Quickjack setup/usage for Porsche 912/911

[wkrtsm]

Just got the 5000-TL Quickjack working for my 912, and wanted to share a few lessons learned in order to replicate quality lifts without any issues. FYI - the Pelican Parts video and image with a Quickjack used on an older 911 is the outdated model BL-5000SLX, and I confirmed via a phone call with Quickjack sales that the newer version of this model is the 5000TL. So the 5000TL is the go to for 912/911. (by default, I was going to purchase the 5000TL anyhow, since I wanted to carry up to 5000 pounds and measured about 59-60" between life points. Thus the extended length Quickjacks are not needed for 912/911).

The steps are:

1. Always place the jack with the large white rectangular label with "Quickjack" towards the rear for a rear-engine car. This is because the Quickjack user guide and company videos clearly state that the end of the jack with the white label needs to be directed toward the heaviest end of a car [i.e., with the engine/transmission(transaxle)]. The hinge point near the white label DOES NOT RISE, whereas the hinge point on the opposite end of the jack rises off the ground and meets up with the chassis during contact.

2. Leave the parking brake OFF. Each Quickjack is an expanding parallelogram, and therefore it doesn't lift up your car straight vertically. Instead, as soon as the rubber blocks come in contact with the chassis, the jack is moving horizontally. If the parking brake is on, the top block (for pinch-welds) will roll off the lower block. (this actually happened when I confirmed rubber block placement when the car was lifted -- indeed the pinch weld block rolled right off the lower rubber block, and the lower block was holding the car up at the pinch weld). Lesson learned: you have to let your car "go with the flow" or move with the jack blocks as soon as the jack blocks come in contact with the chassis.

3. Near the rear tire, line up the outside edge of the jack with the middle of the tire treads, and butt the jack right up against the rear tire. The hinge point near the white label DOES NOT RISE, so it's okay to butt it up against the tire.

4. In the front, on my short wheelbase (SWB) '68 912, line up the outside edge of the jack with the middle of the tire treads -- the front leading edge of the jack was about 4-5" away from the tire. The hinge point on this end of the jack (opposite the end with the large white label) DOES RISE off the ground and meets up with the chassis during contact. So, on this type of rear-engine setup, the clearance from the front tire is needed to give room for that rising hinge point (in the front).

5. Make sure the OMB 45-degree fitting that screws into the pressure cylinder (with o-ring) is angled up about 10-15 degrees, since when it was zero degrees, the hydraulic line had a bend in it from the near by metal crossmember - not good.

6. A good final safety check is to look at the jacks from the rear (or front) when the car is jacked up, because if the jacks are not parallel with the chassis/frame, their appearance from the rear(front) will be that they are tilted inward/outward (not safe) instead of appearing straight vertical. Before I centered the outer edge of the jacks on the middle of the treads on the front and rear tires, the jacks were not parallel and from the rear looked angled out - unsafe. The user guides states that the jacks need to be perfectly parallel with the chassis.

IMAGES

Rear tire: below is a pic of the large white "Quickjack" label facing toward the rear of the car where the majority of the load is (rear engine car). This must be done per Quickjack safety instructions. Also, this pic shows how the trailing edge of the jack is butted up against the rear tire, and centered near the middle of the tire tread. The hinge point on this end of the jack DOES NOT RISE - so it's okay to butt it up against the tire.



Front tire: below is an image showing that the outer edge of the jack is lined up with the center of the tire tread, and the leading front edge of the jack is about 4-5" away from the tire. The hinge point on this end of the jack RISES, so it needs to be away from the tire.



Below - make sure the locking mechanism faces outward toward the door, not toward the inner chassis in the middle of the care:



Below - I had to adjust the angle of the OMB fitting in the hydraulic cylinder to be about 10-15 degrees upward, otherwise there was a bend in the hydraulic line when zero degrees was used (not good):



Below - here's the rear pinch-weld block beneath the chassis (pinch-weld blocks are sold by Quickjack under their Accessories web page):



Another pic of the rear pinch-weld block:




Lastly, the angle of the pinch-weld groove on the pinch-weld blocks is not at 45 degrees from the square bottom of the block. Since the support tray for blocks on each jack is rectangular, the only way to correctly angle the groove on the pinch-weld blocks with the pinch weld is to use an additional block below each pinch-weld block. In the pictures above, I used the taller block beneath the pinch-weld blocks, and will try using the medium height blocks beneath instead. This is because I think it's safer to use shorter blocks when possible to ensure more stability of the car when lifted. Fundamentally, you know that if you stacked 20 blocks together at each of the four lift points and then lifted the car, you could probably knock the car of the jacks just by leaning on it. Certainly, you could easily push the car off the jacks if e.g. 20 blocks were used at each lift point. The fewer(shorter) the blocks used, the better, due to greater stability.

[Tobydog61]

So I am using my TL7000 for the first time to lift an '88 Porsche 911 G50 and all is going well except for one issue I did not foresee. The lift pads under the car are not the same width apart on the front vs the rear. The rear lift pads are slightly narrower and I get the need to keep the lifts parallel. So I notched the tall blocks for the rear and have the front blocks as far out as possible to catch the front. It seems very stable but I am lifting on the extreme inside of the lift at the rear and the outside at the front. I think all is ok but would appreciate any comments users might have.