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so, i was going to jack my car up to get a better view of some things, pulled out the quickjacks, lined them up, powered them up a little but noticed something wrong rather quickly
the rear is much higher than the front.
and even if i keep going in the quickjack's travel, that rear end gap doesn't seem to close much
like the entire car is trying to balance on those front two jack points....which is not good!
Am i missing something?
passenger front driver rear driver front passenger rear
Does your car sit level to begin with? I am assuming you are using the same size rubber blocks on all four contact points, right? I use one large rubber block for each contact point and just move them around until they are in a good position under the frame. I've never had that problem with them being that off.
Do both Quickjacks sit level before they contact the frame?
Since the frames do that forward/aft movement as they go up and the vette is close to 50/50 on the wheels, the rear block is just in front of the rear wheels when I lift but the front one is back another foot or so more of the weight is on the front pad, I usually have the tall block and the short on on it's side up front)
I can say that I usually load mine so it lifts towards the rear (car goes up and back) so the puck trays are reversed to what you have there. but if I need to do rear suspension work I load it as you have
I always have to use the taller blocks or it will touch on the trans-crossmember (or come really close and it looks like it's going to)
I position the front blocks a little farther forward than yours look, just at the start of the turn-in on the from
Typically I'll also put a set of jack-stands up under the front swaybar to "take some weight" of the front of the car cantilevering that far forward of the lift point, I doubt it could fall but it makes me feel better crawling under there
M
Any my frame does sit pretty level, the blocks hit close to the same time, front is a little lower so it hits first but starts to compress and takes some load (starts to take the car up a little) before the rear touches, maybe 1/2-1 inch???
QJ was making up a cross-bar to be used on frames that kicked in, it would span between the two jacks and allow the blocks to be places in-board, I don't know they ever actually released it
M
I use the SUV adapters instead of the blocks. They allow plenty of clearance for the transmission cross member and get the car up a bit higher. The 4 adapters don't all touch the frame at the same time when lifting but they are fairly close - probably about the same as Mooser describes. One side does try to kick out a bit at the rear before that adapter makes contact so I have to make sure to hold it in place if that happens. After I raise the car high enough, I set it down on some wooden wheel cribs I made. I can then add the SUV adapter extensions to get even greater height. Or I can leave it on the wheel cribs and remove the QJ for easier access from the sides. It's a bit of a pain to slide the wheel cribs in place because of the lateral movement of the car when lifting or lowering but sometimes I just want the QJ out of the way.
Had to put mine up a couple of times today/tonight to adjust the rear toe shims
As the lift approaches the frame without touching
DF, a bit of room above the fingers there
DR, fingers just barely touch so maybe 1/4 or 1/2" less than the front
PF
PR
This is with the lift moving the car up and back so I don't have a lot of choice at the front blocks, they are as far back in the pockets as they can be.
As you can see, the lift hits pretty close to at the same time front and rear
thanks for the pics, now i'm wondering if the PO did something weird with front and rear wheel sizes or suspension settings, causing the rear the sit higher than the front
two things to look at quick is how the outside spring to trailing arm bolts are set as they affect the rear height. Also if you have raised the car and set it down the tires need to slide out as the suspension tries to swing back up. If they cant, they can hold up the rear
if that's ok, look at the sway bar
my
Last edited by Mooser; Jun 11, 2020 at 01:13 PM.
Reason: typo
The 27" vs 31" fender measurements show where your problem is. The rear end is way too high. Rear spring end bolts are the first place to look. I have a 77 and a Quick Jack. All 4 fenders are around 27.5" and, when lifting the car, the 4 rubber blocks contact at about the same time.
got some rear suspension pics from when i first got it, it seemed alright at the time, but looking at it again the rear spring seems awfully curved relatively to other pics i've seen of the half shafts being totally parallel
That's a TRW spring by the part number. They have been know to have a high arch (not usually that high)
Those look like 8" bolts on the ends (check, stock were only 6-3/8 or so) if they aren't they need to be at least gr8 8" long, and that would fix your problem) or if you are running 17" wheels you can go to 9-10" bolts, just make sure they don't hang below the rim in case of a flat they'll dig into the pavement
yeah, the PO did a lot of great work, and some not great work
it sits on coy wheels with nexen N3000s, the rear tire size is 255/45/18, the fronts are 245/45/18, so in terms of total wheel diameter, they differ by 0.3"
With an 18" rim you can go to a longer bolt in the rear to help lower it down more, just make sure they aren't lower than the rim and keep your eye open for a different spring.
(Can you move your batteries to the rear instead of up front
M
(i'll be splitting the batteries, most of front, some in a battery box replacing the gas tank)
i'll measure the bolts, i'm eventually going to some kind of coilover system which will sidestep composite spring issues, but considering the cost, that won't be for a while
Last edited by jokeitch; Jun 11, 2020 at 05:52 PM.
Proper Quickjack procedure for c3?
