There was some very sound advice posted here recently on using
jackstands. Four high-quality, well placed jackstands on a concrete
slab are relatively safe as long as AFTER you have the car at the
desired height on all four stands, you go around one more time with your
floor jack and lift the car off each stand to make certain it is not
tipped, stressed to the side, etc. (i.e., once the car is fully in the
air, barely jack the car off each stand one at a time to let the stand
"reposition" itself solidly on the floor and perpendicular in relation
to the frame or axle member).
I posted the following suggestion once before, but since there are new
folks on the list, and since we are talking about jackstands again, I
thought I should repost it.
- reposted please ignore if you read this before--sorry for the wasted
bandwidth -
Living here in Los Angeles, if I'm going to spend a good deal of time
under the car, I take one last precaution if the wheels are off the car
(dropping the car with no wheels on it could produce a severe case of
"pancakism").
Since the wheels are off the car anyway, just slide one of them under
the car with you. If the car does drop, it will drop no lower than the
width of the wheel/tire. While this probably would cause you some
scrapes and bruises, there is no way the Triumph will flatten its own
wheel and tire (and you!).
If you wish to get very compulsive about this, just slide each tire
under the frame at its corresponding corner of the car, or better yet,
stack them two high. Depending upon your "girth," the car probably would
not even touch you if it dropped.
For a TR6, anyway, the wheel/tires are quite light and you have to put
them someplace, anyway, if you take them off. They won't "tip over" like
a stand, they won't move on the floor and "squirt out" from under the
car. If they get in your way while you are moving around under the car,
you can push them around relatively easily. This precaution only takes a
couple minutes and could save your life.
If you are not removing the wheels, you can use some other spare rims,
small blocks of railroad ties, or you can could slap together some
wooden "blocks" thicker than your head/body out of 4"x4" stubs--just
about anything that would stop the car from dropping to the floor if it
comes off the jackstands.
You'll feel safer and more peaceful under the car knowing you have a
taken this additional precaution.
Safe and happy wrenching,
doug
"one who has spent many hours looking up at the bottom things"
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