When you want to put your F truck on the jackstands to work underneath it, and you use a floor trolley jack - it's OK to lift under the centre diff at the rear, to get the rear wheel up high quickly!

Under the front however is much harder because the diff's offset, so if you jack from under it - the front doesnt raise evenly for each stand to fit under!

Where should you position the jack to get the front up so it balances evenly - the tapered axle housing next to the offset diff whichis the central point is tapered and it wants to slip sideways off the trolley jack while lifting!

Do you do one side at a time on the front?...and jack from under the knuckles?

Just curious what others do!

Cheers!

 

I usually place the floor jack next to the differential and raise it up. It does come up uneven, but I raise it to the height needed on the lowest side and adjust my jack stands evenly before letting it down. I usually place the stands just to the inside of the knuckles. I use an 4 ton rated floor jack from Sears.

 

I wouldnt jack the front axle from the middle, way too much weight with the diesel motor. JMO

 

I have only had it jasked up once but I just went under the diff and high enough to get the lowest side on a stand and yes when you got that front end up in the air with a 2 ton floor jack it feels like the whole world is going to come crashing down at any second

 

I usually jack from as close to the middle of the axle as I can get, if I'm doing suspension work the stands usually go on the frame behind the leaf springs, if not right up beside the knuckle. But, I was putting an add-a-leaf on a friends '04 350 yesterday and the truck wouldn't sit on the stands right behind the springs on the frame. The rear end wanted to come up and the truck tip forward. We put 500lbs of weight in the back of the bed and it still wanted to tip forward. On the newer trucks there is apparently a crossmember that goes between the two front spring mounts- We put the stands up there on his truck and it worked really well. My truck doesn't have this crossmember, so I sometimes slip the stands kind of up under the bumper and put them on the impact absorbing, rippled part of the frame right behind the tow hooks. As heavy as these trucks are in the front, I dont like putting the stands behind the leaf springs unless I have to.

 

I think I'm skating on thin ice, with a 2 tonne floor trolley jack for the front - it really don't like lifting the weight of the truck as stated!

I got the stands in bye doing each front side individually but what a hassle!

One of the stands sheared the head off the pin because it has a hole thu the pin with a retaining chain so you don't lose the pin - but the pin was in so far that the weight of the truck just sheared the head off the pin at the hole like it was in a guillotine!

I had to re jack it and put the pin in so it was even both sides of the stand tube and it seems to be holding OK now!

I tried jacking one side from under the suspension bracket that a stabiliser shock absorber would presumably bolt too for the steering presumably - man it folded like butter under the weight of the truck - guess I'll have to use heat and fold it back where it belongs - just in case I ever want to add a stabiliser later!

While I was under there I found a piece out of a hank of rope stuck in the front spring hanger bush where someones obviously tried to tow the truck out of a bog I guess, and snapped the rope in the spring...with the remainder jammed tight in the hanger bush!

Will have to figure a way to get that out - maybe some heat - feels like it might even be old hemp rope - maybe I'll make a bong outta it while I'm at it! ;o)

I think my stands are a little light weight for the job on the F truck and I'll hafta upgrade em for future work!

I'll likely have to make a little sloped cradle to fit in the trolley jack lift cup - to set right alongside the front offset diff on the tapered axel housing so it lifts straight!

I am a bit worried to tell the truth about bending a axel housing lifting by the diffs...is this a no no for the F trucks does anyone know?

Damn tough to find a jacking point AND room for a stand on the side where the front diffs offset!

Anyway - it's up in the air, a good foot maybe...with the stands on hollow cored bricks, which I ain't overly thrilled about (it's all I had to put under the stands...4 bricks holding about 4 tonnes is asking for trouble, i know!!).

It's not like we have chunks a hardwood 4 inches thick layng about these days - it's become a rare commodity! Never thought I'd say that, I owned a timber mill for 20 years and now I can't find 4 blocks of wood!! Whats this world commin too!

I can see the headlines now - "Timber Miller crushed under truck for want of 4 blocks of wood!"...

I'll try n get pics of how NOT to jack your truck up tomorrow and the steps for the deep pan tranny conversion!

Man this hobby is expensive...the little torque wrench to do up the transmission bolts to 10 ft lbs was like $265, the Pan $914, the Filter $67, the % gallons transmission fluid $150....the temp guage $60, and so on, it never ends!

Another grand!

