Best place to utilize the jack

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
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So I had a friend help me change a tire on my 68 Dart and he put the jack on the pinch weld. I don't really like that because it damaged the pinch weld a little and when I tried to straighten it, it left a mark and is really hard to straighten because that metal is really thick on the pinch weld.

I didn't tell him I was kinda pissed about it because it would seem like a such a small thing to most people, but just confirmed to me why I do everything myself with my cars and don't even trust shops.

then I started looking under the car and thinking where the best possible place and strongest point is. On the front, it's easy, there is a huge chunk of flat subframe that seems logical but I am thinking about those times you need to get the jack in from either the front or rear of the car, So is the K frame a good point??

where do you guys place the jack ??
 
I always use the K frame and place jack stands under the torsion bar cross frame. If using a lift I put it on the unibody frames.
 
I find it ironic a girl is asking that... lol.
K frame or lower control arm, and rear axle in the back.
 
K-frame center or rear differential center to raise both sides off either end evenly.

For front on just one side, under the flat part of the frame rail closest to the firewall.

For rear on just one side, axle tube near the leaf spring.
 
fratzog lover said:
Put a piece of wood on the jack and the K frame is plenty strong. The rear diff is plenty strong for a floor jack.
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Best answer so far, I didn't think to use a wooden block but i think that is the solution.

I know it's underneath the car but I still don't want it beat up so I think a wood block will help
 
I've jacked one up plenty of times.:)

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Using a block in between can slip & or crack.

I rotate one of the high points on the floor jack cup so it locks in with the back of the k-frame lip to help prevent any slippage.

If anything, use something thinner & softer like an old t-shirt or something similar.

Safety first.

Steel can be repaired with a lot less pain than we can be repaired.
 
When he was lining up for the pinch weld ,you shoulda booted him in the arse..
All the above advice is great.
Had a mustang on my drive on hoist, and brought customer in to see the damage,both pinch welds and torque boxes were bent.
Safety guy did more damage than good.
 
Alaskan_TA said:
Using a block in between can slip & or crack.

I rotate one of the high points on the floor jack cup so it locks in with the back of the k-frame lip to help prevent any slippage.

If anything, use something thinner & softer like an old t-shirt or something similar.

Safety first.

Steel can be repaired with a lot less pain than we can be repaired.
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Exactly right, never go under one without jack stands.
 
I put the cup of the jack over the bolt for the mid brace on the K frame when I do the front then carefully put the stands under the sway bar mounts away from the grease zerks , the back the well the diff works fine and the stands usually on the subframe at the weld for the connector but sometimes on the tubes at the springs depending on where I need to get .
 
Tooljunkie said:
When he was lining up for the pinch weld ,you shoulda booted him in the arse..
All the above advice is great.
Had a mustang on my drive on hoist, and brought customer in to see the damage,both pinch welds and torque boxes were bent.
Safety guy did more damage than good.
Click to expand...
I would have but he got ahead of me and I wasn't there yet, I got out to the garage in time to see it in progress. ……...but anyways
 
Don't use a wood block. You can take a shop rag or old towel to pad the lift pad. That's what I do on the cars that are detailed to that level.
 
Under the rear diff is great, unless you have a Dart and want to get the rear tire off... Then you want to jack up the body off of the rear axle. My favorite spot in that case is the place where the rear subframe meets the piece of framing in front of the rear spring attachment point. I still remember watching a dude at Carlisle try yo take the rear tire off of his 1970 Dart by jacking up the rear diff... he took off the lug nuts and couldn't get the tire out. I walked up to the car, asked everyone to move away picked up on the rear bumper and the tire just fell off :)
 
diymirage said:
thats a terrible example, unless you jacked it up, put a jackstand down, adjusted the jack, jacked it up again and and placed the jackstand under your favorite jacking point
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I jack it up under the k frame and rear end, then place the jackstands.
 
What kind of jack? A floor jack? Was this guy dumbfuck enough to put a floor jack under the pinch weld? You need to hang with a better class of people. That car was factory designed for a bumper jack. Kinda self explanatory where that goes. Also, if anyone used a floor jack on it, they need to have a few more brain cells than your "friend". What happened to your intelligence that you let him do that?
 
Mopar-Mitch said:
Terrible how? Its safe.
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yeah, but im not talking safety here

she wanted to know the best place to put a jack, and your car is on jackstands
since you're not going to hold the car up in the air while you switch out the jack for the jackstand, the stand will always be a foot or so from where you placed the jack
 
Right in front of, or partially on the spring hanger for the rear.

The frame horn is reinforced there and I agree about partially hooking or at least paying attention to the raised areas on the jack pad. It's easy to crease the laminated sheet metal our frames are made of.

It's always tough to get jack stands on an area with enough flat surface.
Most stands that are worth anything have a half round cutout that causes them to not sit well.

I made 1x stock pads with sheet metal skirts to make the surface perfectly flat.
Doubt seriously they will slip and if the split it's only 3/4 inch, but the weight is pretty evenly distributed.
 
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