Jacking Instructions
 

 Jacking a car is serious business and not to be taken lightly. There has been many
many accidents that have killed or mamed for life because of careless mistakes.
Most of these are due to working under an improperly supported auto and having a jack
slip out from under the car crushing it's owner or mechanic. Whenever a car is jacked up
whether it be on one corner or the whole car, you should always, without exception,
add a Jack Stand as a safety precaution if you will be working anywhere under the car.
Even if you only are going to stick your head in the wheel well. Changing a tire is a different
story as we can't always carry a Jack Stand with us everywhere we go, but when changing
a tire always stay clear of placing any part of your body under the car. It is a good idea if you
have habitual problems under your car and frequently expect to be in a position of having to
get under the car to carry at least a short piece of 4x4 that has been premeasured to fit under
your car as a back up to the jack. Once you jack the car, lower it so it rests on both the 4x4
and the car jack at the same time. It is a cheap alternative to carrying around a bulky car jack.
Though not as safe, it is better than nothing at all to protect you. Always jack the car on a level
surface if possible. An unlevel surface is where most accidents happen with a jack slipping out
from under the car because the car rolls when the tire loses traction with the ground and should
be avoided.
So much for General Jacking instructions. This page is intended to provide information on
Jacking a 3000GT, VR4 or Stealth high enough to get under the car and work on it with
sufficient room. It is not intended for any other car as I can not predict the results
Though they may be the same I would not want anyone to get hurt. I hesitated to post this page
due to the fact this process is dangerous and things can go wrong. I assume no liability for
results being unfavorable because of things you may have done differently than myself.
This is just a guide for you and if you do not feel you are capable of following it, don't try it.
I will warn that there will be scary parts in this procedure if you have not done it before.
The undercarriage in these cars is very stiff as you will learn and see from the photos that
accompany this page. I raised my car so the undercarriage was approximately 15"
above the ground and with the wheels hanging they were still a good 6" above the
ground all around The first photo deals with jacking the front up first. A
Wheel Jack or Hydraulic Garage Jack is necessary for this procedure. They run about $100
at Sears and have a capacity of 3 tons minimum with a 15" lift. Mine is a little older and
although it is a 3 ton jack, it only has a 12" lift so I had to improvise a little
In the center of the air dam in front on the VR4 there is a Plastic Plate with two bolts
holding it in. This is the front center jacking point. My jack just barely fit under the car without
any boards on the jack to protect the metal, so the first jacking was to bring the car as high
as possible and then install the Jack Stands to reposition the jack.

Here is a photo of the car in the first jacking position

 Drivers side Jack Stand Location                             Passenger side Jack Stand Location

ssss
 
 

 Make sure the lip fits squarely on the stand and it is clear of any other car parts. Do not place the
stand under the bushing mount, rather use the lip as shown. It appears as if the stand is touching
the underbody of the car but it is past the curve. It is just rather difficult to get photos that show the
way you want them to. The main support is directly above the U shape of the stand and it does
not touch anywhere else. Notice the height of the photo on the right above. The stand is barely
extended and is not mounted on the wood base that I will add in the next step

The next step is to lower the car on the stands and reposition the Jack so as to gain more height.
I had to do this with my present Jack and intend on buying the new $99 one at Sears which right
now includes two 3 ton Jack Stands which are normally $19.95 a pair Here is what I had to do which
will help those with older Jacks like mine. I used a 4x4 and a short 2x4 to fit up inside the Jacking
location to extend my Jack as shown below.
When Jacking, make sure the 4x4 sits squarely on the Jack and is not tilted
 

The  next step is to add the boards under the jack stands and extend them to meet the car Jacking
locations, then lower the car down on them as shown in the photo below. I used 2x8's next to each
other but would prefer to use 2x10's cut to fit the dimensions of the Jack Stand base as shown on the
left in the photo below. The reason I use these is to protect the concrete from chipping under the weight.
Jack Stands do not have concrete friendly bases. It seems my camera went into Sepia mode in the photo
below, but I think it was because I ignored the "battery low light" and lost color.
Looks like a 30 yr old photo doesn't it?
 

