goporsche944

I have the car up on jack stands, but do not feel comfortable with the stability of how the car rests on them. I pulled the motor over the past weekend with the placement like this

As you can see you this is not an ideal situation, do they sell any kinda of saddle for the jack stands? I' just looking for a solution to make the car stable up in the air and not have to worry about it.

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-Thanks for the help-

Adonay

buy four of those saddles if you still dont feel safe put a few tires with rim under the side of the car if it falls those will support the fall.. Its what i used to do before i had access to a proper workshop.

theedge

I have a pair of jackstands that are the same style and I dont use them on the front lifting points for that reason. You need either flat top stands, or jackstands that arent for Unibody cars like the ones in your picture. The non Unibody ones ive seen are usually called cradle post.

See this picture for cradle post.
http://www.ultimategarage.com/shop/p...hmsl3g9099pu9b

Im actually going to order a pair of those in the picture from that place. Those ones apparently come with that cradle post and flat top post as well so its a pretty good deal.

Darwantae951

I never let the stand itself touch the car. Usually put a block of wood or something between the two. I also support the rear of the car at the torsion tube. Been doing this for years with zero issues.

future

I use these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JACK-PAD-PORSC...item2305b5e7c3 Well made an cheap plus stop any damage to the jack points and as Adonay points out, I also always place the wheels under the car just in case as I've had a car come off jack stands before when using a 24 inch breaker bar!

Techno Duck

Do any of you guys cringe when putting only the front up on stands? I lift from the middle jack point under the door sill. Then place the stand under the front rail. Lower jack down and it always makes me cringe how much the car flexes when up on that one stand. I usually lift maybe an inch or two per side until im at the desired height. But man, i still hate doing that just for the time its up on one stand in the front. Its a pain putting the front and rear on stands to avoid this, but atleast mentally would make me feel a little better!

George D

When working under jack stands you should always have something to take the fall. This means something strong enough between you and the car.

Also, you should never have one end of the car or one side up without the other. Takes a few more minutes, but unless you can bench over 1500lbs cleanly and more than once, you are taking a risk. You should always jack up one side, put it on stands, jack up the other, put it on stands, and then go higher on each side till you feel you've got room to work. Then place wheels or something that will take the fall if anything happens under the car at appropriate points. It gets tight under there with free standing wheels and tires, but you won't feel too smart if something happens. Taking an extra 10 minutes to allow a safe work enviornment for hours of potential work, during late night efforts, just makes sense. I say this because any of us that uses jack stands surely are working on our cars after we get off work, or on weekends.

I'm always scared with jackstands and want something between me and a potential issue. I cringe everytime I see guys under stands without something to catch the car in case of gravity taking over our wanting to save a few bucks, or those of us that do our own work in a garage not meant for the work that we do on our cars.

Be safe, and don't rush safety. It's the little things that keep us and our cars reliable.

future

I use one of these motorbike lifts which does the job very well:


Yes this is very wise advice - I've spent the weekend crawling under the 993 and really hate being under a car due to fear of a fall

jerome951

I'd say the OP's support method isn't the safest. You have very little contact patch there, and I have seen the factory points collapse (mine rear one was when I bought the car).

For the front, I use a 2x4 about 18" long to spread the load between the stand and frame rail (the tops of my stands are the same as the OPs). In the rear, I either put the stand under the torsion bar housing or directly underneath (with a wood buffer) agains the carrier. I've used this method for 10 years with no issues. Also, put extra stands, jacks, or wheels under the car wherever you can.

Most importantly of all, when I get the car in the air, I always shake it side-to-side, front-to-back, and twisting motion to ensure nothing is unsteady.

Chris White

BTW – those are NOT jacking points….the only factory JACK point is the one under the door.
They were points that the car was carried on during the assembly process. They are not very strong and will collapse after repeated jack use. I have seen a lot of these (the points behind the front wheel wells) with the floor distorted from being used as jack points.

If I am not using the lift I will use the under door point to jack it up and jack stands under the frame rails (be careful – you can ding these up too!) and under the torsion bar housing.

The typical jack stand like shown in the first picture will leave marks on any jacking surface because is has lots of ‘points’ that will dent stuff. You need to add something in between the stand and the body – use a large piece of wood to spread the load – at least 6” wide. Make sure everything is centered well since it is possible to have the body slide on the wood. A better way is to get the larger jack stands so that the jack stand saddle is bigger. If you are really going to do some work under the car you will like it to be higher than the standard jack stands.


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38847 – cheap but made well enough.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95952 will work – but I still prefer wood…

Darwantae951

Do NOT use the front area behind the wheels for jack points...this was my car:

joe_951Turbo

I'm really glad we have this topic going. I just bought some stands and a jack and I was really scared about getting underneath it without some extra support. Exactly where would you position the bike lift to support the car if you were working on the front or the back of it?

ZW 944

What if someone was going to take out the torsion tube for maintenence, then where would be the best place to put jackstands in the rear of the car?

Chris White

Good question! Back in the pre lift days (that was last century for me!) I used to get a 2x12 about 4 feet long and put it across the floor plan just in front of the torsion bar housing (where the floor is flat) and put two jack stands at either end (about 8” from the end of the plank.

Very stable and the point load of the jack stands is evenly distributed across the floor. If you put the jack stands behind the torsion tube they will always be in the way when you are working.

930man

Great info. Thanks!!!!