Long time no post. God i love these cars. Anways...

Looking to get my endless ZEAL coilovers over to endless for service/rebuild/ and maybe stiffer springs. I need to get the car on all four jack stands. I assume there is a right way to do this?

 

I'm not sure what the "right" way to do it is but here's what I typically do...

1) Park car and set e-brake.
2) Jack up front of car via the cross member. A rubber jack pad is your friend. This is my least favorite jack spot but it's needed unless you have two jacks and can use the factory jack points on both sides simultaneously.
3) Set jack stands (lowest setting) under the rocker panel jack points under the side vents. I like to use the slot adapters that make the jack stands a bit easier to interface with the pinch weld (linked below).
4) Jack up the rear of the car via the diff (my favorite jack point).
5) Put jack stands under the lowest pivot point for the lower control arms.

The single most important thing you can do is to ensure that you let the car down SLOWLY onto the jack stands. Right before it touches down I like to lock the jack and fine tune the position of every stand before the weight of the car hits it. This is because your typical jack doesn't raise straight up and typically moves at an angle. Same goes for descent. Thus, even if the stand LOOKS like it was placed appropriately initially, it will be in a different place as you lower the car. Best to double check and verify. You'll be working under the car and your life literally depends on it.

 

The FSM covers jacking positions on the 4th page, General Information.

 

^Nice find - I've been looking for pads like that since forever!

 

^It's also covered in the owner's manual.

I would NOT place them on the subframe. -----> https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...tions-1124213/

 

I think most of you missed the question that matty asked. He's not asking where to put the jackstands. He's asking how you guys get the car on jackstands.

I wonder about that too. If you jack from the center of the front cross member, you can't get a jack under the diff to jack the rear - and vice versa.

I usually use one of 2 methods:
1. Get the front wheels on some low ramps so that I can slide the jack under the front lip and reach the engine subframe and jack up the front then place the jack stands in place at the front location. Then I pick a side (passenger or driver) and jack the rear of the car up near where the rear jack stands go. That is sufficient to lift both rear wheels but I hate doing it as I feel it can really twist /stress the chassis/unibody.
2. Similar to ptrhahn in the linked thread, jack from the side placing the jack in the area of the pinch welds under the rear mirror. This will lift that side of the car and I'll slide the jacks in the factory positions. Then do the same on the other side.

 

From my post in the linked thread...

 

I have a relatively low-rise "big" floor jack that I've had for years. I think this is it -


My car is on coilovers and is decently low, not dumped on the ground but it's pretty low. I usually have to use a little floor jack to raise the side up a hair to get the big jack under the crossmember up front to get it up on stands. But, I can get my jack under the rear diff no problem, it may be a little close the black plastic on the rear bumper but not bad.

Dale

 

Can you get a jack under your diff once the front of your car is up on stands?

 

The diff is on the axle line....it remains the same height no matter what you do to the front of the car. But I kinda see what your saying as it relates to the approach and departure angles of the car.

To elaborate on my logic, I prefer to jack the front of the car first for two reasons. First, the front of the car is MUCH lower to the ground and it's already difficult to get under there already. The rear lip of the car is more than 2x higher than the front lip. Thus, if I had to pick which side I had to lose jack clearance on, it would be the rear and for the previously mentioned reason. As many others stated and I neglected to mention in my first post, a set of short ramps just made from two or three pieces of 1" thick wood nailed together work great. But the second and most important reason I like to jack up the front of the car first is because the e-brake doesn't lock the front wheels. So if you're jacking up the rear first you better hope you have something VERY sturdy under the front tires keeping it from rolling away. That's a non issue if you do the front of the car first since the rear tires are locked. Once the car is on stands in the front, you can jack up the rear without worrying about it rolling away.

But let's be frank, the best way to put the car in the air is to buy that ******* lift you've always wanted and deserve. Treat yo self!

 

Yep. I typically have to JUST push into the black plastic diffuser under the rear bumper but not much. I can see a larger jack would have problems. Yes, this is after the front is lifted and on stands, and at a good height.

The front I can ALMOST get the jack under the car but it's low enough that it hits the belly pan/lip spoiler. I only need to lift it up about an inch to get under there.

Dale

 

What I do to make life easier is park the front wheels of my FD (and FC) on a couple of simple platform blocks I made out of some 2x8 lumber scraps. That gets the nose off the ground about 2", which is just enough for me to get a long reach/low profile floor jack under the front cross member and jack it up. Using the same floor jack I have no issues with getting it under the differential to raise the rear after the front is up on stands. The jack I'm using is nothing special, just one of the 3 ton Pittsburg ones from Harbor freight - just get the one that has the longer reach & low profile deck.