S13 jack points - FSM says no to rear control arm

[NCYankee]

I started working on my own cars in PA where the frames tended to be rusty and soft, so got in the habit of using jack points other than the rails.

I just noticed in my FSM while I was looking up torque specs for toe link bolts that it says not to use the rear lower control arms - is this because it stresses the bushings too much, or because the member itself is not strong enough?

I normally use the diff or the subframe points in the rear (and the tow hooks or crossmember in the front) but when I am ready to crawl under the car and looking to slip my rhino ramps under the wheels, the only way I can get enough lift is by the RLCAs - but I usually only have the jack there for the time it takes to get the ramps under.

I am now concerned that I may have damaged the RLCAs doing this.

And no, driving up on them is not really an option - not enough room in my garage, and they tend to slide on my garage floor.
Modified by NCYankee at 1:08 AM 5/17/2009

[Chris28]

Wait, why would you jack it up from the lca? That just seems stupid. If you can't jack up from anywhere else use the tow hook. Either that or make a way for the ramps to not slide.

[duffman1278]

Honestly why would you even do that?!!?

Do you realize how much load you'd be putting on a single LCA?!?

I mean it shouldn't take an engineer to realize thats a NO NO.

That part wasn't designed to some much loading.

[onosqv]

that's what the emergency scissor jack points are for...

or driving your car slowly up onto 2x4's (or 2x10's), one piece @ a time until it goes high enough to jack it up from the diff.

Yes, you probably damaged your rlca, and possibly the mounting points for the subframe, too - you're not suppose to jack up the car from there.

[brndck]

duh didn't you know that you should be jacking it up from the rear view mirrors?

f*** man, find the most solid point and jack from there.

if you have a fsm, follow it. why bother making another useless thread on a forum that is already plagued with useless threads. this is the reason why i can't search for ANYTHING without getting 3,500 results with completely unrelated and useless information.

[DanThaMan]

get yourself a piece of wood, slot it so that it slides over the pinch rail, and use that to jack up the car, that way your rail doesnt get crushed and it spreads the weight a little bit over the piece of wood.

[NCYankee]

Thanks so much (to a couple of you) for making me feel like an idiot. Geez when I was searching I found posts by guys who jacked their cars up by the freaking oil pan and didn't get as much crap, but whatever. (And brndck - it may be a "useless thread" to you since you're not selling anything, as in all the great threads YOU have created - which clutter up everyone elses searches - but it's just a little important to me to know if I may have bent the damned thing, so if you are going to be a whiny jackass just do it elsewhere mmmmkay?)

For the record, I didn't say I have used that as a jack point SINCE I noticed it in the FSM - yes that would be stupid - but that piece looks solid enough on the car that it hadn't occurred to me it might not be able to handle 1/4 of the car's weight for a few seconds - when you get it out and have it in your hands you realize its not as sturdy as it looks.

I can't use the tow hook on that side because the aftermarket resonator the guy before me put on is in the way - and that would not help the purpose of getting the ramps underneath, with the wheels hanging free you really have to get that thing up high which was why I came up with the brilliant idea of using the LCA.

Well, time to go get it aligned and see if I have actually messed anything up - hopefully my shredded toe link bushing was the only thing keeping them from getting it into spec.

Modified by NCYankee at 11:12 PM 5/17/2009
Modified by NCYankee at 11:19 PM 5/17/2009