no ram to bleed, and nothing that will slowly sink while you are lining up bellhousing bolts. You crank it up, it stays where you left it, and you crank it back down under control. The body is high-grade steel and the whole jack weighs 43 lb, so it rolls out of the corner of the shop without a second person.

The saddle tilts for angle, which matters when you are walking a unit off the back of an engine and the tailshaft has to drop before the input shaft clears the pilot. Four ball-bearing swivel casters let you steer the load out from under the car in a straight line instead of dragging it. A nylon safety strap is included to belt the case to the saddle before you break the last bolt loose - use it. A transmission that walks off a saddle takes a knee or a pan rail with it.

Overall footprint is 7.5 in wide by 18 in long by 17 in deep. Because it is manual and low, it is also the jack that works on a driveway job where there is no air line and no room for a 70-inch telescoping unit.