R170 Jacking

[hotrodder]

The part that bothers me the most with supporting the car via the sill tubes is the movement involved when lowering the car onto 'em. With a jack under one of the workshop jacking pads the car is going to be coming down onto a 'sill stand' at quite an angle unless there's two jacks and two people to operate 'em simultaniously.

 

[antijam]

Right! Got me bolts today.....

....so out with the trolley jack and the axle stands. Plugged bolt into Jacking point and first tried jacking directly under the bolt head.

Car lifted cleanly without problem. By aligning jack parallel with car there was no problem accessing hard points and supporting car on axle stands. (You'll have to take my word for that, since I didn't take a piccie under the car)

Next tried jacking car under hard points and supporting bolt on axle stand.

(That's not a scratch on the sill - it's the reflection of the trolley jack - Phew!)

No problem again. Car was quite stable, although even with the car lifted the jacking bolt is angled down towards the ground; so I think in future I will fit a short length of thick tubing to the bolt to act as a spacer between the car body and the vee of the axle stand, preventing any tendency for the stand to slide in towards the car. (Actually the opposite of the angle problem you envisaged, hotrodder)

On removal the bolt showed no bending and negligible marking on the threads. I take your point about possible damage to the jacking point hotrodder, but I think that actually most of the support is on the bolt shank - and the bolt head is useful for locating in the trolley jack lift cup.

I've only lifted one wheel so far (Haven't got enough axle stands to support the whole car) but I can see no problem in doing all four, and obviously jacking each wheel on the bolt and supporting the car on the hard pads should be completely straightforward.

So, no need to get the car jack out and problem solved, maybe?

 

[mikestrivens]

excellent result. well done.

 

[television]

Very good and thank you

 

[Benmac]

Blimey, didn't expect my simple question to generate such a debate. Interesting stuff. The solution on raising using bolts in the toolkit jack points is very elegant. How long are the tubes in the sill? It would seem to make sense to me to use as long a bar as possible to maximise the amount in the tube.

As far as my issues went I got the jacking pads I needed from the dealer as two were missing (they cost £20 each!) and replaced the cracked arch liner (that part was only £23 which seemed far more reasonable).

Lifting the car to work on is a very interesting one. I actually know the chap who makes the second setof long ramps posted earlier in the thread from Lotus circles (I've got an Elan and and Exige). If people were interested I am sure he would consider a discount for a few confirmed orders. Also I have one of these kits (http://www.levo-artis.com/). The grey Elise on the front page of the site is my old car. Its a very nice kit and Stu who builds them has done loads of work to ensure they're strong enough all respects.

 

[antijam]

. How long are the tubes in the sill? It would seem to make sense to me to use as long a bar as possible to maximise the amount in the tube.

On my car a Ø20mm bolt bottoms at 170mm in the rear jacking point and at 140mm in the front. I'm sure the jacking tube does not extend over these lengths as the effective length of the tongue on the car jack is only 60mm.

I chose a 220mm long bolt as optimum for the front, providing, when fully inserted, adequate protrusion for both jacking and support on stands whilst minimising the bending moment at the juncture with the car. At the same protrusion this bolt will not bottom in the rear jacking point, but will still support over the full length of the jacking tube.

I'm not sure exactly what limits the bolt insertion and it may well be simply a piece of non-structural sheet metal. To avoid possibility of any damage to this it might be advisable to 'shoulder' the bolt with a sleeve such that insertion is limited by the external face of the jacking tube - as is the case with the car jack.

Using as long a bolt as possible obviously minimises any risk of it withdrawing during jacking.

 

[television]

Yes I was surprised at how short the bar in the jack is on my 230. it is the way and position in the way that the jacking point has been fixed to the car more than the lenght of the pin or bolt. I will do it this way when I am working in future

 

[giuseppe]

jacking

I wonder how secure is the metal on the car it self, it may be okay for jacking up and changing a wheel, one at a time, but what effect will it have with the whole weight of the car focused on such a small section, would i want to trust the weld or spot weld to take the full weight. ??

 

[television]

Well its what MB give us for changing a wheel,, but one should never work on the car other than wheel changing without using stands