R34 jacking point

[drifter17a]

All

 

i have read through so many different posts and can’t find anything conclusive

 

some say use pinch on the side which is wrong as i did once and it crashed so stopped

 

some say put stand on the side liners which again is wrong as it crushed it little bit

 

so far what I do is lift from rear diff and put stands on the sub frame legs next to diff on both sides

 

for front lift from cross member and stand there

 

sometime i can’t lift from front when rear is up so use toe eye either side, lift little and then put stands under cross member . You can’t lift from cross member and put stands there as trolly jack is in the way

 

from rear i am stressing like hell as thing diff casing will crack specially when i am liften around 50 cm ( quite high) whee do you guys lift from rear?

 

would diff casing not crash?

[Duncan]

Are you using  factory scissor jack or a floor style jack?

Factory scissor jack should be used on a point just behind the front wheels or just behind the rear wheels. There is a reinforced section there. To use a floor jack there you would need some sort of spacer like a rubber block so as not to squash the seam.

With a floor jack, the rear diff is fine, so is any solid point on the front or rear subframe, particularly where they mount to the chassis. Front diff, front sump and radiator support are not strong enough. Front tow hooks are great too as you can generally get to them without affecting the front diff.

[GTSBoy]

What Duncan said.

The diff casing is a heavy casting. I'm not sure why anyone would think it might crack. Just place the jack bowl evenly under the bottom rib.

Don't put chassis stands under the front crossmember. It is not strong enough to take the point loads from the tops of chassis stands. The best way is put the chassis stands under the lower inner pivot points. You may have to grind the heads of the chassis stands to make them narrow enough to fit. And if you have to remove the lower arm, you will have to find an alternative support point. You can make a buffer to go between a chassis stand and the proper jacking point under the sill and support there. Don't use the chassis stand bare under the sill as you can still damage them, even if they are strong enough to carry the car.

[drifter17a]

Using trolly as need car up in the air by around 50cm on all corners to remove gearbox

 

pinch weld is very risky as it is split and rusted a little bit. I removed rust and coated it with under-seal so don’t want to use it
 

on front what do you mean by diff?

i was referring to Subframe or cross member where streering rack is bolted to  Just behind sump

 

problem is i have one trolly and doing rear works on  diff but front i have to first do one side toe eye and other while car seems to put lots of load on one side and fear toe eye will break causing a nightmare

[GTSBoy]

Just now, drifter17a said:

on front what do you mean by diff?

He's talking about GTRs.

1 minute ago, drifter17a said:

i was referring to Subframe or cross member where streering rack is bolted to  Just behind sump

Trolley jack in the centre of that is fine, but make a rubber pad to stop the sheetmetal getting damaged. As I said above, it's not strong enough for point loadings.

Never place chassis stands under ANY of the main chassis rails. They are not intended for that either.

The official jacking points are strong enough to lift the car, using the scissor jack, as Duncan said. That is what they are for. BUT only the jacking points. Nowhere else along the sill seam.

[joshuaho96]

Start by jacking up the front first. Leave the jack stands on their lowest setting. Then do the rear. Then repeat each side slowly going up one step at a time, do not rush this unless you want the car sliding off the stands. R34 Skylines should be similar to R33 Skylines:

 

If you are having trouble with rear clearance when lifting the front you may want to get some wood to drive the car onto first to raise it before you begin lifting the front.

Edited May 18, 2020 by joshuaho96

[drifter17a]

see pics attached.

I am slightly confused with front so let me get rear clarified first

 

On Rear, lift on Diff casing as shown in Green and then stand on either the red on pic 1 which is just the arm on each side or the subframe legs shown in red again in pic 2. If you look at pic 2 with areas in orange they are crushed a little bit and worried of supporting can on it or lifting unless I buy the adapter which is a rubber piece distributing the load. 

 

On front, lift from cross member as shown in pic 3 using red and place stand where?

 

We all agree not to use the side rails as shown in orange on pic 3. I used it before when people on differnt forum suggested to and it crushed it little bit so back off very quickly .

 

I

[GTSBoy]

As I said. NEVER put chassis stands under the chassis rails (your orange circled bits). They are simply not strong enough. Nearly every Skyline has had the chassis rails irrepairably damaged by people** doing that.

**I use a special term for people like that.

I never support the rear of the car on a jack stand under the diff. Reasons? 1) The jack is there, so it's hard to put a stand there. 2) As a single stand, a central support is just stupid.

