Quickjack purchase
 

I know there are other threads on lifts, but others might find it useful to know the QJ is decent for a longhood. I got tired of jacks and jackstands and looked into scissor lifts. Scissors seem great but I don't have a tall enough garage ceiling / door clearance to go up more than about 30 inches, so I settled for a Quickjack. I also didn't want to deal with moving 1,000 lbs of equipment into place, unloading, etc. etc.

Low enough I can leave them in place under the car all the time, which would not be possible with scissor without having ramps or cutting them into the floor. The QJ took a bit over an hour to setup fittings and bleed.

The Quickjack is just high enough for me to do an engine / trans drop. The 5,000 lb QJ is a tight fit getting it just right between the wheels, but it works. The shorter 3,500 lb QJ would be a bit easier to center without hitting the wheels / sway bars.

Would recommend. Wish I bought it sooner.

Hello The Torch, Noticed you recently purchased a Quickjack and are satisfied with the unit. I recently purchased the 5000slx to work on my 1985 Carrera. I am interested in understanding the locations that you placed the jacking pads. The rear placement on the sway bar bracket seems straightforward but the front location is not straightforward in that the pad would be placed on the tub/floor resulting in likely deformation/damage. Any insight regarding the placement of the jacking pads is appreciated. Some have told me to place the pads on the pinch welds - but a/c or oil lines occupy these areas. Thank you.

Happen to have it up on the quickjack now with my engine out again....
Here you go. Not sure what you mean about the sway bar bracket -- that's not where I would put it. Use the seams.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...931281ad1.jpeg
Above shows Rear. Welded on sway bar bracket is behind my pad.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...3b2baf6c7.jpeg
^^Front

Appreciate the photographs and the quick response. Thank you for sharing this information.

You’ve found the other trick to using it on a 911 - hoses at the front of the car.

You can find pucks on Amazon that have a slot to accommodate the pinch weld. You can put them on the top of the rubber blocks.

Mark

Agree. Hoses at the front of the car limit options for placing the blocks. I picked up some blocks with the slot for the pinch weld. Three of four locations are good. Now just need to sort out the placement of the block on the front driver's side. This area has a hose running the entire length of the pinch weld.

I have pinch weld blocks / pucks but in practice I find it takes twice as long to line them up when lifting. With the pinch weld blocks, I end up going around the car 2-3 times, lifting until the pucks just touch -- though the front and rear do not engage the car at the exact same moment as the F/R gap is slightly different between the jack and the body -- then finding one puck isn't centered on the seam, lowering, trying again, finding one of the other pucks has moved 1/4 inch, doing it again. Sometimes rinse and repeat, up and down on my knees more than once. Not worth it.

Every shop I have seen lift my car doesn't fuss with aligning seam blocks on seams -- they just make sure the pad is covering the seam properly, and up it goes.

So that's how I do it now. Saves time, no harm to the seam.

Let me know what you find out. I'm on the same boat. I've loved the QJ for my 996 and Q5. Just need to sort out the lift spots on the 87.

To follow up on this. Ultimately, the rubber jacking pads were placed at the pinch weld seams. For my car, 85 Carrera, each corner location has oil or a/c hoses running near or along the pinch welds. The density of the rubber block and the strength of the weld prevented contact with the hoses. Thanks to “The Torch” for sharing photographs and experiences.

I agree with how the shops lift cars, and that is why I have cars with crushed pinch welds! Remember who cares about your car more, you or the shop that works on thousands of cars a year? This is also another reason I seldom allow any shop to touch my cars. If you don’t care about your floor pans and the pinch weld area continue doing that. At some point you’ll get it just right and it’ll crush the pinch weld or slip off and dent the pan. It sucks having to get up and down 2 or 3 times but having my car not have crushed or dented pans is a simple sacrifice.

CTopher

I have a hose (fuel line?) running next to the pinch weld at the diagonal. Do you have this and so do you have to remove the clamps and move the hose before using the slotted block?

I doubt it's a fuel line. Probably an AC hose. My pinch welds have nothing in the way. Someone with a later car can probably help -- I think I see your post on the bird. Someone will respond.

Update on the Quickjack:

After using the quickjack a lot now, I totally agree with @Ctopher : use the slotted lift blocks. I have seen some of the photos of the blocks that split. Not good.

Also, I got the 5,000 lb quickjack, but it it's a couple inches longer than the 3500 lb version. It was very finicky fit between the rear sway bar and the front tire -- only had about 1-2 inches in which to locate it without hitting the front tire. I cut 3" off the rear of the quickjack and rewelded the end back on. Now I can work on the sway bar, not hit the front wheel, and the window for locating the quickjack is 4-5 inches front to back.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...baa7d5764.jpeg

I have had issues with the front tire hitting the quick jack. My solution is to angle the front inward slightly more than the rear. Since I have a 87 I have the rear jack pad bracket and use that. I’ve bought round pucks that have a V notch in them and use those at the front and the quickjack small pad(I think, basically match height to the front pad) in the rear on the jack pad. The fronts will be slightly pigeon toed but there is no issue and this will not hit the front tires. I also have the 5K original version.

They are AC lines and yes I removed the bracket on the pan lip under the drivers feet. Then use the inner pan lip curve as the front jack point and rear jack pad. As mentioned above they are angled inward but not an issue and avoids hitting the front tires.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...fe8e2a69e.jpeg

Sadly I don’t have a picture of it on the quickjack.

Ctopher

Thanks Torch and Ctopher. This is helpful. I will remove the bracket and attempt to push the a/c line aside to fit the pinch weld block. BTW, my first attempt at lifting the car a few days ago was to angle the QJ to get under the jack points. I quickly realized that the QJ tilts on edge when you do this causing them to become very unstable. Slightly pigeon toed as you mention might be okay but be careful not to have them too much out of parallel.