• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Where to place jack stands?

A

avengerc4

CEG'er
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
222
Location
Munster, IN
I am going to be doing a complete rebuild on the suspension in 2 weeks with new lower control arms, rear and front shocks and springs, the rear control arms etc. Where should I put the jack stand while working on the car? Anyone have any photos of this for illustration? And where does everyone jack their cars up?
-Joe
 
Not to sound like an ass, but if your going to be doing all this work on your car. Shouldn't you know where to put the jack stands before you tackle a 'complete suspension rebuild' ?

I would just do the front then the rear. I usually put the jack stands on the sub-frame or pinch welds.
 
well whenever I change the oil or the brake pads I put them under the frame where the control arm bolts to, but obviously I need to get their so I'm wondering if I should just put them all on the pinch welds or what?
 
never on pinch welds

never on pinch welds

'Not to sound like and ass' but it is Crazy to put on seams, it'll crush them.

find some box frame members if you can. I used the ones right under the front seat foot wells close to the seats for the front end, forgot where I put them for the rear end but it was a bugger.
 
I built wood blocks to sandwich the pinch welds so that I lift up around the pinch weld and then place the jackstands under said blocks. Never had any problems with the pinch welds getting crushed, but the pinch weld isn't seeing any load either so yea.

gomach1 said:
right behind/in the area of the jackpoint covers are good spots. Like said "NOT" on the pinch welds
Click to expand...

Hmmm.. I'll have to look for those. I have to be honest I never thought there was any good structure there, but I didn't look hard either since I am usually jacking up the front, in which case I use the subframe.
 
does anyone have pics by chance? I know when I jack the car up I just use metal blocks and place them onto the jack behind the jack point covers and jack up that way since I don't want to take off and risk the chance of loosing the jack point covers.

I can say the pinch welds are already bent, either by me or previous owner. I am really uncertain as to when it happened. so maybe I should just put the jack stands on the welds since they are already bent? I just can't picture in the rear where y'all are putting them so it would be out of the way of all the arms. I'm going to be replacing both sets of trailing arms and the other long solid bar bushings I'm going to do if I can get the bushings for it.

and not sure what you meant by box frame rails?

Thanks all
 
I place the jack stands under the front subframe right behind the control arm. this is where the frame narrows down a bit and the jackstand fits well. as for the rear I place the jackstands on what would be the frame rail. This is on either side of the gas tank.

I also have 4 of these jackstands. They have clearence for the pinch weld. I also have the rubber pads too.
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-heavy-duty-jack-stands-38846.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-rubber-pads-for-jack-stand-95952.html
 
two summers ago, almost all summer, I had at least the front of my car on them when my spec clutch failed .... can't find any pictures of it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top