Jacking and jack stand placement

[tenikiwon]

I'm planning on doing my brakes tomorrow and this will be my first experience with jacking my vehicle.

Can I use a floor jack to jack it up and then place the jack stand under......the fram? the rear axle?

Where do I or can I jack from? The rear diffy? the front?

Any other advise with Explorer brakes and ABS? first ABS car I've owned.

Thanks

 

[Fish Man]

i always do frame when im jacking/putting jack stands under a car. dont know if thats whats best for an ex, but im sure somone will chime in

 

[Alec]

Don't jack directly on a pumpkin, but the axle or frame is fine. In the rear I usually place jackstands under the frame just forward of the spring hangers. But since you're not working on the suspension, stands under the axle is fine.

 

[tbomb]

i just use the jacking points that are listed in the owners manual. DO NOT jack under the diff.

 

[tenikiwon]

Thanks, jacking under the diffy was my main question. For some reason I could swear I've been told it's ok and/or seen people do it.

hrmmm..... I guess you can't believe what everyone said. I should know that from working in customer service! ARRRGGH Stupid People.


Thanks.

 

[Morgan97Ltd]

i know for many cars including my 240 the diff is an actual jacking point as stated in the Factory Service Manual (aka. the bible). regardless even we are scared of using the diff. to jack up the car. i have never tried that point and probably never will, the frame rails work just fine... i personally wouldn't want to test out the strength of my bellhousing that way especially not on a vehicle the size of the explorer

 

[tenikiwon]

Originally posted by Morgan97Ltd
i know for many cars including my 240 the diff is an actual jacking point as stated in the Factory Service Manual (aka. the bible). regardless even we are scared of using the diff. to jack up the car. i have never tried that point and probably never will, the frame rails work just fine... i personally wouldn't want to test out the strength of my bellhousing that way especially not on a vehicle the size of the explorer

Amen my brother. The reason the for post!


You guys are great!

 

[STANN]

i thought i heard somewhere in a procedure for lowering to jack under the diff, just dont ensure the jack doesnt hit the diff cover...

 

[tenikiwon]

Maybe if you are only holding up the axle and not the vehicle.

 

[dogfriend]

Ford specifically warns not to jack under the differential in both the owners manual and the service manual. I used to do it all of the time with the Ranger (with no ill effects), but never with the Explorer because of the warning.

At the rear, I put the jack under the axle inside of the shock mount/ubolt plate. I then put the jack stand on the spring (I have the monoleafs) as close to the axle as I can. An alternate location is on the front spring right under the front spring eye.

The front is harder on the IFS. Ford provides a tab on the lower A arm for jacking, but that doesn't work so well with a floor jack. I use a spot under the torsion bar location on the lower A arm (don't try to use the torsion bar) to jack up the front with my floor jack, then I carefully place the jack stand further toward the wheel, in the section of the A arm where there is a reinforcement tab (the beefest spot I can find)

 

[tenikiwon]

I used the same spot in the rear to jack and put jack stands on the axle as close to the wheel as I could. In the front I jacked with the floor jack on the bottom of the????? um..... metal thing between the two A-arms. Seemed to work w/o problems. The jack stands I put on the inner part of the A-arms where it looked "beefy".

Thanks for all the help.