jacking up our cars
 

question.. When jacking up our cars, what are suitible places to do so? Of course 90% of the time Im using the generic behind the front wheel area, but say I want to jack up the back? Ive heard some people say you can jack up the pumpkin, but Im always weary about that.. Also Ive heard some people say you can jack up on the sway bars, but that does not seem right... woudlnt they bend?

Just name off some good points to jack off of. hahha.. jack off.

yup....pumpkin. Why are you leary about it? just wondering. If your worried about it falling, jack it up from the pumpkin and put 2 jack stands under the axle.

not so much that, but at least on my new cover it has a lip hanging down, seems like it would bend. Ive jacked it up there with my stock one, but this one just looks a lil different. But good to know its safe.

thats personally the only way I would do it is in the back. You could always jack up one side at a time on the rear axle and put stands under it too...got a pic of the pumpkin?

not currently... but yeah Ive done it that way before... Ill have to take a pic sometime.

I need to change my trans mount sometime soon... Whats a good place to jack up the tranny? Bell housing?

if you jack on the rear end use the torque arm mount, dont go directly underneath the pumpkin

I take it you dont have a trans jack so I would suggest a piece of plywood on a regular jack and jack it up from the pan OR you could just jack it up a little bit from the tail housing and get it out that way. Just remember that if you dont unbolt it from your engine just dont jack it up tooooo much. You can a little but but just not some extreme amount where like your starting to lift the car lol

Well I just need it to release teh trans mount a little so I can swap it... So I shouldnt need it up much.

use a jack under the tail shaft out of the way of the cross memeber though, i dont see why it would hurt the pan eather, just dont put a ton of stress on it

It wont hurt the pan if you put plywood between them. Like you said, it doesnt have to go up much so itll be fine.

what about other points on the vehicle... on the front? swaybars a no?

Why arnt you just jacking it up by the frame? I dont mean the pinchweld, I mean the frame.

And in the rear, there are two plastic peices made as lift supports...

where around the engine bay (meaning the FRONT of the car) would I find the frame?

haha i have no frame whatsoever. if you can get your jack under the front lip on your car i usually jack it up by the a arms and put jack stands on the side of the car behind the front wheels. for the back i go either under the shock mounts and do one side at a time of i go under the torque arm mount and put a jackstand on each side

Anyplace on any vehicle where you see a shock absorber or spring mounted/attached to the wheel/axle/control arm, that's a great place to jack on. The spring is already supporting the entire car on the suspension anyhow, so you are just shifting the suspension when you jack there.

On 4th gen f-bods, at the leading edge of the door, about 10 inches inside of the rocker pannel you'll see the frame rail, and jacking at this point will raise the whole side of your car, being the balance point Front/rear. If you just want to jack the rear from a side, just in front of the rear tire you'll see where the rear wheel control arm pivots where it connects to the frame, and you can jack right on that pivot point, or near it on either the control arm or the frame. Of course, the suspension will let out when jacking on the frame, so you'll need to jack higher to get the wheels off.

Same thing for front only, just behind the front tire you'll see where the front control arm connects to it's pivot point with the frame - jack right on that pivot, reaching in from the side.

Now that I thinnk about it, you guys probably have gobs of room under your cars which I don't. Therefore, you guys should all be able to reach and find where your shock/strut mounts just inside your wheel - jack right on that strut, it's already supporting the whole weight of the car.

On 4th gen f-bods, remember that our suspensions are highly torqued to begin with. If you or somebody else does any jacking that's not completely level and even (like a lift), the you may find your steering, cornering, handling, brakes are squirrely afterwards. You just need to find a big spped bump someplace and run each set of wheels over the bump 10 times, all done.