Using jack stands?

My winter project plans include rebuilding, restoring, and upgrading the underside of my 79 SC. I have heard that you can damage the car if not supported in the correct manner. I was thinking cinder blocks would be safer for long-term support than jack stands. Where do supports need to be placed for access to the suspension without damaging the floor pans?

Thanks

I wouldn't use the blocks as they can fracture and they sure can scrape your elbow at the worst time. I'd get a set of good stands and if they don't go high enough I would use some square pieces of 2x12 wood that are screwed together so they won't slip. The factory jack points should be good.

John, can you please tell me where are the factory jackpoint located.

Thanks

On our 1987 Turbo there are four round raised donut shaped metal stampings, two on each side. The front ones are just behind the area where the inner fender and bottom come together and the rear ones look just like them and are just in front of where the rear inner fender and bottom come together and all are just in from the rocker panel. I have seen some cars where these are crushed and you can't hardly see them, especially if there is lots of undercoat gooped on.

On my 78 SC, there are only two jack points, and they jack up one whole side of the car, front and rear. This is inadequate for jackstands, since usually you want to jack up either the front or back only, and to support the whole car takes four stands anyway. So where to put the stands? I honestly don't know, maybe Brian or Marc have some good info, from their posts on Pelican it sounds like they've used jackstands before.

The two places Serge is talking about are where the factory jack goes to raise the car for tire changes etc. They have the black plugs that seem to get lost easily? I am not sure, but I think the "pads" I mentioned are on most of the 911s and 914s. I checked a 911SC last night and it had them too, although two were just about flat from lots of use. If there are no pads, you could spread out the load between the jack stand and the body with a large piece of hardwood.

I would STRONGLY recommend against the use of cinder blocks for holding up any vehicle, ever! People have been crushed and killed working under vehicles supported that way!!!


I don't know if the factory ever revised the pan to include special 'jack pads' in any of the '89 and earlier cars, but the dealer shops I have seen seem to use the same kind of hydraulic lift as VW dealerls for the last three decades. The rear pick-up points are always the torsion bar tubes, just inboard of the castings for the swing-arm busings. The front pick-up points are hard for me to remember, but personally I have always used the forward anchor for the torsion bars, just behind the bolt-on cover/skid.

The ONLY type of jack stands I would presonally recommend are not available at discount chain stores! You can only find them at an automotive parts store, and they can be easily identified by the forged center piece, with adjustment grooves and abscence of 'pins' for height adjustment. I have a 'short' set, 1 1/2 Ton rating, and a 'tall' set with 3 Ton rating, and they were NOT inexpensive 20 years ago, but then what is your vehicle and life worth? With the exception of slight scraping of the factory undercoating on the rear torsion bar tubes, I have never damaged the pan on my '73 911S Targa, and it has sat up for over a month at a time on the stands. An easy precaution to avoid undercoating damage would be folded canvas strips, 2" wide and 18-20" long, folded four to six layers thick, something I now use.

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

I have to agree with Warren. If you have a $20 dollar life buy $20 dollar jack stands.

something I do on the rear is to use 4 stands. two supporting the car at either the jack receiver or the torsion bar tubes and the other two set just below whichever point isn't bearing the load.

He is also correct about an excellent place to put jack stands on the front.

I only get carried away on the read because a car fell on me once - when I was the only person in the shop installing an engine. Luckily for me the after the engine fell of f the floor jack the webbers were strong enough to hold the tub up. I just ended up with some ugly green bruises.

good luck,
e