WA 2 FST

What are the do's and don'ts for getting this thing up on jackstands? I don't want to do something dumb out of ignorance.

Thanks! :)

Smokehouse69

Wes,
According to the owners manual the only recommended places to jack up the C-3, is on the main frame, 3 inches in front of the rear wheel well for the rear wheel and 5 inches in front of the bottom of the front door opening for the front.
Don't use the front crossmember, the metal on the bottom of the crossmember is fairly thin and is bent very easily (mine is smushed in from some moron jacking it there.)
If you are going to put it up on stands, use the jacking locations for the stands. Make sure that your stands are equal in height and on a fairly level surface.

Marks69BB

If you didn't get one with the car, get you a repro 69 owners manual from ebay or any of the corvette vendors for the basic info like this. The 4 jackstand points are just behind the front wheels on the frame rails before they curve inward and on the frame rails just in front of the rear wheels. The jacking points I use are the front lip of the front crossmember using a scrap piece of 2x4 for cushioning between the jack and crossmember and under the rear diff. Hope this helps! :cheers:


[Modified by Marks69BB, 10:17 PM 11/24/2002]

PRNDL

Most of us hate to jack up the car from 4 seperate spots for two reasons, 1. We are lazy and would rather only jack the car up twice, rather than 4 times, and #2. You feel like you are really twisting the frame and stressing the car by jacking it up one corner at a time. What I do more and more these days is place the jack on the side frame, but in the middle. This will lift both the front and rear wheel off the ground at the same time. Put 2 jackstands in place on that side, or 2 wheel dolleys or whatever I am using. Then I go to the other side and lift it from the middle as well. MJ


and once again, http://www.corvettefaq.com is your source for links to all kinds of C3 related info, like jacking points:
http://users.erols.com/jerryp58/corvette/jackpts.jpg




[Modified by MNJack, 1:06 AM 11/25/2002]

theandies

Also, while on the jack stands, try to avoid opening the doors (especially convertibles) because if there is any frame flex you could chip your doors or fenders if the fender and door fiberglass come in contact with each other. I use a 4X4 that I cut to fit between the exhaust pipes and jack the rear at the springs center attachment point and jack the front (using the same 4X4) at the front crossmember (mine is also dented a bit that is why I use the wood and since it is already dented...who cares). When jacking any car, use extreame caution and be safe.
John

Eddie 70

I have two hockey pucks, stacked one on top of the other, that I set inside the cupped part of my hydraulic jack. This keeps from scratching anything new and will also keep you from pinching a fuel line or whatever that is running down the frame rail.

cchristo

Had not considered this until the other day when I brought mine to a shop for some brake work. Before they put it on the lift, the owner of the place asked me to remove the T-tops in case of any frame or body flex. Simple precaution for a potentially very expensive accident.

LABulldog

I think I need to second your idea on removing the t-tops. I recently jacked my front end up (one side at a time) and placed it on jack stands to do some minor engine work. I left my t-tops in while doing the work. The other day I discovered a second crack in my drivers side t-top that wasn't there before I did the work. The only explanation that I can come up with is body flex cracked it while I was jacking up one side. No way to prove this but I'm just glad that it was on the t-top that was already cracked.

john's '81 mouse

Yep, always a good idea to loosen the latch on glass t-tops.........no need really to remove, just pull the latch down so they'll have some give if the body goes through some twisting motion during jacking.

Swamp Thang

Yep, that's the easiest way to do it.

Flareside

I use the same system as Marks69BB, with a block of wood under the front crossmember to distribute the load. As long as you don't concentrate the load in the soft sheetmetal center of the crossmember, you won't damage anything. In the back, I jack under the differential (if the spare is still installed, you'll need a low profile jack).

jrzvette

If I could, I'd like to add a question here... I have four 3 ton jack stands with a maximum height of 21", and a floor jack with a 19" max. If I wanted to jack the car up to the max of the floor jack is it ok to do it in one move, or should I raise each corner in increments?

Marks69BB

The way I do this is chock the rear wheels with the car in gear and ebrake on. Then jack the front of the car with a 2x4 under the front crossmember lip as stated in my post above to get the front end up so you can get the jackstands under there on there lowest setting. Then lower the car onto the stands. Next, do the same for the rear with the jackstands at midway setting. The whole idea is not to get one end much higher than the other so the car is stable while you are jacking it and adjusting the stands. You can always use some 2x10s ~ 2' long under your jack so that you can get the most out of your stands. Before you get under the car, push on it to make sure all is secure and solid. The main thing here is be very careful and take your time, both for your safety and the vette's! As an extra precaution, I always leave the jack snugged up under the end I'm working on just in case of a jackstand failure. The same precedure should be used when you want to let it down and remove the jackstands.