Le Stands de Jack

["Al Powell" <APOWELL@agcom.tamu.edu>]

> From: "xudong" <xudong@prisminc.com>
> 
>      How do you put your audi (front) up on jack stands?
>      
>      I have a floor jack, and couple of stands. If I jack up at the point
>      behind the wheel, then I can't use the jack stand at that point.
>      
>      On my other cars, I can always use somewhere in the middle of the car. 
>      I can't seem to find such a place on my Audi.

When I jack the front of my 200, I cheat and use the center of the 
subframe.  This has made some minor dents in the subframe 
surface, but no apparent distortion or damage.  I fugure if it wont 
hold a floor jack, it's not likely to hold in the motor and 
transaxle.  (Lawdy, I can almost see myself pulling an old stogy out 
of my mouth and playing "Al, the ancient mechanic"...)

This allows me to put jackstands on the left and right sides of the 
subframe right near the mounting bolts.  This is quite secure, and a 
scratch or two in the subframe won't bother anyone.  

In lifting one side, I will use the round pad specified in the manual 
as the floor jack point; experience tells me that if I lift high 
enough, I can *just* get both tires on that side off the ground.  
(Usually to rotate tires...) In this case, I use a jack stand 
under the closest side of the subframe as a safety prop while the car 
is on the floor jack.

In back, if I'm lifting the entire rear end, once again I cheat and 
jack right in the center of the rear axle beam.  No kinks, no damage. 
I then apply jackstands in the factory-recommended points for floor 
jacking.  If I need to life only one side, I use the factory lift 
point and put a jack stand under the rear axle beam for safety.

Note this is a FWD model, not a Q - so no rear drive axle.  YMMV.

I thought I'd post this because I'd either elicit comments like 
"Yeah, I do the same thing, no problem", or "GEEEEEZ, Powell!!  You 
want your subframe farkulators to get completely unspamulated and 
cause the whole porterzebie assembly to fall out at 100 MPH????"

So fire away, gents.....

Al Powell                           Voice:  409/845-2807
107 Reed McDonald Bldg.             Fax:    409/862-1202
College Station, TX 77843           Email:  a-powell1@tamu.edu 
W3 page - http://agcomwww.tamu.edu/agcom/satellit/alpage.htm
"Baseball is 90 percent mental.  The other half is physical"...
...Yogi Berra.