Floor Jack Transmission Adapter, 300 lb Tilting Cradle

This adapter bolts into the saddle post of a heavy-frame floor jack and turns it into a transmission jack. The platform carries 300 pounds, which covers passenger car and light-duty truck automatics and manuals, and it adds only 11 inches to the height of the jack you already own — low enough that you can still roll it under a vehicle sitting on jack stands, without a lift.

Fitment matters here and it is the one thing people get wrong: it fits floor jacks with the larger 1-5/32 inch saddle post hole, not the 1 inch hole found on light-duty consumer jacks. Measure the hole in your jack's lift arm before ordering. Once the post is seated, the platform sits on a tilt knob so you can pitch the case forward or back to match the driveline angle while you walk the transmission off the dowels.

On the bench side, the platform has raised extensions that cradle the pan rail and keep the case from walking off the plate while you are wrestling with the bellhousing bolts. Two safety chains come with it — run them over the case and cinch them down before you lower anything, because a transmission sliding off a jack plate is how tailshafts and knees get broken. Solid steel construction with a scratch- and corrosion-resistant coating.

Performance Tool part number W41044. If you already own a good floor jack, this is the cheap way into transmission work — it does the same lifting and tilting job as a dedicated hydraulic transmission jack for a fraction of the money and none of the floor space.