Beware - Scissor Jacks and Impact Drivers.

[Calaber]

I was sitting on the front steps of the out-laws one day watching their neighbour working under his car on the rear suspension. He was undoing the rear spring u-bolts and had the car supported on proper stands.

I watched for a while and could see he planned to remove the rear leaf spring so befire he completely undid the bolts, I walked over and told him that it would be a good idea if he placed the stands under the body, not the rear axle. Probably saved the dumb bunny's life.

 

[EYY]

Last year I was leaving work late at night and noticed a bloke changing his tyre on the side of the road. He had two wheels in the drain and he had the base of the scissor jack on the steel grate. The car wasn’t sitting evenly and the jack was on an angle, and he had both of his legs under the car (almost crossed around the scissor jack) as he was trying to pull the wheel off.

I almost walked away from it but just couldnt. Ended up telling him to get his legs out of there and offered him a hand. He seemed pretty grateful - glad I stopped.

 

[psycho_smurf]

I had a scissor jack completely let go. Was from the missus 2008 FG falcon. First time ever using the jack, too. Had got the car to the right height and was about to start taking off the lug nuts completely and without even a squeak of warning it stripped itself and dropped the car to the ground. Got the job done using the scissor jack from my commodore, but heck if I wasn't giving it the squint eye in case it had any silly ideas. Carry a trolley jack and an axle stand now in a old milk crate.

 

[lowandslow]

Rattle gun and scissor jack all the way. Not for lifting the whole car though. Mainly for jacking control arms up and down when lining them up for suspension work etc.

 

[fxxxrr]

ive used an old scissor jack heaps, but i greased the threads before hand, have used it with the Air rattle gun and the battery one, mostly just for control arms when changing springs etc, but have more than once used it to lift a wheel off the ground to put a stand under. would be 20 years i guess since i tried to work under a car without stands, ever since a commodre i was wrecking fell off 2 trolley jacks while i was trying to remove fuel tank luckily i had wheels under sills , but scared me enough that i not ever got under a car again since without a stand

 

[losh1971]

I don't even like working under stands, only do it if I have absolutely no other choice. I had a ratchet stand let go once and drop. I had only climbed out from underneath less than 2 mins earlier.

 

[fxxxrr]

I don't even like working under stands, only do it if I have absolutely no other choice. I had a ratchet stand let go once and drop. I had only climbed out from underneath less than 2 mins earlier.

have never owned a ratchet stand, so dont know how they are, mine are all old school pin in hole type and i think i have a couple of old screw thread ones kicking around as well ,

 

[Yande]

.... I had a ratchet stand let go once and drop. .......

If you don't mind me asking losh, why did it fail? Just curious as I recently watched this video about the very same thing..

 

[losh1971]

If you don't mind me asking losh, why did it fail? Just curious as I recently watched this video about the very same thing..

Can't be certain, but I suspect it wasn't seated properly in the groove when it slipped down.