DCAWD.com

So, some have heard, some have seen, new set of wheels while the Forester is getting fixed. '96 Chevy Caprice. Yea, its not AWD. And yea, its American. So, now that I've admitted my faults, lets move on.

Starting to build up tools for doing my own maintenance. I have all of the sockets and wrenches for standard measurements, no problem there. I can track down the oil filter wrench, etc. Thing I'm looking at is a jack and jack stands. Problem is the car is 5,400lb. Is a 3-ton jack and stands going to be enough? Yea, I'd love a huge margin of safety, but the difference between 3-ton and 6-ton jack stands are 20lb for the pair, cant imagine what the difference in the jack itself would be. Thinking physics, the jack isn't lifting the whole weight of the car.

Thoughts?

Looking at these: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=91760 and http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=94629

First where is the car weight coming from?
Edmunds lists curb weight at 4061 for the sedan and 4473 for the wagon. Is 5400 the GVWR?

Now for your question.
Yes they are fine. I regularly use a 3000 pound jack to jack up one side of a 2900 pound car.
Those jack stands are 6000 pounds for the pair. Each one can hold 3000 pounds. I can not think of a situation where you would have more than half of the weight of the car on a single jackstand.

I have that jack for the garage and it has been working well and I get a good bit of usage out of it.

Hmm, I'm thinking a google error, I did a search for '96 Chevrolet caprice class curb weight' and took the first link that didnt say 'wagon' in the title. Looks like the one I looked at was a UK site. Strange. But yea, seeing your 2-ton number in a bunch of other places, so probably the right one.

Cool, glad to hear its working for you. I was looking at a Craftsman as well, but that was 15lb heavier for only $20 less. Folks are complaining about failures of two year old hardware, and apparently you have to rebuild the cylinder on occasion? I wonder if they sell a baby jack to jack up your jack...

Might want to grab some ramps, too.

I thought about the ramps. I'm seeing 4-ton plastic ramps for $50/set. The big challenge I have is storage space, and there isn't anything that I can do with the ramps that I can't do with the jack/stands, and there are plenty of things I can do with the jack/stands that I can't do with the ramps.

I'll probably do an oil change or two and see how it goes. My driveway has a pretty good angle to it, with the ramps I can back the car in, put out the ramps, and then roll the car down onto them, which would have the effect of leveling out the car (but maybe not enough) and giving me space to work. Combined with a couple blocks on the rear wheels (Advance Auto Parts have a pair for $5). I could do the oil change in the driveway instead of on the street.


Hmmm.

Also, looking at service manuals. The Haynes book has been good, but I'm finding some of the pictures and descriptions hard to decipher. They don't always give you alot of context. 'Left side of the intake plenum' may mean something to all of you, but as a rookie it means I spend 20 minutes with a flashlight playing 'Where's Waldo' with a PCV valve.

This one looks interesting:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CHEVROLE ... 2257wt_944

Has anyone used one from this source? It says it requires Windows... which either means they are not tech savvy (this is me hoping for PDF manuals) or its in a custom format.

That E-bay thing sounds a bit scketchy, but that is just me.
Intake plenum is anything after the air filter to the 'carb'? or the throttle body if it is FI.

I grabbed a 2-ton jack (the weight and price was really attractive), and its just not enough. I'm not sure if its the lift capacity or the lift height thats the bigger issue, but I cant get it up high enough - when I lift it as high as I can, put in the jack stands, and drop it back down, the tires end up back on the ground. Found a 3-ton with a 6" higher lift height. Oh well, my bad, tried to be cheap and now I buy it twice.

pics of chubby jacked up. i gotta see this .

I'll jack up the ass end with the scissor jack, pull off the wheel and get a white trash picture of the drum brakes...

The jack you have might be just fine. I use a 6" piece of 4x4 and a hockey puck or skate wheel to add some lift to my craftsman jack. Hasn't failed yet.

zaxrex wrote:The jack you have might be just fine. I use a 6" piece of 4x4 and a hockey puck or skate wheel to add some lift to my craftsman jack. Hasn't failed yet.

You're just not getting enough under her!!!

Sabre wrote: You're just not getting enough under her!!!

This belongs elsewhere...

zaxrex wrote:The jack you have might be just fine. I use a 6" piece of 4x4 and a hockey puck or skate wheel to add some lift to my craftsman jack. Hasn't failed yet.

Hmm, good point. The jack I was looking at is backordered, I'll pay around with the first one tomorrow night and see what I can do.