It's worse that owning a BOAT (Break Out Another Thousand) these damned F trucks are about on par!

If the bricks don't crush under the weight of the truck and the stands don't collapse / shear their pins, and the truck don't squash me - I'll try and post pics of the trans deep pan conversion job tomorrow or next day depending howlong this takes me!

Cheers!

 

Please be very careful using any kind of brick or concrete block under your jackstands. If they fail, they do so suddenly and spectacularly. I made this mistake once and I will not be making it again.

As low-tech as it sounds, wood is actually one of the safer materials to put under your jackstands. Since it is made up of millions of smaller fibres, it tends to crush instead of explode, and it fails in a slower more predictable fashion. Still, you have to be careful and use your head.

Play safe out there guys! It no good having a nice truck if you are lying dead underneath it.

 

Brings up a question I was just looking into myself.

I need to get a floor jack and some stands. I'm looking at the 6-ton stands at Harbor Freight, which I know should be good enough. But what about the floor jack?

Bottle jack good enough?

Four wheeled conventional floor hydraulic worth the extra $$?

What weight capacity? 3 ton? 4 ton?

 

The four wheeled floor jacks are worth it to me. I always try to get one that is rated to hold the entire weight of my heaviest vehicle.

Also, try to get one that has the "speed-lift" feature, which raises the saddle up to your frame rail (or whatever) on the first stroke. Saves quite a bit of pumping.

One thing to consider is the weight of the jack. Some of these weigh up to a hundred pounds, which is quite a bit if you ever need to lift it into your truck bed.

 

One of my friends was killed about 6 months ago working on a Toyota T-100, which doesn't weigh near what our trucks do. He was using small jack stands and didn't have the wheels chocked. He was prying on it, ended up rolling off the stands. After that I really don't mess around. I've always used 6 ton stands- just because I needed that much height. After this happened I went out and bought a set of 12 ton stands. These things are strong! I feel very safe under them. As for the bottle jack- you can get a bottle jack a lot cheaper than a floor jack, but its a real pain to use they take forever to jack up, and then they usually don't have a big pad surface like a floor jack does- seems like a safety risk to me. I use a 3 1/2 ton floor jack. NAPA makes good jacks- but they're expensive.

Flywest- I wouldn't worry about making that cradle to fit the side of the differential unless you have too much time on your hands. For one thing unless you're a really good welder- it's probably just gonna be another safety risk to worry about. It's alright if the truck lifts up crooked- mine does every time. you just have to lift it up high enough for the lowest side to get above the jackstands and make sure your jackstands are set up evenly.

 

Thanks for the input on the jacks and jack stands, guys. I appreciate it.

 

I was in the same boat Pete when I got my PSD. The little $19, 2 ton floor jack was pretty spookie simply jacking one tire up to do a rotate. The flimsy jack stands that worked great for holding up the minivan and even the 1/2 ton was out of the question here.

I didn't figure that I needed the quality stands and jacks that you would find in a professional shop, simply don't use them on a daily basis like Kwik does so I headed to the local Harbor Freight. I picked up a set of their heavy duty stands and a 3 ton floor jack (sure looks heavier than that). The stands were on sale and didn't seem to cost much at all and the floor jack was $89. I have used the heck out of both of them since and they have served me well. The 3 ton jack seems to be more than enough to lift the front of these beasts up with ease. Now on the other hand, I don't think I'd give you 2 cents for their hand tools but I may be wrong there too.

 

Hey guzzle... on the side note about the HB hand tools, probably the best screwdrivers I've ever come across were in the $2 bin at HB... good tips, good fit, great hand grip! I've even went out and bought expensive... REALLY expensive screwdrivers and would go back to HB for these others in a minute. Now, on the other hand... there aren't a lot of other hand tools there i would get, except for maybe the hammers.

Sorry for going off topic.

 

I have to go to town tomorrow anyway to get the allen drivers for the pan bolts so might call in and get some heavier grade / taller stands while I'm there!

I'll replace them one at a time until I have her a bit more stable and no hollow core bricks under the stands!

So - is there a consensus about jacking from the diffs?

I see mechanical garages everywhere do it time and again - but did wonder if it mightn't bend the axel housing and screw with the wheel alignment!

Anyone actually come across a problem from jacking at the diff centre housing?

Thanks for the safety concern, my boys workng with me so I better get this "stand" bidness right at the get go!

Cheers!