Winter storage on axle stands

[JerryL770]

I took my E out for a warm up recently prior to retiring it for the winter. I decided to take the load off the tyres this time and it will allow me to do a few jobs more easily. Are these the right places for my axle stands?




Whilst looking under the front I found this on the bottom of my radiator:


I understood it was a new, uprated item

[mgcjag]

I dont like the position of the jack in the first photo....needs to come forward slightly ....looks ready to slip rearwards........are you thinking of leaving it like this for the winter.....if so all the suspension is on full droop and tbe IRS is hanging on its mounts....personaly i like a nice big block under the center of the IRS.....then the rear axel stands where you have them just as stabilisers if your working on the car......If for winter storage you want the weight off the tyres then chock it front and rear under the wishbones........Steve

[JerryL770]

.are you thinking of leaving it like this for the winter.....if so all the suspension is on full droop and tbe IRS is hanging on its mounts....personaly i like a nice big block under the center of the IRS.....

Good point Steve, I'd forgotten that potential. I will re-mount appropriately. Having taken a squint underneath some more, I found I have no rear bump stops, despite having asked for some to be fitted.
I wonder if there is too little rome with the alloy wheels though standard tyres.

[PeterCrespin]

I understood it was a new, uprated item

Looks new to me and it depends what you mean by uprated.

[Mich7920]

I don't like the idea of putting the car on jacks for 4 or 5 months.
All the bushs are tightened with the car in static on its wheels. They're going to be in extreme extension during all this time and it's not going to be very good. Look at the angle of the radius arm...

[malcolm]

I've never done this, and my tyres don't seem to have come to any harm. If you're worried about the tyres, you could just jack the car up now and again and turn the wheels

[JerryL770]

All good points, thank you. I will drop it down again when below matter is sorted.

Yes, well, I don't really know what the "uprated" meant either. Most likely, I assume, the more fins type. However, I now suspect that it is the original radiator with a replacement core so the top n bottom tanks are originals with some internal corrosion. For the first year I had the car it only had clean water in, till I discovered this and flushed and refilled with proper antifreeze.

So I'm going to take the rad out for repair or replacement. I don't need anything fancy tho. Any recommendations for repairers in the East Midlands?

[44DHR]

I do take my wheels off in the winter months - usually from October through to March or April the next year. I keep the suspension under some form of compression to ensure they are not hanging in free space at their extremes - especially with the front wishbones which could potentially have the steering rack ball joints at maximum angles.
The front is on one pair of axle stands under the front lower wishbone mounting block - as shown in the topic author’s second photo - but with a second set of axle stands giving a level of support at the outer end of the wishbone near the lower swivel ball joint so the wishbone and steering rack is not hanging at it’s extreme.
At the rear, I jack the car using an alloy and wooden jig under the differential and lower the car onto wooden blocks to rest on the ends of the rear lower wishbones - as near to the alloy hubs as possible without touching the grease nipples under the rear hub.
The other reason that I remove the wheels and tyres during winter is that with the car jacked up, I can access areas under the car.
Cheers,
Dave

[JerryL770]

Axle stands repositioned.



Better

[Norton]

Hi. The tires will not be damaged in any way during winter storage. Longer storage in considerable warmer climate may hurt them. But increase pressure aproximately 50%. If not anything else reduces chanches of ending up standing a longer period severely underinflated.
Harald

[tim wood]

I’ve used this company in the past for radiator works
https://www.nargroup.com/

Tim

[JerryL770]

I’ve used this company in the past for radiator works
https://www.nargroup.com/

Tim

Thank you for that Tim. Excellent and fairly local to me.

However, I should have looked closer before commenting because when I did, to investigate further, I found only bright shiney metal. Some radiator fluid must have dripped there from above and caused the staining and apparent rust but when I scraped it, it was clean. So no problem there at all.

[dougal]

I took my E out for a warm up recently prior to retiring it for the winter. I decided to take the load off the tyres this time and it will allow me to do a few jobs more easily. Are these the right places for my axle stands?




Whilst looking under the front I found this on the bottom of my radiator:


I understood it was a new, uprated item

You shouldn't really need to do that if you are fitting good quality radials

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/classi ... -type.html

You shouldn't get flat spots if you fit the Pirelli or Michelin. If you are really concerned you can also just up the pressure. But a radial by a good brand shouldn't flat spot.

[JerryL770]

That's interesting thank you. I'm on Vredsteins and to be fair they did stay on for the first 2 winters and I did not see/notice any flat spotting. Maybe I'm being over cautious