Jacking and Jack Stand Points

[Century7667]

Yeah, they fit like a glove with the factory jack. I've wondered what it would take to "puck-modify" a hydraulic jack. Those points are convenient and out of the way, but like you say, no good unless you are using the factory scissor jack, definitely don't want to be under that.

Two Torins under the solid axle are an easy call. I still haven't found a spot up front that I _REALLY_ like yet for the jacks.

Ken T.

[Skip]

I lift the front of mine from the very front part of the cradle, my floor jack's pedestal locks onto it perfectly. Then I use my heavy duty jacks under either side of the cradle right where the control arms bolt into the frame, there are channels there where the floor jacks fit inside of. Once on there that car isn't moving. And that is where I have found is the most stable place to jack these cars up on the front. If you put jack stands under the so called hard points behind the front tires the unibody flexes too much and can damage the body. I've never experienced it myself but I've heard of front windshields being cracked at the pillar because of jack stands being used on those front jacking points. The weight of the front end flexes the cradle too far forward and pulls the body way out of spec. Unless of course you have a jack or jack stands under the cradle to add additional support of course. That engine and trans assembly along with the front suspension carry a hefty amount of weight.

On the rear when jacking it up, I used the axle beam to jack up the rear and that is where I place my jack stands. No body flexing to worry about when doing it that way. I've been doing it this way for 23 years and never done any damage what so ever to my baby. But I have done damage when using the hard points and noticed the body flex when lifting from there.

[Century7667]

This is good info, and a good point about the weight of the transaxle assembly. There is definitely a lot of flexing going on when jacking that car, and the 3100 is a LOT lighter than the 3300. When I bought my used Century (the '95), the front driver quarter panel was bowed out a bit. So you could see a gap between compared to the door. The owner stated that he improperly jacked the car causing the front quarter panel to bow out. Fortunately that was fixed by the body shop when they repaired my door hinge (I didn't even ask them to fix it!).

[Skip]

Oh yeah, I can believe it. I always watch my car very carefully when jacking it up as there can be a lot of damage done to it if jacking it up improperly. While jacking up an A-body you can see how much flex is going on...........the doors come out of alignment.