Lifting and supporting points

[S_ÜBER_U]

Originally posted by The_Lizard
Today I lifted the front of the 96 to go after an exhaust shield rattle. I noticed that the pinch weld has old damage from being either lifted or supported incorrectly. So here's a shot of doing it right, next to evidence of doing it wrong.

Hi everybody,

i was curious about safely lifting my unit and didn't want to do things like this ^^

i want to use the pinch welds but my stands don't have the same groove depth as some of you guys.

mikebike357 mentioned a hockey puck under the center plate and thought I'd try this out by making a groove in the puck and placed between the pinch weld and the jack stand.

any thoughts...?

[plain OM]

The small jack that comes with the car actually spans the pinch weld. The weight is not supported on the bottom of the pinch weld; rather, it is supported on a reinforcing pad just inside (underside of the body) of the pinch weld jack locating marks.

The service manual shows a block with a groove cut out. (See below). I use a hockey puck, actually two, one which I grooved out with a router deep enough that it straddles the pinch weld. This one was glued to another underneath -- this helps stabilize the upper one and ensure that the two "halves", which actually support the weight, are less likely to pull apart. I use it on my large shop jack, or on jack stands that have a flat top plate. The type of jack stand shown above, which supposedly should straddle the pinch weld, won't work safely with the puck arrangement. The added benefit of the puck is that the rubber won't damage the paint surface it comes in contact with. If I could find larger blocks of hard rubber, as in the diagram, I'd make those up, but for now the pucks seem to be working well, and are inexpensive.

I'll post a pic here of the hockey puck pad when I'm back at the desk computer that has the photos.

[plain OM]

Okay, so here's the hockey puck. One side is sloped, because on my 07 there's a plastic trim piece that goes under the rocker panel and is slightly sloped, so I wanted to match it. Most of the weight is on the inside, where there is a reinforcing bracket, at least until the rubber compresses and the outside part also begins to take the weight. Also, at the ends of the slot the corners are cut to accommodate the raised jack location marks on the pinch weld. The puck is wider than the space between the marks, and without either these cut out, or widening the slot, the puck would bind on the pinch weld. I'm not sure if the earlier MYs have the same location marks.

Incidentally, I bought a bunch of pucks (about 99 cents each a few years ago) and made up six of these adapters. That way I have one for each of my four jack stands, as well as spares. And as I noted earlier, I use the same ones on the hydraulic garage jack.

Note: have to keep watching for tearing down the center of the groove, which could lead to separation of the two sides. This is the one drawback that a better block of rubber might address better.

[driveby]

I like your solution to work around the rocker trim and lift marks!

For my 2001, fyi, all I had to do was cut the puck in half (and raise it slightly with a circle of cork cut from an Ikea trivet). It has worked perfectly the few times I have lifted from the side of the car. Usually I lift from the center.

Here is the cork to raise the inside of the lift plate (Craftsman jack) by about 1/3":



And here is the puck, cut in half to fit around the pinch welds:




Fyi, you could buy a pinch weld adapter like this if you want:



...but I think the hockey puck is even better. The hard rubber cushions the jack point.


I also use a harborfreight jack cap to protect the jack plate or diff:



Plus harborfreight jack stands with optional rubber caps to fit around the pinch welds and cushion the lift points.


-Jeff

[jmaynard]

This was the best I could come up with on my 2000 OBL wagon...the crossmember that the jack plate attaches to. I think it's stable. I couldn't find any better place to put the saddle. Did I get it right?

Edit: It'd be nice if I could find a place to put them where they weren't so close together, so I could get in between them...

[rockhopjohn]

Originally Posted by jmaynard

This was the best I could come up with on my 2000 OBL wagon...the crossmember that the jack plate attaches to. I think it's stable. I couldn't find any better place to put the saddle. Did I get it right?

Edit: It'd be nice if I could find a place to put them where they weren't so close together, so I could get in between them...

Well, the best place, as mentioned earlier in the thread is to support off the of the pinch welds along each side of the car. To me this is the most stable point. The biggest issue is having a jack stand with a slot in it for the pinch weld, or to create some sort of block that slips over the pinch weld and can then jacked up. I just took 4 6" pieces of 2x6" and cut a slot into them for this purpose, and it works fine for me.