01 Taurus Jacking Points

Ok, so it's really stupid but I am trying to be sure where it is safe to lift the rear of my 01 Taurus.

I have the following assets, a floor jack, the orginal tire jack, a few of these little oem style sizzors jacks (don't know what oem), jackstands and a shale bar and a block of wood.

AllData shows four points. Up front they seem to make sense although I have been lifting it easily under those large body mounts. No complaints out of the car. :)

The rear is another story. AllData indicates lifting it on the rear subframe. They mention you need the proper adapter to do so with a hoist. I don't have a $100,000 hoist in my residential garage so I guess I can disregard that. Lifting it there using a floor jack (driver side) is impossible. Too much "stuff" in that location.

Another suggestion, I think it was Haynes, was to use the body "pinch points." If they mean where the oem tire jack goes I can understand that. The forum has a post mentioning that on an earlier ver. of the Taurus. I usually avoid messing with those points. If you use them with a floor jack do you need a special adapter or something to lift inside the notch or do you pad the jacks lifting plate?

So, in short, all I want to do is get at the rear brakes on the car. How do I get the fool thing in the air without bending it.?

Thanks much

Ted

You can jack it up just about anywhere that is stable enough to raise the vehicle. The floor jack on the pinch weld at the original jack point will do nicely. Then place the jack stand under the rear axle for support.

If you chose to use the floor jack with the pinch weld, you should consider getting one of these (http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=2061&itemType=PRODUCT). I can't comment as to how well they work, having never used one though. Conceptually, they seem like a good idea.

If the rear lower control arms on your 2001 are the stamped steel arms, be very careful using a jack or jack stand with them. If the weight is not distributed really well, they will bend/fold and then you'll have problems. Unfortunately, I'm speaking from experience here. :(

-Rod

Thanks much

It sounds like the overall opinion is to use the point where the oem jack locks in. I actually had one of those pad things. If I remember, and that may be doubtful, it was an old Volvo 240 I used to lift with it. In any case whatever it was I lifted eventually cut through the rubber. I still have the metal that it sat on but no rubber pad.

I think I'll try to find a new pad or entire assembly for the floor jack. In the meantime I would either have to find some way to protect that area or use the oem jack and a jackstand someplace. For brakes its not that much of a problem .

Thanks again

A rather quick and easy alternative, would be to fabricate from wood an adaptor that could set on top of your floor jack cup ( in place of it if you are more sophisticated) and straddle the sheet metal lift point. I think some have suggested simply putting a couple of saw cuts through a two by four cross grain, (NOT along the length with the grain or it will split!!) deep and wide enough to accept the sheet metal, putting all the weight on the sides of the block, making variations to suit your situation and preference of course. :) Screwing three pieces of wood together could accomplish the same thing.

I've never used those jack points for various reasons, BUT my BIGGEST PET PEAVE with tire and autoshops and those sorry excuses for lift points with the bastardized jack to match, is they use those jack points WITHOUT the necessary adapter even when there often is a lift point right next to it that's better!?! Why am I so irrate with those myopic dolts? 1. They bend over the metal at the jack slot so you can't use it when you have a flat tire at some horribly awful place, time, and weather!?! and 2. They didn't have to use it in the first place!!! At least they could have straightened it out. Nope. Don't know enough to know any different or better.

Well, I better end this now before I start sounding too much like I'm trying to convince the masses to believe and follow my cause as the modera..tor......migh..t.....sto...p.....me.iiiiii iiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!..........................;)

I want to place the rear of my 95 Taurus on 2 jack stands to do a break job. I'm struggling with where to jack from with the floor jack and where to place the stands. Can't do both at the OEM jack points. Any suggestions where to safely jack from and place the stands?

THANKS.

Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to make the assumption you have a decently large hydraulic floor jack that you will be using.

Did you read the posts above? If I remember correctly, the rear suspension of your 1995 has a couple of radius rods/tension struts coming from just below the rear door to the rear lower control arm. You could jack from there and place the jackstand under any of the suspension points as long as your jack does a pretty good job of holding weight. In this case, the jackstand is just there to protect you should the jack not hold for some reason.

If you need to be able to jack both wheels off the ground at the same time and safely support them, then you could try jacking from the center rear, where the lower control arms for both rear sides join in the middle, then place jack stands where the tension struts meet the uni-body.

-Rod

Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to make the assumption you have a decently large hydraulic floor jack that you will be using.

Did you read the posts above? If I remember correctly, the rear suspension of your 1995 has a couple of radius rods/tension struts coming from just below the rear door to the rear lower control arm. You could jack from there and place the jackstand under any of the suspension points as long as your jack does a pretty good job of holding weight. In this case, the jackstand is just there to protect you should the jack not hold for some reason.

If you need to be able to jack both wheels off the ground at the same time and safely support them, then you could try jacking from the center rear, where the lower control arms for both rear sides join in the middle, then place jack stands where the tension struts meet the uni-body.

-Rod

Thanks for the quick reply. I read those as well as most other posts I could find on the Internet. I have a 2-ton hydralic floor jack and two, 2-ton jack stands. I'm assuming they're sufficient to jack up half the car, whether it's rear or front, place on the stands and remove the jack. If that's a wrong assumption, please say so. Based on other posts, I had concern about jacking the rear from the center rear point where the lower control arms meet. If thats a good spot to jack from, then I'll go for it there. Reading about stamped metal issues and they're structural integrity, I was concerned it might take damage jacking from there.

Again, thanks much for your insight.

Yep, those jacks and stands should be sufficient to jack it up and safely support the car. The entire car probably doesn't weigh 2 tons, and you won't have all the weight of the car on one stand.

You certainly don't want to jack up the car or support it by the stamped steel lower arms. Placing a jack stand under the arms was basically just to catch the car if the jack started to lower accidentally.

If you jack has a pretty large, flat jacking pad on it, you should be fine to jack from the center rear of the car's suspension, where the rear lower arms attach to the car. However, if you opt to not go with the pinch weld adapter to lift the factory-suggested jacking points, you're going to have to use your judgement on where a safe place is given your equipment.

-Rod