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Jack Points
I've been asked three times over the last couple of weeks about
jacking the car, and where to place the jack stands. So, pictures
being worth thousands of words, here is what I do...
In general, I never lift or support the car on the body pan.
| I use a hydraulic floor jack extensively. Mine only goes to 14 inches
vertically which is not enough. Sears has a nice one which has a
quick rise feature and will go several inches higher. That will be my
next one. Two of these will be useful when I decide to drop the
engine.
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| The hydraulic jack works because I have a jack plate that slides into
the factory jack point, the square tube welded to the rocker panels.
This is my second one of these. I think the first got thrown out with
the newspapers to recycling. This jack point is a common area to get
attacked by rust and the rocker panels can actually distort and sag in
bad cases.
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| At the rear, I put the jack stands under the large diameter tube that
holds the torsion bars. These are strong and securely welded into the
car.
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| The front has its own special problems, partially because the 14
in. maximum height of my hydraulic floor jack does not lift the
suspension high enough to get the jack stand under one of the secure
points when lifting from the normal jack point. Here I have the jack
under one end of the torsion bar carrier. This point is quite secure,
but if you are working on the the suspension does not work well.
A better point is just inboard on the tubular cross member that holds
the steering rack. Unfortunately this tube is covered with a
sheet metal cover that extends across the car which has to be taken off
before you can place the jack stands. The dilemma is how to lift the
car enough to remove the sheet metal shield and add the jack stand with
one application of the floor jack.
You can see this metal shield just to the right of the point that the
car is resting on the floor jack. It is easily taken off by removing 2
bolts and two nuts.
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| I don't have a good solution, but the intermediate is to use the jack
stand at the end of the suspension where it bolts into the body. I
don't feel this is safe and do not recommend it.
In all cases, get some chocks to prevent the car from rolling. Not
only do you not want to rely on the emergency brake, but for some
operations on the half shafts, the emergency brake must not be
engaged.
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Last modified: Mon, 06 Aug 2001
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