:confused: I have the front of the car currently raised up with two small hydraulic jacks and two peices of 2x6 as protective blocks. Well it seems like the only area left available to place my jack stands is right in the center of the cast cross member thingy (where I have no wood block). How on earth do you guys jack up the car and safely place it on jack stands? Is it ok to place the jack right in the center of the cast cross member and raise it from there?? Should I have used about a 3 ft long peice of 2x6 that spans the entire cross member??

 

According to the October 2000 issue of Corvette fever Magazine, the jacking procedure is as follows:
1) Start at the back of the car and jack up the rear from the center of the rear crossmember. (do NOT contact the spring). Set the jackstands just inboard from the rear control arm bolts.
2) With the rear secure, start jacking up the front of the car by the front crossmember, right in front of the oil plug. Put the (floor)jack in behind one of the front wheels and make sure you do not comein contact with the oil pan.
3) Position the front jackstands so that they contact the crossmember at the front adjustment bolts of the lower control arm. Keep them as close as possible to the crossmember for stability. Make sure the rear of the vehicle is slightly higher than the front if you will be changing the oil.

It certainly helps if you use a hydraulic floor jack vs bottle jacks, since you can lift the whole back or front of the car very easily.

Good luck! I should be changing my oil within a couple of months and will try this procedure for the first time then.

 

I am concerned about damaging something because in the manual (6-55) it states that the jack is to be placed on point "B" . It shows a pic of a cylindrical web of the cross member with a bolt in the center of it. Is it ok to jack it up at any point on the entire cross member as long as you have contact with two or more of the webs?
Thanks for your input

 

That's a bit different from what the mag suggested, but I can't see how you could damage anything anywhere along the crossmember that is right in front of the oil plug. The article has a few pictures that show the cylindrical webs you are referring to. You should be fine.

 

Wheew... breathing a sigh of relief now cause the front end is safely up in the air on jackstands. Kinda nervous since this is the first time for my car.
Thanks Dave :seeya

 

Maybe I am missing something, but it you raise the rear of the car first, I don't see how you can get a jack under the front. I have used the following procedure several times over the last few months:

1. Drive the front wheels up onto two layers of 2x6 blocks. These blocks are offset and beveled to form a small ramp. This allows sufficient clearance to get the floor jack under the front. Make sure you set the parking brake.

2. Jack up the front of the car by placing the cup of the floor jack in the center of the aluminum cross member just in front of the oil pan. Use a scrap of 2x4 to protect the crossmember, and make sure that you are not contacting the oil pan.

3. Place jack stands under the tie down points (oval hole in the frame rails) just behind the front wheels. I use a scrap of wood between the jack stand and the frame, making sure that the block contacts the frame only, and not the body panel. You can make jacking pads from hockey pucks but I just use wood. Carefully lower the car onto the jack stands.

4. Raise the rear of the car by placing the floor jack cup in the center of the rear cross member. Again use a scrap of wood to bridge the two flanges, and make sure you are not contacting the transverse spring.

5. Place jack stands under the rear tie down points (oval slots in the frame) just in front of the rear wheels. I use blocks of wood here also, making sure they don't contact the body panels.

Lower the vehicle in the reverse order, and when you lower the front make sure toy lower it back onto the small ramps so you can get the jack out.

Also, when changing the oil, make sure to raise the rear slightly higher than the front to allow all of the oil to drain from the flat bottom oil pan.

Good Luck

 

I'll second what hmert says. That front end gets really low when you start to raise the back. I also have some boards that I drive the front onto so I can get the floorjack under the center area of the crossmember.

I was concerned about the relatively small contact area of the frame where the jackstands would be placed (the tiedown slots) so I made some "adapters" that fit on the top of my stands, with steel pins that fit in the frame slots. (The part that the frame rests on is a steel pipe cap.) Just seems a little more secure & less likely for the car to shift if I'm pulling hard on a wrench, or whatever. Here's a photo:

 

Nekbyter: Do they have floor jacks in Transylvania? Get a 2 ton floor jack and your problems will be over. I have an inexpensive on that I have used on many cars over the past 20 years and it is still going strong. Place a wood cushion (hardwood is best) between the jack head and the crossmember and raise her up! :eek: :D

 

Huh? Wuts a floor jack? :rolleyes:
Yes I actually went to Wally World and bought two 2ton hydraulic floor jacks and two jack stands.

 

OH, I bet you can sell those things!!! I might be interested in a set.

 

For oil changes, here is my procedure:

Since I'm overrun with floor jacks that I've accumulated over the years, I insert a puck in each of the FRONT tie down slots and place a floor jack under each one and lift alternately on each side until the front wheels are high enough to allow me to place a Rhino Ramp under each front wheel, but here is the trick....which I learned from a forum member.......place one ramp facing forward and the other facing rearward. Let the tires down on the ramps and remove jacks. The ramp placement described above prevents the car from rolling off the ramps....no blocking necessary. I prefer this method to driving up on the ramps and blocking at least one of the wheels.

After I get the oil started to drain, I place a jack under the center of the rear cross member using a piece of 2x6 to bridge the cross member and lift the rear higer than the front for complete draining.

Good luck.
Mark

 

You guys think it is a bad idea to jack the rear of the car to drain the oil while the front is resting on jack stands the frame rail tie downs? Looks like there would be no place to pivot and it could damage the fram rails.

Edgar

 

We think alike!

Just yesterday I was reading a thread about using hockey pucks for this. When I looked at how the puck sat on the jack stand, I wasn't happy. It looked unstable.. We have earthquakes in Seattle..

So I'm going to make a saddle for my jackstands and use a short length of tube to capture the pucks. So I will have the rubber puck + the solid location on the jackstand. Photo soon.