The 'E' Type Forum

I don't like to use the given jacking points on my series 2 2+2; always wary about how strong they are. Thinking of jacking here at the front, just to the right of the bolt head shown:


And here at the back, over the bolt head shown:


Would that be ok?

In Chris Harvey's book "E-Type--End of an Era," he mentions not using the sill points for raising the car. He said that they were known to collapse even when nearly new. That said, this was at a time when many E-Types were still running around with their original sills, and many of those were probably compromised by corrosion.

When raising the front of the car, a wood block placed in the channel of the front subframe cross member is the safest. This will leave the lower wishbone fulcrum brackets free for your jack stands. If raising only one wheel, placing the jack under the lower wishbone where you've indicated in your photo is OK.

When raising the rear, a short length of 4 X 4 fencepost placed between the exhaust pipes will allow the car to be raised by placing the jack under the IRS. An alternate location is at the rear bulkhead, again using a block of wood to distribute the load and protect the undercoating and sheet metal from the jack pad. I wouldn't used the radius-arm mounts because these were never intended as lift points. I've mentioned it before, but any time the rear of the car is raised by anything other than the IRS, the entire weight of that unit will be suspended on the Metalastik mounts--not a good thing in my view.

malcolm wrote:I don't like to use the given jacking points on my series 2 2+2; always wary about how strong they are. Thinking of jacking here at the front, just to the rigt...Would that be ok?

Why don't you want to know if your car is rotten or not?

LWB cars have 4 jacking points, so mainly lift one wheel at a time. If your structure is incapable of supporting that mass then you need to know sooner rather than later. Even SWB cars which lift two wheels at a time will only crumple if the inner/outer sill is weak, which is also good to know. I can't think of a better motivator to fix up a car than looking at a crease in the lower tub.

Yes, for extended work under the car use axle stands at key points. But if the car is only safe to lift at those points the tub needs urgent attention IMHO.

Pete

Pretty sure it's not rotten Peter, but even if it's just slightly weakened, my thinking is I wouldn't want to risk exarcebating the situation. Maybe I'm just a scaredy cat........