jacking up a car

[bah]

Re: jacking up a car

i would find a buddy with just a 2 car garage, it will take probably 2 or 3 hours on jackstands, as long as you drop the exhaust completely before you start, and take the manifolds out the bottom you will be fine. but i was under there doing oil pan on a concrete floor, my back was so raw after it was all over it, trust me, you DO NOT want to do it on gravel

[bluovlh8er]

Re: jacking up a car

if you cant figure out how to jack up a car i dont think you should do a header job.

[Abaddon]

Re: jacking up a car

The headers cost more than $150. You might be better off like this last guy said...instead of trying it yourself and risking the health of your car (and YOU if the car should happen to fall!), mow a few yards and come up with some extra cash and let the mechanic do it for $150. Hell, *I* wouldn't do it for $150. That's a good price, IMO.

I'll always remember the story my dad told me. He was a mechanic in the army during the Vietnam war. He said a friend of his was working on a rotor and had the wheel off and the car up on a jack while he was working on it. He said the jack slipped and the car fell right down between his legs. In that case, the guy was ok but think about how close 3000lbs of car was to his sack! Ouch! :)

[Vanquish]

Re: jacking up a car

I blame jacks slipping from underneath the cars, personal fault. Not the jacks fault at all. I'm not working on my Cadillac right now, but it's been jacked up on the front end for a few months now. The jack hasn't moved an inch, and my nephews have even sat in the car and chilled, while it was in the air. There are jackstands in place, just in case the jack happens to slip, but after it being like it has for this long, I don't really see it moving now.

[Abaddon]

Re: jacking up a car

Well that's downright dangerous to let kids play in jacked up cars. I'm sure the jack slipped because the car moved when working on it. Jackstands are necessary.

I picked up some ramps the other day from Pep Boys and they are made of high-grade plastic. I wasn't too sure about them but they are rated for 8,000 lbs and work well. They look like they should be stamped Fisher-Price but they do a good job.

[Firebird45331]

Re: jacking up a car

those plastic ramps do a great job if their level. if not they'll warp and twist. I jack the car up and put ramps under it instead of driving up them. I do like using ramps better on rear wheel drive cars than front wheel drive cars. We used them on a front wheel drive car. gave it a little too much gas and shot the ramps straight back under the car. We still ended up jacking up the car to get the ramps out.

[Abaddon]

Re: jacking up a car

Hahahah nice. Hopefully they didn't break any of the fiberglass on the car. These plastic ramps do tend to warp a little but I shook the car pretty hard and they never budged. They did nicely for changing out the fuel filter. I'm hoping they do as nicely for replacing other components as well.