Anyone have any decent tips or tricks for raising up our cars to work under them?

Long ramps that clear the front fender? Or just jack the car up?

I can change my coolent without raising the car, but anything else would be impossible.

 

I have a rolling floor jack and jack stands.. Cars like ours have really stiff frames and limited suspension travel, so jacking only one corner of the car is out of the question. On the front, I jack using a suspension point...On the rear, the IRS differential. USE JACK STANDS IF YOU HAVE THEM!!! I have already learned that lesson when a car came down just seconds after I got out from under it...

 

what partof the car? for the front i use ramps

 

i've been pondering the same thing and i have all the necessary tools (i.e. 2 hydrolic jacks, jackstands...), but with my old car it had a jacking point under the front and rear bumper, so you could just jack it up and throw some jackstands underneath.
also im going to need to jack up my rx7 to change the tranny oil, so i would like to know how to do it rather than jack up the part of the car the jack is on and leave the rest of the car on the ground(which i did once to my dad's car)

 

The jack point I use for the front sides is visible behind the front tires on either side...Its the bottom section of the shock tower (I think) If you jack there, there are some good jackstand points further in by the suspension pivot point. Just remember that once you put the jackstand in, and lower the jack, the front tire you jacked on is going to come back down to the end of the suspension travel. I also used ramps once for the front and found them to be FAR more convenient.

 

Well, heres how I did it. I jacked up the front with a 3ton floor jack on the front suspension cross member, lifted it up and put two jack stands under the frame (easy to see where) for the back I slid another jack under and jacked the differential up, jack stands under the front arms and that was it.

 

wont the front differential mount get messed up faster by jacking up the car using the differential?

 

Perhaps, i have a bumper jack so I usually jack it up by the two tow hooks so it goes up evenly, but if I don't have that jack available I use the dif mount.

 

How would jacking on the differential be detrimental to the mount?

 

When jacking up the rear of a car you're supposed to jack it up from the differential,and nowhere else.If ur changing a flat thats one thing,but to work under the car you ALWAYS jack from the differential!!!!

 

That was pretty much my take on it.....

 

HEHE Yup,if u enjoy life as it is,that's the way to do it w/o gettin' urself seriously hurt.

 

My car is too low to get a jack under it, so I have to drive it up on some 2x4s nailed together...what a pain.

 

my car is so low I need to drive up 2x4s to be able to position the jack underneath.

 

I was just thinking the same thing.

 

i always used those two places under the front bumper, but always wondered about the rea, guess i will use the differential from now on. So what is so bad about jacking up one side and leaving the rest on the ground? i have always done it that way, for lack of jacks, but i don't anymore i have some new heavy duties. just wanted to know what is so bad about it.

 

For the rear, I always use the diff, and put the stands on the frame the farthest back they will go. For the front, I always use the front cross member, and put the stands the farthest front on the frame as I can, and try to leave the jack in place if I can as an added supprt. My stands are rated at 6000 lbs, and my jack is rated at 2.5 tons, but I am still nervous and extra careful whenever I am gonna be under her more a while, espically is I have to do a lot of hard wrenching!

 

Its not that jacking one side is bad, its jacking one corner thats not too good...Kinda tweaks the frame.

Rat