You cannot properly support a car on 3 stands at the rear. You can only get 2 of them loaded properly at a time. The 3rd one can only serve as a "safety" in case it falls off the others. In which case, you're doing it wrong.

I support the rear on 2 stands under the subframe just adjacent to the lower rear arm pivots. You can't use the pivots because they are on an angle. The subframe is not ideal, but it is good enough if you are careful to place the chassis stands just right so you get the best contact and the lips on the tops in the right spots as you lower it off the jack.

Do not support the rear on the subframe mounting bolts (which is where I think you have the red circled chassis stands). That's just asking for damage.

18 minutes ago, drifter17a said:

and place stand where?

As I already said, right on the lower inner pivot points. Go back and read it again.

 

18 minutes ago, drifter17a said:

We all agree not to use the side rails as shown in orange on pic 3. I used it before when people on differnt forum suggested to and it crushed it little bit so back off very quickly .

Those are not the "side rails", seeing as they are a long way from the sides of the car. They are the main chassis rails. The "side rails" would be the sills, if you were going to use the term "side rails".

[drifter17a]

3 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

As I said. NEVER put chassis stands under the chassis rails (your orange circled bits). They are simply not strong enough. Nearly every Skyline has had the chassis rails irrepairably damaged by people** doing that.

**I use a special term for people like that.

I never support the rear of the car on a jack stand under the diff. Reasons? 1) The jack is there, so it's hard to put a stand there. 2) As a single stand, a central support is just stupid.

You cannot properly support a car on 3 stands at the rear. You can only get 2 of them loaded properly at a time. The 3rd one can only serve as a "safety" in case it falls off the others. In which case, you're doing it wrong.

I support the rear on 2 stands under the subframe just adjacent to the lower rear arm pivots. You can't use the pivots because they are on an angle. The subframe is not ideal, but it is good enough if you are careful to place the chassis stands just right so you get the best contact and the lips on the tops in the right spots as you lower it off the jack.

Do not support the rear on the subframe mounting bolts (which is where I think you have the red circled chassis stands). That's just asking for damage.

As I already said, right on the lower inner pivot points. Go back and read it again.

 

Those are not the "side rails", seeing as they are a long way from the sides of the car. They are the main chassis rails. The "side rails" would be the sills, if you were going to use the term "side rails".

 

Calm down buddy:)

 

So many people saying so many different things so asking for various opinion to get this right.

jack under diff is as saftey once the jack is removed and car is supported on rear arm . Did you see my pic 1?

In your view having the saftey under diff is wrong as fall back ?

 

Re front will take a pic and post just to make sure I understood correctly.

 

You are right, I meant main chassis rail and so many forum say use that which is wrong in my view,

Sills where the drawing from manufactor suggest to use aren't strong at least not on my car. One thing I haven't tried is get an adapter for the sills so the trolly jack bowl doesn't crush it and rather load is spread on the pinch weld . They are weak on mine as one side has split up so not sure if you meant to use it .

 

 

 

[joshuaho96]

I'll let someone else speak to jack stand placement, I only use the pinch weld because that's the factory position and I try very hard to not damage them.

For the front you jack by the crossmember you circled in red. Jack the rear by the diff. Those are the OEM designed floor jack/trolley jack points. Anywhere else is not a good idea.

For placing jack stands on the sills you need a rubber pad that avoids engaging the protrusion to avoid bending and splitting: 

Probably what happened is someone improperly jacked the car, wrecked the pinch welds, and now it's hard to say whether they are structurally sound to use stands with. It really depends on the state of the car. If it's rusted out then you will have problems. If it's just bent you may be ok.

Edited May 19, 2020 by joshuaho96

[GTSBoy]

^as above, and you can make your own with a block of rubber and a hacksaw blade.

I don't like chassis stands under the jacking points because they are too close to the centreline of the car and leave too much weight hanging out front and/or rear. OK for jacking up at the side of the road, but not great for working under.

[ChrisW434]

Sounds like you need one of these badboys to sit on your trolley jack circle... allows you to lift from the 'pinch' points. Search around on ebay...

Edited May 19, 2020 by ChrisW434
Additional info

[joshuaho96]

On 5/18/2020 at 9:14 PM, ChrisW434 said:

Sounds like you need one of these badboys to sit on your trolley jack circle... allows you to lift from the 'pinch' points. Search around on ebay...