 Ok, we are finished with the front except for checking and verifying Jack Stand locations and
alignment. Now comes the scary part and if you are doing this for the first time it will make you
nervous. We need to jack up the back of the car to match the front and in doing so, because
we do not have a central jacking position for the rear, we must jack up each side independently.
Starting from either side jack the car up at the location shown below which is the jacking location for
the car from the manufacturer. I use a 2x4 to extend the weight over a longer area of the unibody frame
and also because the jack by itself would probably damage the frame at this location because the
jack head is not the same as the manufacturers and does not fit in the provided slot. Notice that this
is a photo of the passengers side rear jacking location. I only took one photo of this location because
it is the same on both sides

This is, like I said where it becomes scary because as you are jacking the car from the rear side the
car will actually leave one of the front Jack stands and will be suspended by one Jack Stand in front
and the Wheel Jack in the rear. Here is a photo of this occurrence Because of the weight of the
passengers rear at this point being greater than the front beyond the Jack Stand on the left the
car will literally leave the Jack Stand on the right front. There is a 2" gap between the Front Right
Jack Stand and the contact area in this photo. Almost the entire weight of the car is being
supported by the front left Jack Stand and the Wheel Jack. This photo
looks really scary in full size

Here is the Jack Stand location for both rear sides. There is no real good location and some
seasoned veterans might cringe at this because this it the rear steering arm, but it is perfectly
capable of supporting the weight with no ill effects and also affords the safety of a bolt next to
the support location to keep the Jack Stand from slipping. I only took one photo of this location
and this is the passengers side. A photo of the same location on the other side would just yield
the bolt on the left instead of on the right as shown below

 This tilting is temporary till you lower the car on to the rear drivers side Jack Stand. The Stand is
positioned back from the Wheel Jack and this changes the weight a little and the car will almost
return to the front Jack Stand and the left rear tire will then leave the ground but however be lower
than the rest of the car. In this position the car is actually being supported by the Front Passengers
Stand and the Rear Drivers as seen in the photo below.
As you can see the Passengers rear wheel has left the ground

Now moving over to the passengers side, Jack the car up from the Jacking Location shown
below and also above
 

While you are Jacking from this location, check and recheck the location of the Drivers Front Stand
to make sure it is in the correct position as we are now returning the weight of the car to that location.
Here it gets scary again as the drivers side of the car will be supported by the two Jack Stands
and the Passengers side will be supported by the Wheel Jack alone.
This is why we need to have a 3 ton Jack fellas. It needs to exceed the total weight of the car
to be strong enough structurally to hold the weight. Here it is only supporting half of the weight
or 1 ton as the car is almost 2 tons so it is really only at 1/3 it's capacity, but you want to have the
structural strength to far exceed it's capacity. There is no actual weight on either the Rear or the
Front Passengers Side Jack Stands in this photo

Below is a photo to show this situation exists. I removed the Front Passenger Jack Stand just to show
this so you could see it for yourself that the car is literally being supported by three points and is still level.
I wish I had also removed the Rear Passengers because I just had it in position to install it, but I assure
you there is no weight on it. The car would not do this if there were weight on it because of the
Rear Passengers Stand location is back from the Wheel Jack Location. If I were however to put my
weight on the front passengers side of the car, it would tilt off the Drivers Rear Stand, so make sure
you don't lean on the car at any time during any and all of this jacking procedure. One of the things
that make this possible is the 2x4 I have above the Wheel Jack. It supports over a longer area
 

Now, at this point you want to make sure both the Front and Rear Passenger Stands are in the
proper location before lowering the car and also while lowering the car on to them. Use the
hydraulics to slowly lower the car in small amounts till the car makes contact with
the stands and shown below is the completed project. The car undercarriage sits at 15" off
the ground and is safe for working under I use cardboard to lay on as it affords me more
room than a creeper
 

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Photos and text Copyright John C. Adams  Use prohibited without authorization.
For questions send e-mail   Last Update12/09/98

Disclaimer: Author has completed this procedure without problems and this page is mearly a documentation of the event.
This procedure is very dangerous to an inexperienced person and consideration must be observed as to a persons
qualifications when taking on a task such as this. Safety must always be observed to prevent both bodily injury and injury to
personal property. No liability whether inferred or actual is assumed for anyone attempting to perform this same procedure
or any problems arising out of such and event