Getting your back up

What's the best way to raise up the back of the car to drop the engine?

Cheers

Phil

My understanding is you use a quality floor jack with solid (pegboard, particle board) material between the lift and the bottom of your oil pan. Lift very, very high and place your stands under the Frankenstein pegs that protrude through the wheel well in front of the rear wheels. Raising the front is not recommended as this will drop the back as it pivots over the 'pegs in the wheel well.

Personally, it scares the heck out of me to jack a car on an alloy oil pan, but everyone I talk to agrees on this method.

John

Surely you're going to need some very tall stands?

You might consider RAMPS. There is no substitute for saftey.

Just how high do I need to get the car? My ramps aren't more than about 10 inches, surely that won't be enough to get the engine out?

In previous posts I learned a really good idea from one of the members here. This is by using a cherry picker or engine hoist. The way you do it is lower the engine and tranny down with your floor jack or tranny jack. Then run the chains from the cherry picker to your engine mounts. Use the bolts from the mounts and bolt them to the chains. Then you lift away. I got a hoist from sam's club for around $200, this is really the best way to go. Make sure you leave the big washers on thelower part of the bolt when you do this. I pulled the rubber center right out. Hope this helps, it is really easy compared to other ways. Ed

Ed, forgive my ignorance, but are you suggesting removing the motor through the rear lid area?

I beleive Ed is suggesting lifting the rear of the car with the cherry picker. This would be done after removal of the engine from the mounts and eliminate the need for jack stands.

I think Ed means drop the engine down and then lift the rear of the car with the cherry picker. No matter how you do it, the rear of the car has got to be raised at least 30 inches to get the engine out.

I believe the tech article here at Pelican says how high the torsion tube covers need to be raised, and I believe it's in the neighborhood of 14" off the floor. Cars that sit as low as our cars do, are hard to drive onto ramps. Jackstands under the torsion bar tube make the car REALLY STABLE. There are no suspension springs at work. The car won't budge.

I got the six-ton jack stands at Harbor Freight, which are pretty large (and $20 per pair on sale). Nevertheless, I have to put a 1/2" sheet of plywood under them to achieve the proper height.

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'83 SC

When I removed the engine/tranny from my '80 SC, I put the front wheels up on nice, stable ramps before jacking up the back end. If I hadn't, I think the front valance would have been at risk for contacting the ground, since the car's butt had to be raised so ridiculously high.

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Greg Slater
1980 SC
gslater@uswest.net

I lke Ed's idea - thanks.

I assume 'cherry picker' is US-speak for engine hoist, not some bloke who picks fruit for a living