911 Jacking Location(s)

What are the proper locations for jacking up the front of the car and the rear? I have a '73 S. The last thing I want to do is lift in the wrong place and do way too much damage!

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 (waiting on backordered tensioners and exhaust system pieces) 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.

I always use a 'jack plate' in the factory jack 'receptacle' for changing tires, with a floor jack, of course! And, I don't raise the car more than about 2-3" at a time on each side. It takes longer, going bck and forth from side to side, but there is much less tendency (or chance) to slip on the jack stands!


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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

[This message has been edited by Early_S_Man (edited 01-05-2000).]

I concur with everything that Warren said. I would add, though, that it might be "nicer" to glue some old tire tube, cut to fit, on your jack stands; use rubber cement on both the tube and the stand, and wait for both the tube and the stand to dry, then bond them together. This way there is no chance of the canvas strips from "sliding" off, and the rubber tubes are always there, attached to the stands. And they may be kinder to your undercoating.

Warren is also right about using the jack plates for lifting the car; when you lift the entire side using these jacking points, the car is sitting on only three points (the two jack stands on the other side, and the one point of the lifting jack). This is a very precarious position, and you should do this very carefully, very slowly, with no children, pets, wives, or anyone in the vacinity.

Keep thinking of the worst case scenario as you do things, and you should be as safe as you can..........Andras

Thanks for the info. I guess I'm not perfectly clear, though. Let's say I want to lift the back of the car up so I can make it a little easier to check and adjust valve lash. You guys have told me the best locations for the jack stands, but where would I lift the car so that I correctly position the stands?

There is a casting protrusion about the size of your thumb located on the center bottom of the transaxle where the tranny and engine attach (north of the drain plug). Use a soft (pine) wood block on your jack pedistal so as not to damage anything. My tranny does not have this casting so I use a large diameter pedistal with a wood board and jack using the screen cover plate where the oil drainplug is seen. The pedistal is large enough that the round screencover fits inside of it and on the wood. I have been told not to do this but have done it for many years with no problems. I am very careful to distribute the weight using the pine board. As the car goes up at an angle the lip of the pedistal will snug against the lip of the screencover and prevent slippage. You can easily watch as you lift to see that no damage occurs, adjusting as necessary. When the car is up place the stands (I use the protruding torque tubes), ease the jack down, remove the jack, and you're ready to work.