Don't jack the pinch welds with a trolley jack under any circumstance if you can help it, even with these rubber pucks. The problem is that the arc of the trolley jack is such that it pulls on the pinch weld as you lift. A scissor jack goes straight up and down. It's only acceptable to use those points on a two post lift because the lift is making contact with all 4 points simultaneously and the load is very light. Nissan has made very nice provisions for trolley jacks that allow you to lift the front and rear of the car safely, use those points instead of trying to lift from the rockers.

[GTSBoy]

Trolley jacks do have wheels and do move forwards as you lift the car.

As usual, it's about how you use the tool.

[ChrisW434]

3 hours ago, joshuaho96 said:

Don't jack the pinch welds with a trolley jack under any circumstance if you can help it, even with these rubber pucks. The problem is that the arc of the trolley jack is such that it pulls on the pinch weld as you lift. A scissor jack goes straight up and down. It's only acceptable to use those points on a two post lift because the lift is making contact with all 4 points simultaneously and the load is very light. Nissan has made very nice provisions for trolley jacks that allow you to lift the front and rear of the car safely, use those points instead of trying to lift from the rockers.

Where are these trolley jack friendly provisions mate?

[GTSBoy]

3 hours ago, ChrisW434 said:

Where are these trolley jack friendly provisions mate?

They don't exist. The diff is acceptable, but not ideal. The front crossmember is a long way from ideal, but workable if you are careful.

I use a wooden block as a load spreader under the front crossmember, to prevent the spikes on the jack's bowl from chewing it up.

[tridentt150v]

5 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

They don't exist. The diff is acceptable, but not ideal. The front crossmember is a long way from ideal, but workable if you are careful.

I use a wooden block as a load spreader under the front crossmember, to prevent the spikes on the jack's bowl from chewing it up.

I've done that with a lump of 2" x 4' x 20" long, but the cross member still doesn't look happy, in fact I think the metal is now flatter across that point than it used to be, not quite a dent, but would end up one with repeated use I think?  So I stopped using it, which is a pain cos the best way to get my Skyline on the ramps was to jack the car up then push the ramps under the front wheels.  So now I have to do it one side at a time, and the car sits there 'twisting' and rocking until I get both ramps under the front wheels.  I've used the tow points, and they are strong enough, but there is a stability problem.  I might end up making up a dedicated bracket that sits on the trolley jack and lets me use the tow points with more confidence? One day.....

Alternative is to make up longer ramp 'planks' so I don't scrape my front bar.

[drifter17a]

5 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

They don't exist. The diff is acceptable, but not ideal. The front crossmember is a long way from ideal, but workable if you are careful.

I use a wooden block as a load spreader under the front crossmember, to prevent the spikes on the jack's bowl from chewing it up.

god this is so confusing so where do you lift from for rear? can't do pinch weld, is it arm ? if so where you place the stand/

[GTSBoy]

11 minutes ago, drifter17a said:

god this is so confusing so where do you lift from for rear?

I jack on the diff. As I said before. And, as I said, it's not ideal, but what are you going to do? It's strong enough. Just need to be careful.

 

12 minutes ago, drifter17a said:

if so where you place the stand

As I said before also, I put my chassis stands under the subframe, just where the lower arm inner pivots are. Again, it's a long way from ideal, but there really is nowhere else that I want to consider. The subframe is strong enough, so no chance of damaging it. But you have to be really careful to position the chassis stands just right so that they don't crush the arm brackets, don't support just one one edge , etc etc. Again, it's be careful about what you're doing. Then, if I have to be under the rear, I leave the jack under the diff, just not holding any weight, and I'll usually put some wheels under the car as double insurance if I'm going to be doing anything involving enough leverage on the car that I might have a bad day.

[silviaz]

On 5/19/2020 at 9:35 AM, GTSBoy said:

What Duncan said.

The diff casing is a heavy casting. I'm not sure why anyone would think it might crack. Just place the jack bowl evenly under the bottom rib.

Don't put chassis stands under the front crossmember. It is not strong enough to take the point loads from the tops of chassis stands. The best way is put the chassis stands under the lower inner pivot points. You may have to grind the heads of the chassis stands to make them narrow enough to fit. And if you have to remove the lower arm, you will have to find an alternative support point. You can make a buffer to go between a chassis stand and the proper jacking point under the sill and support there. Don't use the chassis stand bare under the sill as you can still damage them, even if they are strong enough to carry the car.

Hey mate, what are those pivot points that you are referring to? I can't find anything about it on the net, you got any photos? Need to know so when I put jack stands on the front and rear of my r34.