I Broke My Jacking Points Today

FurryWrecker911

SCCoA Member
First time with the Tbird that I was able to lift it in my own garage. My goal was this: clamp down the heat shield on the muffler to stop the god-awful rattling at low rpms and figure out where I'm loosing coolant from by inspecting the underside of the engine. I was not ready to be greeted by a hole in the undercarriage and to bust 3 of the 4 jacking spots clean apart/flat. The front left was already destroyed before I got to it, my admittedly cheap quality jack dropped the poor car on the back right jack stand smashing it up, and I was able to ease the front right down on the jack stand, but it creaked then split right apart in my ear. The back left was chipper, though, so there's my silver lining. The metal under here represents that of slightly better quality cardboard. Yeesh.

I might need to find a body shop to cut and weld in some new metal because this is really weak. I also need a not-garbage jack.

ThatsALotOfRot.jpg
NotSupposedToDoThat.jpg
 
After growing tired of the OE jacking points and always holding my breath they would bear up, it dawned on me they are, at best, suited only for the OE jack in the trunk and then only for emergency tire changes.

Because my Anny is lowered, I bought a low profile hyd. jack and only lift on suspension related hard points these days, pref. with a small block of wood. I'm sure a 4-point lift would make things easier, but...
 
After growing tired of the OE jacking points and always holding my breath they would bear up, it dawned on me they are, at best, suited only for the OE jack in the trunk and then only for emergency tire changes.

Because my Anny is lowered, I bought a low profile hyd. jack and only lift on suspension related hard points these days, pref. with a small block of wood. I'm sure a 4-point lift would make things easier, but...

Yeah, I'm learning this myself the hard way tonight. It's the only way I've jacked up the Escort, my brother's Focus, and my roommate's Yaris, but it's a big difference from compact hatchbacks to a full-blown coupe. The only time my one buddy and I tried jacking up a car not along the rails we pushed in the floorboards thinking we were on the frame. We weren't. Stuck to the OE jacking points since since to avoid making the same mistake, but after this I'm gonna have to learn to find more suitable jacking points.

Speaking of the OE jack, mine looks like it was made out of tree bark because when I got it out of the trunk it was rusted clean over. Not a single part of it isn't ruined. I need a new one.
 
got to ask

was your car a flood car? or did it come from the rust belt?? I live in the rust belt and I have good jacks that are in these cars.. If you want one let me know and I will send you one....I ALWAYS jack from the "hard" spots on these cars. I never go to the body, always to something on the suspention or the engine cross member....Rich
 
Never in the almost 30 years that I've owned a SC have I even thought of using that flimsy rail to lift the car :eek:, or god forbid the floorboard.. there's a big stiff steel frame rail right there that is used to lift 1/2 the car, or about 2000 pounds of super coupe.

When you use the safety jacks they need to be under the biggest, flattest, hardest piece of frame you can find. I use the K member.
 
was your car a flood car? or did it come from the rust belt?? I live in the rust belt and I have good jacks that are in these cars.. If you want one let me know and I will send you one....I ALWAYS jack from the "hard" spots on these cars. I never go to the body, always to something on the suspention or the engine cross member....Rich

Rust belt car. Dad hardly drove it in the winter unless his truck was out of commission, BUT it spent 8 hard years sitting in a stone/grass driveway because the clutch went out and he didn't want to "cut the exhaust apart" to fix it. He was odd like that.

Never in the almost 30 years that I've owned a SC have I even thought of using that flimsy rail to lift the car :eek:, or god forbid the floorboard.. there's a big stiff steel frame rail right there that is used to lift 1/2 the car, or about 2000 pounds of super coupe.

When you use the safety jacks they need to be under the biggest, flattest, hardest piece of frame you can find. I use the K member.

I come from a life of dealing with compacts and subcompacts and on the Focus, Yaris, and Escort I've worked on everyone and everything I've read points to using the pinch-weld rails. It came as a surprise when the Tbird broke underneath what I had been doing for years. Irony is people suggest using the rails over the box frame for my other car, the Escort, because the box frame rots away before the rail in most cases, so I applied what I learned there to this and... nope. I guess it's a car-by-car thing.
 
don't need those

if you jack on the frame you will never have an issue. now before someone says "these are unibody" I do know that. There are places on the front "K" member to lift and in the rear you can use the rear end housing.. I have been lifting these cars since 1990 when I first got one and I have always used those spots to lift....just saying.....Rich
 
In my entire lift I have only ever jacked up a vehicle on hard parts. Under the control arm attachments, k member and rear k mounting points

I've never had an issue and would never recommend any other places.
 
Anyone have the Ford jacking points diagram? The shop manual says to refer to the pre-delivery manual which I don't have.
Thanks
ALR
 
....like this? Note the factory diagrams may assume a hoist is being used...

I use a floor jack, and similar points in the photo above from racecougar.

1662248440674.png
 
Thanks man! I used the floor jack on that square post that racecougar showed above. Had a sticky brake caliper I needed to look at (it's leaking at the piston so a rebuild is in order.
 
Back
Top