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position of floor jack and jackstands

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byron366

CEG'er
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
54
Location
Eastern Ontario
hey everyone. i don't really do much work requiring the car to be lifted, but i need to get the car up a little to remove the passenger side foglight assembly. the car sits so low that i can't get my head underneath. my manual says to position the jackstands in the notches of the pinchrail, but it says nothing about the position of the jack. i don't want to bust anything, so any help would be appreciated. even some pictures would help. the only reason i am posting this is the fact that other threads have broken links, so i can't access them. thanks
 
for me, i just drove up onto a couple pieces of wood to raise the front of the car about 2 inches. but if you have jackstands, I guess thats easier.
 
byron366 said:
actually i don't have side skirts. i think the shocks have lowered a bit because they are so old. so where exactly do i place the floor jack?
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place it right behind the front tire, at the bottom of the body panel. there should be a ~1 inch protrusion of sheet metal that extends all through the underside of the car. if ur jack is the one that came with ur mystique, then there should be a notch on top of the jack that allows the 1" protrusion to sit in that notch. once it sits in flush, then u can jack the car up safely.
 
Jack it up by the front subframe. Put the jack straight under the nose of the car right BEHIND the radiator onto the subframe, then put jack stands under the subframe by the rear bolts. No fiddling with jack point covers.
 
didnt want to start a new thread for this.

I'm doing a project that requires removing all my wheels, and I just bought this:

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we...nds-Combo-Torin_9040048-P_N3397_T|GRP2042____

so should I jack it up using the subframe(centered behind the radiator?) and then place the jackstands at the very rear of the subframe?

that sounds ok to me, but now what do I do about the rear? should I just use the scissor jack?
 
Yes that is perfect for the front. remove your under tray/ splash shield before jacking. For the rear you can use the scissor jack on the rear pinch welds under the jack point cover then put the jack stand on the rear frame rails. they are just before the rear sub-frame. if you stick your head under there you will see them. it can be kinda tricky with the jack and the jack stand in relatively the same area. I have also used a small hydraulic jack on the rear frame rails. but that is much harder to do.

Depending on the type of jack stand you have you can use hockey pucks on top of them to give some cushion for the rear. I actually cut shallow groves in 2 hockey pucks to use as a pinch weld adapter sitting on top a jack stands on a Toyota as i had no where to put jack stands on the rear otherwise. it worked very nicely and that is how i will support that car from the rear again. you could do this with the SVT but then you have no place to put the jack. I have 2 jack stands that are basically flat on the top so this works well. I also use a hockey puck or a piece of wood on the jack pad to prevent damage.

Never use a jack without a jack stand. they can fail at anytime.
 
SVTJON87 said:
Yes that is perfect for the front. remove your under tray/ splash shield before jacking. For the rear you can use the scissor jack on the rear pinch welds under the jack point cover then put the jack stand on the rear frame rails. they are just before the rear sub-frame. if you stick your head under there you will see them. it can be kinda tricky with the jack and the jack stand in relatively the same area. I have also used a small hydraulic jack on the rear frame rails. but that is much harder to do.

Depending on the type of jack stand you have you can use hockey pucks on top of them to give some cushion for the rear. I actually cut shallow groves in 2 hockey pucks to use as a pinch weld adapter sitting on top a jack stands on a Toyota as i had no where to put jack stands on the rear otherwise. it worked very nicely and that is how i will support that car from the rear again. you could do this with the SVT but then you have no place to put the jack. I have 2 jack stands that are basically flat on the top so this works well. I also use a hockey puck or a piece of wood on the jack pad to prevent damage.

Never use a jack without a jack stand. they can fail at anytime.
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Good advice... I do mine similar to which I will note here.

The front I take the lower plastic valence (undertray or whatever the technical term is) out and jack on the subframe dead center of the car. I then put two jackstands under the subframe about dead center of the a-arms up front. On the rear I jack the car up by the suspension subframe (opposite side of the exhaust hangar) and as far towards the gas tank on the subframe so as not to screw up the bottom of it. I then place a jackstand on the pinch weld on each side, about two or three inches forward of the rear jack point cover. I've had the car totally in the air two or three times now doing it this way and haven't had any issues.




Shannon
 
Kilroy said:
Good advice... I do mine similar to which I will note here.

The front I take the lower plastic valence (undertray or whatever the technical term is) out and jack on the subframe dead center of the car. I then put two jackstands under the subframe about dead center of the a-arms up front. On the rear I jack the car up by the suspension subframe (opposite side of the exhaust hangar) and as far towards the gas tank on the subframe so as not to screw up the bottom of it. I then place a jackstand on the pinch weld on each side, about two or three inches forward of the rear jack point cover. I've had the car totally in the air two or three times now doing it this way and haven't had any issues.




Shannon
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I had heard that you can damage the rear subframe if you jack from it. so i was always to scared to try to. It would make this so much easier if i could. i will look into it more.

Most other cars i have worked on have a jacking point on the front and rear subframe. and it is pretty obvious where to put the jack lol. having factory service manuals helps as well. ford's jacking points just suck on the contour.
 
If the front air dam is still on the car i jack each corner up independently using the pinch weld and a block of wood with a slot cut in it to fit the pinch weld. I then put the jack stand under the front "frame rails". for the rear i do the same only jack it up as far back as possible on the pinch weld with the block of wood and then put the jack stand right next to the jack.


I agree that the jacking points suck on the Contour, I much prefer my VR4. 1 reinforced point on the front frame, and then the rear diff, makes it real simple to get the whole car up in the air.
 
SVTJON87 said:
I had heard that you can damage the rear subframe if you jack from it. so i was always to scared to try to. It would make this so much easier if i could. i will look into it more.

Most other cars i have worked on have a jacking point on the front and rear subframe. and it is pretty obvious where to put the jack lol. having factory service manuals helps as well. ford's jacking points just suck on the contour.
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It depends on where exactly you jack it on the subframe IMO. If you jack the car up by the subframe on the (I think) passenger side where the exhaust hanger is you can cave it in. A guy at a tire store did this one time... when I had the exhaust put on my car the gentleman at the exhaust shop had to take a pry bar and bend it back out. I've jacked the car on the other side of the hanger and not had any problems denting or damaging the subframe, but I get the jack to just make contact and then slide it a little bit forward as there's a flat section in the front of the subframe just behind the gas tank. It's worked well so far ;)

I agree too about getting the rear of the car in the air sucks as there's not really any "good" way of doing it without using the factory siccsor jack under the pinch weld. Even the IRS in the Cobra has what is called "jacking pads" just behind the front mounting points, although since my car has full length subframe connectors I usually use them. The car is stiff enough with them now that it will jack up the entire rear of the car from either side on the rear of the subframe connector.



Shannon
 
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