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Dumb question - jack stand position

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delkra

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 11, 2009
Messages
77
Location
Delaware
Today, I helped a friend out working on his car (Chrysler Sebring). He jacked it up and put stands under the subframe (cradle?). I told him that I always put mine up on the pinch welds near the rockers, but in fairness, they are getting a bit bent up from that.:blackeye:

Is it cool to put a car up with stands under the subframe if you are not pulling the engine or doing some other major work? Will they support the weight or get bent up or something?:shrug: Never really thought about it until I saw that today.
 
IMO, it is better. However, one must consider its lack of lateral support compared to using the pinch seam. The jacks are closer together, and aren't necessarily "grasping" the car like it would on the pinch seam. That being said, I've beaten the crap out of the car for various things while it was being support on all 4 corners by the subframe. :shrug:
 
zorrex said:
The jacks are closer together
Click to expand...

Not always. There are points on the Contour subframe (Duratec one at least) that are further out than the pinch welds. If I'm just changing oil or doing something simple I jack the car by the front of the subframe and place the stands on the outer edge.

delkra said:
I told him that I always put mine up on the pinch welds near the rockers, but in fairness, they are getting a bit bent up from that.:blackeye:
Click to expand...

There are jack stands that have a deeper cradle that accomodates pinch welds, like these:

9990000031818311-1
 
hetfield said:
Not always. There are points on the Contour subframe (Duratec one at least) that are further out than the pinch welds. If I'm just changing oil or doing something simple I jack the car by the front of the subframe and place the stands on the outer edge.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. I was speaking in a more general sense. The subframe does flare outwards near the front...
 
When using the pinch welds, I've always jammed some wood or something "soft" into the top of the jack stands, but they've still gotten beat up. I think I might try some of those deeper stands. I'll probably try using the stands on the subframe up front, though, too.

Thanks everyone for answering my dumb question.;)
 
zorrex said:
Well, you can use a block of wood with a notch in it. Just a plain block of wood will still damage the pinch weld.
Click to expand...

Heh... yeah, I tried that once with a chunk of 2x4. I cut the slot in the middle a little too deep. When the weight of the Contour sat down on it, the block split in two (very loudly). I decided to go with two pieces of 2x4 sorta wedged in there.

Honestly, though, now I am going to use the subframe for stuff like oil changes. No reason not to, I guess.
 
zorrex said:
Honestly, the best thing to do is to jack up the front right in the middle of the front of the subframe. It's CAKE.
Click to expand...

This is where I AWLAYS jack my car up. A subframe is one of the strongest pieces of the car. Same with a front engine cradle. It is made to support the weight of the engine and trans, why wouldn't it be able to support the weight?

I guess my question is if your not jacking it up there, then where are you? I jack it up there and then put the two jack stands at the jack point covers and leave the jack right there so I have three positions of support.

Side note, kinda sucked when I was in the middle of my swap I noticed someone must not of taken the two seconds to get down and make sure your jack is in the right position and jacked it up on the radiator. Didn't break it but they bent up a nice SVT radiator...all just so they didn't have to bend over for a couple seconds to look at their jack...
 
It's so easy to jack up from there because if the hood is open, you can look down between the radiator and engine and see the jack so you can position the jack correctly, lol.
 
Wow... I never knew this question would cause so much controversy. :laugh:

I guess my question is if your not jacking it up there, then where are you?
Click to expand...
I had been using the pinch welds near the rocker panels. I would put the stands under those welds as well, but they got a little bent up from the stands.

Completely. Why bother having to jack up each side?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have since used the subframe to jack up each side and then put stands under each side of the subframe, but I just thought using the front part (like up in the middle after it flares to each side) as a single point to lift the whole front-end could be ... bad.:shrug:

I was thinking it might scratch up or even bend up that center part. Just the weight on either side bearing on that one point didn't seem like a good thing.

Anyway, if that is seriously not an issue, I'll have to try it, I guess.
 
No worries. The subframe is really really strong. I even sent my car flying into a curb and the subframe took a good gouge out of the curb and nothing went wrong with the subframe. Heck, it even stayed aligned! lol
 
Yeah one thing Ford did with the subframes of their cars is make them strong as hell. Case in point. I hit a piece of road debris in my old SHO once going about 40mph. The car literally lifted off the road, the debris tore the trans pan off and somehow did not mangle the exhaust. The subframe was totally fine. Not even bent or anything... One trip to the JY later for another trans pan and a few other replacement parts and my SHO was back on the road like nothing happened. I miss that car...
 
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