Author Topic: Safely lifting 72 Twin cam  (Read 231 times)

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Offline GPS

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Safely lifting 72 Twin cam
« on: Saturday,June 15, 2024, 07:02:39 AM »
Good morning all!
I have some questions/concerns about lifting my 72 twin cam up in the air so I can see her belly.
So I have it in a home garage, so no fancy lift. I do have a floor jack and a scissor jack. Having discussed this with some other owners off
line, I get the general idea and of course the fragility of the car. Is there a easy and safe way to put her up on jack stands.
I was thinking of ramps, but brake access is obviously limited. Figuring some one who has far more experience and knowledge, would
have the answer making me think to post this seemingly obvious dilemma.
Thanks for any tricks or info.

Cheers

Offline 4129R

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Re: Safely lifting 72 Twin cam
« Reply #1 on: Saturday,June 15, 2024, 07:14:35 AM »
Trolley jack under the L bracket holding the bottom arms to the gearbox.

Axle stands under the two rear chassis rails about parallel with the TC oil filter. Do not confuse the chassis with the rear trailing arms.

Remove trolley jack carefully.

Trolley jack under the T of the front chassis where the steel closer plate attaches to the chassis.

Axle stands under the ends of the T where the front bottom suspension arms attach.

Use the scissor lift carefully to just the raise the shell high enough to get the trolley jack under the closer plate. Use a wooden 4 x 2 spreader on the scissor jack or you will crunch through the fibreglass.

Whenever you let the car down on the trolley jack, it moves, so if you put ramps under the rear wheels, it can move forward and slide down the ramps and move about 3ft further into the garage. Been there, done that.

Use wooden spreader blocks on the axle stands if possible to avoid bending what you are supporting on the axle stands. 


Offline TurboFource

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Re: Safely lifting 72 Twin cam
« Reply #2 on: Saturday,June 15, 2024, 07:44:02 AM »
I use a piece of wood between jack and T-section to spread the load.
The more I do the more I find I need to do....remember your ABC’s …anything but chinesium!

Offline BDA

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Re: Safely lifting 72 Twin cam
« Reply #3 on: Saturday,June 15, 2024, 07:55:59 AM »
My method is to jack up one side or the other in the front with a scissor jack enough to scoot a floor jack under the backbone at the ‘T’. I jack it up to the height I want and put stands under the ‘T.’ Probably because when I first started wrenching on cars, I had cheap jack stands, I am wary of extending them high enough to support the car as 4129R does so instead I jack up the rear under the tranny and put a wooden step stool sort of thing I built under the rear hoop.

Lowering is the reverse. If you forget, as I have a time or two, you end up with the front being supported at a single point by the floor jack and the rear supported at a single point at the rear hoop!

We had a similar discussion earlier here: https://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=3563.msg37350#msg37350

Offline 4129R

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Re: Safely lifting 72 Twin cam
« Reply #4 on: Saturday,June 15, 2024, 08:16:55 AM »
I made 2 short ramps out of 6 x 2,  with the ends cut to an angle, so the front wheels are 2" higher to get the trolley jack under the anti-roll bar.