Proper way to support Fiero on 4 jack stands (Page 2/2)
cvxjet MAY 15, 02:30 PM
When I jack the Fiero up, I put the floor jack under the front crossmember or the back of the rear subframe(I even marked dead-center on the frame). When I place the jack-stands I put them as far out on the front crossmember or on the two rear corners of the rear subframe.

Critically, when I drop the car onto the stands at the rear (With the front on the ground) it will move forward, so I always place chocks in front and back of tires on end left on the ground...after lifting but before lowering, I move chocks if needed to make sure there is no large shifting of car during lowering. After I lower the car, but before removing jack completely, I grab car and give it a shake to make sure it is solidly supported.

If you place jacks as shown in FRONT of the engine, those stands will be supporting most of the car's weight- 1500 lb stands are not strong enough. I would use 3000 lb to 3 ton stands...Better to be safe than.....squished!

While working at NAS Alameda, one of my co-workers was working on his RV.....His >>CAR<< jack-stands failed.................>>End of story<<
Skybax MAY 15, 07:54 PM

quote
Originally posted by skywurz:

I prefer supporting on the blue circles below and jacking on the red.




That is exactly how I would have done it, was just curious what others do for optimum balance/stability points.


quote
Originally posted by cvxjet:

1500 lb stands are not strong enough. I would use 3000 lb to 3 ton stands...Better to be safe than.....squished!




Good tip for many folks out there, I only use 3 ton myself for most cars, and I would never lay/work under a car that was only supported by jack stands.


quote
Originally posted by fierofool:

I included the suggestion for printing out the graphic in the event you ever did have to take it to a service department. Maybe to get a new set of tires, perhaps?




I've never taken my hobby car to have tires put on or be serviced, I don't even like others working on my daily driver. I do 95% of my own work, having somebody else work on my car is last resort. Over the last 40 years I either mounted them myself when I worked as a technician, or these days I just take them the wheels, hence the purpose of having car on jack stands for a week or more, which I'm not happy about. To elaborate... I'm pulling wheels, take wheels to local garage to dismount tires, take wheels to be stripped in a soak tank, I'll polish machined lip, paint and clear coat wheels, take restored wheels and new mail-order tires to be mounted, then reinstall. This is probably the 20th set of wheels I've restored (different makes/models) and normally I would strip them myself, but I'm getting older and don't want to deal with intricate diamond spoke webbing, so stripping via soak tank is easier way to go on GT wheels.

[This message has been edited by Skybax (edited 05-15-2021).]