> I'm going tonight or tomorrow to buy a good floor jack, ramps and
> jackstands. Having never owned any of the above, I'd like it if someone
> could help me with a quick checklist on their use.
My wife bought me a nice XXL shop floor jack at SAMs the other night, I
defenitely recommed a large shop floor jack over one of those compact
ones. It was in the $60 range. With the jackstands you want to go for the
5 ton, large ones too. Not because the car is that heavy but they are just
more sturdy due to size. The large stands go for about $20 - $25 a pair at
WalMart or at discount auto places.
> First, can you use four jackstands and bring both ends of the car up,
> and if
> so, is that safe? I worry about the car falling backwards off the
> jackstands.
Yes that is safe though you will have to make sure nobody leans on the car
while you are underneath it and that it sits firmly in all 4 corners. I
like to keep the wheels on unless they have to come off for what I am
doing. Then I put some large bricks (cinterblocks) underneath the wheels,
so the car will not hit the ground (me) in case it wants to go somewhere.
> If so, how do you get the car up on four, seems to me that if you lift
> the
> front of the car up onto stands, the bottom will angle down to the point
> where you couldnt get a jack underneath.
No. You can do that. I like to jack up the front first (put your shop jack
under the front crossmember and jack it up. The rear will not come down
far enough to not allow you to put in your jack under the rear
differential housing after you had placed stands in the front.
> I'm going to be pulling the engine, and will have a nice large high
> engine
> hoist, but I'd like to know, do I jack up the front or front and back
> (assuming that's kosher) during engine removal?
I would not pull the engine on any car with the car fixed to the ground in
any way. I like to move both, engine crane *and* car for better
versatility guiding the guts in and out the chassis. I jack the car up,
loosen all connections and leave some final bolts to take out from the
top. When I am ready to pull the motor I put the car on its wheels, get
the crane in place, take the last fasteners off and pull the guts.
> I'll be stripping, painting, sealing, whatever, the bottom of the car in
> this process, is there a better way to do that than jackstands and
> laying on
> my back like DaVinci? I've seen plans for chassis rotators that would
> allow
> me to flip the car over, (I think barney has a plan for one) but I've
> never
> seen any info as to where you attach that kind of device to a B.
You will have to custom make brackets and either bolt or weld them on. Not
an easy task. There are car 'rotisseries' on the market. A great thing to
have if you want to go all the way but I think they are rather expensive.
> Also, one last thing. How high is too high? Is more better? last time I
> checked I had the choice between 16" max height and 24" max height
I think going with the 24" max height will be better but leave them to
about 2/3 of their maximum capacity. Will put you on the safe side.
George
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