Just realized I'm not sure where I shld place the blocks under the Maverick to be able to pull all four wheels off at once. The jack points wld be best I wld think but then how to jack it up? Anyone have a suggestion as to where I shld place the blocks under the car? It's gonna be up for at least two weeks, maybe more... don't want to bend anything.
These cars are nose-heavy, especially if you have a V8. Once you have the front on stands, the back is pretty easy. Front stands on the subframe, like mentioned. IIRC, I had mine as close to the bellhousing as possible. Set one side of the back, using the rear subframe, got around to the other side, and only had to pick that up about 1/2 inch.... it was pretty much,way up in the air, on three stands ... but don't do that for real. The balance point is right around the front door seam. On a junkyard car that was on two stands there and one out at the very back, it only took about a 20 lb curl on the rear bumper to pick the entire back end of the car up off that rear stand. When jacking up the rear, getting under the rear axle leaf spring mount is good. I used to roll cars around with a jack under the pumpkin, but a friend pointed out that may tweak a less-than-stout axle ... decided to start playing that a little safer, in case that theory holds water. Echos what it says about my DD Explorer in the manual.
depending on what i'm doing i put my jack stands on the pinch weld. my father who has been a mechanic for over 25 years always jacks up unibody cars on the pinch weld and has never had one fall off of the lift so i trust his judment.
For the rear I just jack up under the pumpkin and put 1 jackstand on the outer part of each axle tube.
I am leery about the jack-stand long term thing myself, so building a car roisterer and pulling motor transmission when it comes time to put it on the rotisserie. Wish I could get one of those 4 point car lifts.
I would definitely not do that on a Maverick. I always used to do that too, but the very first day I owned my Mav I almost ruined a rocker panel that way.
I have mine under the balljoints and the rear end out close to the hub. Very sturdy! Been that way for several months!
Thanks a lot for all the input! Not using jack stands 'cause she's outside and my yard is all sand (compacted sand but sand nonetheless). Have some 6" x 6" blocks and some 6" x 4" blocks (all cut to 16" long) to stand her up on. BTW Streetdeacon, your advice ("be careful!) was well taken. Got her up on all four sets of blocks then needed to add about a 2x4 worth under front passenger side .. and the whole thing started MOVING... slid off the blocks as they tumbled over, thankfully didn't damage anything or anyone thanks to Street's reminder. Tried it passenger side first then driver's side so next time I'll go front to back as suggested here. That does make more sense now that I think about it. And now that I have seen that it's not as easy as one (this one at least!) might have thought. Gonna have to reconfigure my blocks too with two side by side on the bottom and one on top I think. Another newbie mistake (sigh...)
Floor pan patches at least, and brakes all around as well as some wheels that will actually run on the car.
