Working Under the Car: How to Support?

Thinking about a trans filter and fluid change, 98 GT. What's the best way you guys have found to support the car while you are under it? I use a floor jack at the jack point behind the front wheels to jack up the car, but with average size jack stands, you would never get a jack stand at that point, the car would be 45 degrees nose up. Where's the best place to put a jack stand under the front?

front of the subframe...jack stands towards the front corners

Burb... are your stands average for a tractor trailer? I have average sized stands and they will do around 12-18 inches. Works well for most car work.

I've also used ramps for this type of work.

put your floor jack dead center of the front part of the sub frame, jack car up as high as you can, then use jack stands under the pinch welds where the stock jack would go.

or just use car ramps to service the tranny.

High enough to pull the trans

I use 2 cinder blocks lol.

like this????? lol

make sure the holes are up, and not to the side, they are weak when laid on their sides.

No under the frame rails lol. I used to set up mobile homes so I know all about how to set up cinder blocks.

i drove it up there, no jack.

i was just generalizing the fact of where a cinder blocks strength is and is not. ( you'd be surpised how many have no clue, if set up wrong it can and will crush you) if they had any strength to them with the holes horizontal, buildings would be built with holes in the sides lol

Yup.

There's holes in this theory.

Got it, thanks guys! Been some years since I've done any serious wrenching...GP's are '01 (Darling Daughter #1) and '98 (DD #2), both GT's. My buddy owned a 6-bay shop in NY and back when business was good I just told the kids to take the cars in, get fixed, and my buddy would send me the bill. Now living in KY, no buddy near by, and tight on funds. Fortunately still have all my tools (and few new ones from the local HF), just getting familiar with the specifics of these models. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to help me, saving me a lot of grief!

Burbman said:

Now living in KY, no buddy near by, and tight on funds. Fortunately still have all my tools

Click to expand...

Once you said Kentucky, I was pretty sure tools said teeth and I was going to congratulate you... lollololol

Seriously though. Any questions on the easiest, quieckest ways to do stuff...just ask.

LOL :th_laugh-lol3:

Born and raised on LI, only in Louisville for a year now. Actually DD #2 graduated U of Hartford in 2011. Coincidentally, the trans on the '98 was rebuilt just south of you by Denny Cunningham of Denny's Transmissions in Bristol, CT. Got towed there by AAA after the trans had what was described as a sudden and catastrophic fluid loss on I-84 the day before Thanksgiving in 2008. I forget what let go, but it essentially dumped all of the fluid almost at once onto the exhaust pipe resulting in a whole buncha smoke....Denny did an awesome job, really knew his way around the 4T65E and gave me a 2 yr 24k mile guarantee.

Just after the warranty expired DD had it towed to a shop in NJ by her BF's house after all forward motion had ceased....turned out an axle seal failed and slowly drained the fluid out. Local tech replaced the seal, filled it up with fluid and it ran perfectly. Made me think it was a good rebuild if you could run it dry with no extensive damage. Once they got it running, they dropped the pan, changed the filter and filled it with fresh fluid. I figured another fluid/filter might be a smart investment at 153k miles.