Working on any car sometimes involves getting safely underneath to spin wrenches, or swing hammers. A floor jack and jack stands are the right tools for the job when it comes time to working on an automobile with more than one of its wheels removed. Choosing the right floor jack and jack stand set depends on the weight of your automobile. There’s no need to get a 12-ton set if you drive a 1982 Toyota Starlet. Conversely, an economy stamped steel 1-ton set won’t hold up a full-size pickup or SUV. Ground clearance, or lack of it, is another factor. Low-profile floor jacks will squeeze under most stock body cladding. A set of ramps are the answer for getting the floor jack under super low rides.
Step-by-Step Gallery with Bonus Captions
Key Points
Jacking and jack stand support points are crucial to safety. A jack or jack stand in the wrong location can cause vehicular or bodily damage! Your owner’s or service manual is a good place to find the right jack locations and jackstand points for your vehicle. Never jack up a vehicle from a point not designed to handle the load. If unsure about where to place a jack or jack stand, the best strategy is to stop. Do not attempt to guess at a good location. Putting holes in the floorboards or yourself is not the goal.
Back Down
When lowering the vehicle onto the stands or back onto the ground it is important to slowly release the hydraulic pressure inside the jack. Double check jack stand locations before lowering the car. If working with others yell “clear” or “potrzebie” before turning the handle on the jack. Slow lowering of the vehicle not only helps prevent damage, but allows time to see any potential hazards before they occur. Practice raising and lowering the jack to get a good feel for how it works before balancing 3000 pounds of car on it.
Even with ramps, one must be careful– the set of ramps I have (the brand name rhymes with “Albino”) don’t clear the front bumper of my modestly lowered xB (it’s an entire inch lower than stock).
The next natural step, of course, is to get a bunch of 2x8s, and build super-long ramps by merely stacking pieces of them, like so: Build Yourself Some Ramps – MustangWorld
A couple of extra points (some learned through hard experience). Use the hand brake and transmission in park (auto) or gear (manual) to help lock the wheels still in contact with the ground. The pictures show chocking the wheels, this should always be done on all the wheels in contact with the ground. Bricks, rocks, a board are poor chocks, the can slip. The kind shown grip tighter as you rotate the wheel, that is a good thing. Work on a hard flat surface as much as possible. If you must work on grass, use a wide board or plywood under the jack or stand to spread the load and prevent sinking.
Finally, never use cinder blocks or bricks for stands. They can crumble, shatter, etc., instantly dropping the car.
Short of being crushed alive by the object of your mechanical frustration, what others might deem just a tiny bit ironic, few things suck more than trying to work under a car which is not raised high enough, not being able to find one of your stands, and the once-a-project box wrench gravity check into facial region. Of course, holes in floorboards are up there too.
I might also suggest keeping the hood closed or at least down when raising or lowering the vehicle. Lowering the vehicle on those jacks requires a Midas touch to rotate the handle at just the right rate to avoid the “NASCAR style” dropping of the vehicle like a retard. If the hood’s still up when you do this, your hood prop will not be happy, and it’s no fun trying to straighten it back out. (sigh)
Learned the hard way, not by me: Keep a cordless or cell phone close by. If something were to shift and you’re pinned you can call for help. Happened to a pal who thought he had to wait until Monday’s mail delivery to get help. His Corvette dropped on him, pinning him on Saturday evening.
I’ve done some incredibly dumb jack and jackstands moves in my days…very lucky I was never squashed.
That said, let me reiterate that it’s worth the extra time to think everything through when it comes to where the car will be, how high you want the stands, etc.
It’s no fun getting a good ways into the project only to learn that the 9″ pumpkin won’t fit between your chest and the floor of the car.
Also, remember to move the jack stands far enough away from the car before lowering it, even if you’re in a hurry. Otherwise you might end up with a dent in the rocker panel.