[DMCForum] Re: How to safely lift the car onto 4 jack stands
From: tmpintnl@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 00:32:28 -0000
Ryan - Remember when I said on the phone that the worst part of a
clutch change was getting the car high enough to do the job?
Yikes! I'm so glad to hear that the car wasn't hurt, and neither
were you. Crappy jack stands should be discarded immediately. When
I did my clutch change, I got four of those superduty forged steel
jack stands from Sears. I jacked up each end a few inches at a
time, and kept raising the level by a notch or two in the stands.
You'll notice when using trolley-style floor jacks that the jack
will either roll forward, or the car will roll back, depending on
what has the least amount of rolling resistance. If you keep the
upward movement to a couple inches at a time, this tendency to roll
is minimized. I did my clutch job with Winged1 up on these four
jack stands, and had no issues. If the stands are very stable on
flat concrete, and are somewhat "locked" onto the cars underpinnings
(I used 1" thick hard rubber pads that "stuck" to the car well, and
allowed the stands to imbed a bit), you should be fine. The idea of
using ramps in front is fine too, although having the car level
seems more stable to me. For Jack Steifel's question ... the bell
housing is 16" from flange to flange, so 15" lift might be a bit
tight :-/ Of course, you start with some clearance, so an
*additional* 15" works out if the transmission jack is fairly low
profile. I'll give you a call shortly and chat about this topic.
Toby Peterson
--- In DMCForum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "ryanpwright" <yahoo1@xxxx> wrote:
> Yesterday I had the car ~18" off the ground, sitting on four 2 ton
> jack stands. Took the tranny out, no problem, but I realized that
if I
> was going to put it back in (with an appropriate transmission jack)
> I'd need a little more room, and my jack stands were fully
extended.
>
> So I bought four new jack stands. 6 ton rated "Powerbuilt" from
> Schuck's that can go up to ~24". I used my jack to lift the rear of
> the car another ~3-4" to begin putting the larger stands in place,
at
> which time something bad happened: The car began moving toward me.
I
> can only guess the wheels of the jack allowed it to roll and/or the
> front jack stands failed, because the front of the car came
crashing down.
>
> Quick survey, no damage to the car, although the stands are toast.
> Thank God I wasn't under there. Stands were Wal-Mart cheapies, I
can't
> help but wonder if that contributed to the problem.
>
> Pull out the angle meter, survey says my garge floor is a 0.75 to 1
> degree slope in the direction the car moved. Damn.
>
> Now what do I do? I have the car back up on four stands, about 15"
at
> this point, transmission sitting next to it. I am hesitant to try
to
> get it any higher. Should I go an inch or two at a time,
alternating
> front and back? Is this simply too dangerous? Jack stands say not
to
> support a car on four of them...
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