OK, so I have searched, and found, some threads on this but they always tend to stray into the "don't jack the pumpkin" arguments, address 4x4 front axles, or don't make a whole lot of sense because they refer to F-series which must be different because there is no way to jack my 2002 E350 underneath the lower ball joint. Here is a picture of the I-beam near the tire...


The manual says to jack the stud protruding from the i-beam, but if I do this where am I to put the jack stand? I tried jacking more towards the center of the i-beam, but it looked like it was raising the entire front end at once. (front end weighs about 2.5 tons and the jack is a 3 ton, too close for comfort for harbor freight tolerances)

Also, I am wondering if jacking the vehicle is even necessary in order to change tie rods and center link (the bushings are all pretty busted on this thing, and I think at 610,000mi I may want to start maintaining it a little)

Thanks for any and all help.

 

Well, no one has responded yet, so I'll bumb your thread with my 2 cents.



I have an E-350, so I feel your pain on jacking and supporting your front end. It's been quite a while since I've worked on mine, so I'm a little rusty (as is my neglected E-350, I imagine), but here is what I recall doing:



1. Use ramps.



(just kidding)





1. Floor Jack: I have removed the saddle cup out of my floor jacks, and positioned the hole of the saddless support seat directly underneath the vertically oriented bolt in your picture. This is the bolt that attaches the forward end of the radius arm to the twin I beam at the wheel end. I have slowly raised the jack to guide the hole so that the bolt passes through the hole, and the flange nut as well. Depending on the size of the hole in your jack (with saddle cup removed), the rim of the hole should contact the washer shaped flange around the perimeter of the nut. If the hole contacts the hexagonal corners of the flats of that nut first, then I would not use this technique until I obtained a sacrificial metric flange nut to thread over the exposed stud below the original nut. From your picture, there appears to be enough exposed threads to use a temporary "jack nut". Don't get the exact same nut from Ford, however, because the Ford nuts are of a prevailing torque variety with ovalized threads, which will require more working effort (and stud thread distortion) to install and remove. Just thread guage the stud and try to find a relatively thin walled flange nut that will fit the hole of your floor jack saddle seat.



2. Jack Stands: I generally place the jack stands on the frame immediately behind, and as close as possible to, the aft radius arm frame mounts. The frame is very well structured in that area, having just transitioned from being fully boxed to an open C, and the frame is further buttressed by the nearby transmission cross member. I do not place the jack stands on any part of the radius arm or the radius arm pivoting bracket itself... only the frame. But I do position the stand as far foward as possible just behind the radius arms.



So essentially, I am jacking at the the foward end the radius arm, and supporting at the rearward ends of the radius arm.



3. Advanced Floor Jacking: I use "long frame" jacks. These long frame floor jacks start as low as 4" (with saddle cup removed) and extend as high as 31.5". The are only rated to 2.5 tons, but their utility is in their length to reach lift points and still have use of the full arc of the pump handle, as well as the high lift, to enable the jack to compress the suspension the entirety of it's travel, and still be able to lift the chassis with the suspension fully compressesed. Long reach jacks made a huge improvement in safety and capability in lifting a vehicle.



4. More Floor Jacking: I use multiple floor jacks simultaneously, and symmetrically. I have four long frame jacks, and usually only use two, but never fewer than two. In the case of your front end project, I would place a floor jack under the right and left side, and pump both up simultaneously, to keep frame and body distortion down to a minimum.



5. Jack Stands: I use the 6 ton variety, that have the ratcheting cam that locks the cast steel posts in position. I have eight jack stands, and usually only use four. In the case of your front end project, I would place two jack stands at the frame behind each radius arm bracket, and I would further place two back up jack stands at the forward most end of the frame where the front bumper is. This is where the frame is boxed with built in corrugations and relief cuts for frontal impact compression. It might also be where some swaybar brackets are strap bolted in place. That's ok though, because you don't have to place weight on these forward jack stands. They are in position as back ups, in case of a mishap.



I would leave the floor jacks in place under the forward ends of the radius arms (at the bolt) so that you can control the axles height position at will as you install the front end linkages. The vehicle will be supported by the aft jack stands, backed up by the forward jack stands, and the floor jacks will serve to support and float both halves of the the twin I beam axle at your command to make installation of components easier, to the extent that the floor jacks are not in your way. If they are, you can pull them out and replace them back when the job is down.



It is worth $99 to get the second floor jack and back up jack stands.



My E-350 spent more time than I care to admit fully suspended 2.5 feet in the air at all four corners, supported by eight jack stands, and lifted and lowered by four floor jacks. I don't miss that project. Yet, one day, I'll have to finish it. Your question made me think of it all over again. Yikes.

 

Thank you Y2KW57. I was going to use the space right behind the radius arms initially, but it did seem like a lot of weight to be forward of my jacks and as you said the frame there goes from a full box to a C, so I had some concerns. I guess I will be borrowing the neighbor's jack and stands to supplement my own, and I'll get this done tomorrow. Maybe I should do a write up on how to jack an E-350 up...

 

BTW, why not jack up by the stud circled in red (the one circled in blue is the bolt you recommended with my saddle-less floor jack and sacrificial flange nut)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/87524523@N02/8017240922/" title="e350circled by elmocogrande, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8446/8017240922_83da6422c5.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="e350circled"></a>

 

The horizontal stud you have circled in red is a valid jack point.

I had a mishap using that horizontal stud, twice. I'm not blaming the stud... but I avoided using it afterwards.

I reasoned that a vertical post nested inside a hole is not going to slip out with a change in camber while lifting or lowering.