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Where to Put Axle Stands - Photo?

45K views 30 replies 13 participants last post by  Champy 
#1 · (Edited)
I've seen the same question loads of times on here - where should you put the jack and axle stands when jacking up a 156?

For me, it would be nice to have a big picture somewhere showing safe places to put them. I came across Chris155's awesome photo of the bottom of a 156 (here), and would love to have this annotated with things like where to jack and put stands, etc.

If I had a clue where these places were, I'd do it, but sadly I haven't :(

Would any of you kind experts out there be willing to do this? I think it'd be really handy for the less knowledgable among us who want to do some basic maintenance (e.g. oil changes) without accidentally punching a hole through the bottom of their car...

... Oh, and another quick question ... no one ever mentions using a pair of ramps instead, any reason?
 
#3 ·
Hehe, OK, jacking isn't really the issue but I have seen it asked many times. It's positioning the axle stands that is really the thing.

I guess when you know what you're doing it seems silly, but the cost of getting it wrong means a bit of healthy paranoia doesn't seem like a bad idea!
 
#4 · (Edited)
Hope these help.




Obviously, avoid areas such as the floor, spare wheel-well, fuel tank, sump, gearbox etc, marked by the large red crosses in the photos. At the rear, also avoid at all cost the 4 track control arms (marked by the small red crosses) as they will bend if you put anything under them and you'll end up with the rear wheels pointing in a direction other than straight. :rolleyes: I speak from experience here, as a tyre fitter managed to put his jack there briefly, bent one of the arms ever so slightly, realised what he had done and repositioned the jack, but ever so thoughtfully 'forgot' to mention it to me. :mad: At a glance, the tow-out that the nearside rear wheel now had was not obvious, but as I accelerated up the road the steering from the rear, supermarket trolley handling certainly was. :eek: :eek: :eek:

I used to put my stands in any of the positions marked by the green circles. In addition, if you have a suitable sized piece of wood (mine was about 18" long x 9" wide x 1" thick), you can place it under the rear central suspension casting (marked with the green [-----] ) so as to spread the load over the whole casting and then insert either a trolley jack under the wood so as to raise the whole rear of the car at once, or support the whole rear with stands (at least 2 in this area), if you need to keep access around the wheels clear for a particular job

You can also of course put them at the normal jacking points (yellow arrows). :D

Of course, these are just my personal choices and others may choose to disagree for whatever reasons but no-matter what you choose to do, remember that safety is paramount
 
#22 ·
There are four jacking points at the front.
Two at the sill (obviously one on each side!) and also two round jacking points further in.
Easy to see if you look under the car.

At the rear I can just about get my trolley jack and the axle stand in the same place at the one jacking point on each side.

Use a block of wood on the stands & jack to protect bodywork.
 
#23 ·
Thanks David,

I'd be struggling to get both in there at the rear (oo-er missus).
I'll probably jack at those points and put the stands under the large side-to-side-ways alloy suspension-thing(?) (very technical description i know lol...), just as a fall fail safe, with most of the weight kept on the jacks.

Just want to check something - the rear jack point is defiinately the widened section of the inside part of the sill with the big hole in it, right? (as at the point of the arrows in the pic) I just started jacking under one of these (similiar place to the ones on the 155) and heard the nasty splitting/creak sound i normally associate with sill seams starting to give way.
I'll try the other side and see how i get on.

As a passing question - why do you have to remove the handbrake cables ends from the calipers when replacing the rear discs and pads?
I've never done it on any other car i've owned but i saw this stated in the How-To pdf i either got from here 156.net. Maybe something i've been missing without realising it all this time?

Cheers, Mark.
 
#24 ·
Re the rear pads & cable: no. But you will need a piston rewind tool.

DON'T use the lightweight alloy rear crossmember.
You can get both close enough together at the rear jacking points.
The location on the Sportpack/Veloce is easy to spot because of the removable jacking point covers on the plastic sills.
Not sure how close it is to that hole in the pic and it is too cold outside to go and check...
 
#25 ·
Re the rear pads & cable: no. But you will need a piston rewind tool.
DON'T use the lightweight alloy rear crossmember.
You can get both close enough together at the rear jacking points.
The location on the Sportpack/Veloce is easy to spot because of the removable jacking point covers on the plastic sills.
Not sure how close it is to that hole in the pic and it is too cold outside to go and check...
Got finished about 9pm on Sun after a number of setbacks. Bl00dy cold.

I bought piston spreaders and the draper cube windback tool a few months back, after years of struggling while replacing brakes - common sense finally beat tightness :)

Jacking point - what i was trying to say was that i assume the recommended re-inforced underbody jacking point (couldn't find one listed in the user manual) is the flat inside of the sill at the 3 inch section where it widens (where the hole is) ... rather than on the re-inforced thin sill seam (where i assume the standard Alfa jack fits with a 'V' grooved head - i haven't actually had the jack out to have a look at it yet).

Speaking of which, the creaking/splitting sound didn't repeat on either side - i think i may have been grinding grit with the trolley jack wheels - metal on metal.

This is because i need to use long metal plates under the wheels of the jacks (for the wheels to travel along as the jack moves), as otherwise the wheels sink into my driveway tarmac causing dents and then the jack movement jams and the car starts to be winched towards the stuck wheels - lovely and safe. Thank you Redrow for you wonderful quality housebuilding...
So i need to use x8 2mm metal plate sheets carefully positioned under the wheels of the 2 trolley jacks - a right PITA!
If i put a lot of weight on the axle stands, ie if they are being used to completely take the weight of the front or rear - they also sink into the drive leaving minature alien tripod dents :(

For this reason i can't use the trolley jacks and axle stands right next to each other, the metal plates (with upturned lips along their length, on each side) get in the way. Another PITA.

I placed the axle stands with wood blocks under the alloy crossmember, without any real weight, in case of jack failure. Then next day saw your comment lol. Guess i was right to be concerned about its loading capabilities. Still cant see anywhere else for me to use with my driveway surface restrictions unfortunately.

Thanks for the advice.
Cheers, Mark.
 
#26 ·
Another quick off-topic question, why are the drop links on both sides on the rear ARB braced plastic?
How can that take the tensile push/pull strain of the cars roll weight?
Are all the 156's set up like this?
I remember the previous owner telling me that this facelift sportswagon had some sort of special self leveling rear shocks (the manual mentions it as well, something to do with rear passenger loading), but although there's a plastic droplink join to the rear ARB, connecting on the other end to the shocker body (which is bolted to the hub, which is bolted to the thin rear trailing arm and the two stabilising arms connected to the alloy crossmember) - i don't see it.

Can anyone explain this?
Cheers, Mark.
 
#27 ·
Yes the rear ARB links are plastic.
The self-levelling (option on all Sportwagons) is built into the rear spring/damper units, no external linkages.
 
G
#29 ·
A very interesting thread......I've always used my trolley jack on the 'inner' round jacking points, but I put my axle stands on the u shaped, chassis rail section of the floor. I assumed there was more strength here because of the box section.
 
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