I just installed a Max Jax 2 post lift and was out tinkering in the garage when I decided to see where I can place the 4 lift pads. To my suprise and dismay I found that with the lift arms fully extended I can't even come close to reaching the most obvious places on the frame to safely lift the car. I would have to move the post locations inward about a foot on both sides, which would give me about 6" of door opening to get through...not even going to try it. This is the problem with cars w/o a full perimeter frame. I don't suppose there is a safe part of the underside of the body I can lift at? It certainly doesn't appear so. It looks like I will have to make some kind of heavy cross brace to span the lift arms and support the car.
Nooo... From memory, believe most common frame lift points were at cowl body mount (ft) and ahead rear wheels where suspension attaches... Wondered about door clearance when read original thread...thought maybe balance point would be far enough forward to allow partial door open, but sounds like arms not long enough...guess you'll have to put top down and climb out...
Body placement of the lift pads will result in the dreaded Buick body enema. William Bendix would have called it a revolting development.o No:
I'll have to check the manual to see where the lift points should be. The major problem is that the distance between the mounting points for the rear suspension is very narrow with respect to the width of the car. I just ordered extra anchors to allow for a more narrow column placement for the lift. I may have to push the car the final foot or two into the lift bay, as it were, but that beats unsafe and costly mistakes. :Smarty: The bad news is I can't use the lift on the Buick this weekend. The good news is once I get the new column location I can move the lift column back to the wide stance when done w/o breaking the hyd lines. Should be a 5-10 minute operation.
This is a known problem and why I do not have the 2-post lifts in my garage. Check out this thread: http://forums.aaca.org/f196/x-frame-riviera-two-post-lift-288007.html This guy made 2 bars to span between the 4 arms, one for the front and one for the rear. On these bars he has pads that lined up with the frame to lift the car. I am not so sure of the wisdom of these bars. It puts the load way out away from the posts, compared to original post arm length.
On my 64s, you had to lift at the outer most area of the X frame, which is behind the front wheels and just ahead of the rears. Do not lift the car by the floor pans. I had a Rotary lift, and it would extend out far enough to lift the 64, but it still was a balancing act and would make you pucker up the first couple of times. Contact your lift provider to see if they have extensions
Better yet, break out the floor jack and jackstands. I would certainly not be willing to roll the dice on a two post balancing act like that. Devon
Thanks for the link. That's exactly what I have in mind but I might go with 3 x 4 tubing. Plenty strong! The bending moment of the lift arms will not be any different using a bridge or not. The force will still be applied at the ends of the lift's arms. The tipping moment on the columns will not be any different as the CG of the car is still ~halfway between the columns. My columns are located at the maximum recommended distance apart. This may be the route I have to go since a quick check has revealed that even with the columns nearly touching the car the rear lift arms will still end up short. I will likely make my bridges longer and stouter than those in the link so that I can keep the arm extension to a minimum, making the entire lift more stable. There's still the question of stability since the rear lift points are so close together. I will likely invest in some tall supports to place under the axle so that the car doesn't become unstable while working on it.
