car lifter/tilter

[richard s]

i have seen some lifter/tilters on ebay and need to take the rear axle off my car to do some welding and thought it looks ideal but i dont have £500 to buy one so am looking into the viability of building one
but need some help with ideas
1 tilting i was thinking let gravity take care of it
2 lifting this one im not sure about i think there are 2 options first i was thinking hydraulic (trolley jack built in somewhere) but it would then need some way of locking it off once raised second i was thinking along the lines of a scissor jack
3 storage/construction do i weld it as a one piece unit or make it bolt together for easier storage
4 is this outside the abilitys of a novice
trolley jack and axle stande is easier but i have a stone/gravel drive so making it more difficult i could jack one side up but when jacking the other side it would try pulling the car off the stand as the jack bites in and brings the car across instead of the jack rolling

 

[pedrobedro]

Put the jack on a plank and jack up the middle of the rear axle. A 1.5 ton jack should lift the back end of your car easily unless it's over 3 tons.

 

[Coo]

Not really adviseable jacking up on the middle of the axle, if its a FWD...
It can bend it !

Do side by side, take your time.

 

[rtbcomp]

Put the jack on a plank and jack up the middle of the rear axle. A 1.5 ton jack should lift the back end of your car easily unless it's over 3 tons.

Read the OP - he needs to take the axle off.

 

[BChild]

Read the OP - he needs to take the axle off.

Yeah but it was still a good suggestion and exactly how I would do it on a gravel drive

Jack the car up with jack on a plank of wood - once car is up in the air wooden spreaders underneath axle stands on the jacking points at the rear of the body shell

You can then use the jack to support and lower the axle once you've disconnected it from the drive train and suspension/shell

 

[BChild]

Not really adviseable jacking up on the middle of the axle, if its a FWD...
It can bend it !

Do side by side, take your time.

OP did say rear axle but I take your point although I'd have called em a drive shaft on a FWD car

 

[pedrobedro]

Read the OP - he needs to take the axle off.

Bchild figured it out, I thought it wasn't necessary to type it as it was so obvious to anyone who ever worked on a car. Coo, they make cars out of metal now. If it bends under the cars weight it's not strong enough for the car and will bend under driving conditions and he did say rear axle.

What kind of car is he lifting as I have worked on many and jacked the rear up in one go on most like Corsas and any car with a rear beam axle should be strong enough to lift it with.

 

[BillJ]

any car with a rear beam axle should be strong enough to lift it with.

No, they're not. I've come across a few FWD cars with bent rear beam-axles after tyre-fitting numpties have jacked them up under the axle. The beam-axle doesn't have to support the weight of the car in normal driving. The suspension does that, with the load bearing directly onto the hub. The only thing the axle does is to keep the wheels in the correct lateral and longitudinal position and maintain the correct camber.

A Corsa might be light enough at the rear that you'll get away with it. A Saab, for example, definitely isn't.

 

[richard s]

cheers for the replies guys
the car is a mk2 golf and i have heard of rear beams being bent by jacking so dont want to risk it
jacking one side up then the next is the way i would go but the jack just digs in and drags the car instead of the jack rolling on its wheels i cant put jack on planks of wood as they are in the way of the scaff boards i have that i rest my axle stands on
i suppose i could buy some ply wood to have a larger area for my jack and axle stands but would ply be up to the job or if i was to jack the rear beam i could place the wood on the trailing arms as these are a more solid looking part of the axle but then what width wood would i need to lift my car (3x2 4x2)

 

[pedrobedro]

19mm ply or OSB would be up to the job resting on your gravel. An 8x4 sheet would take the jack and give you room to place your stands if positioned sticking out both sides. Put a piece of wood as a spreader on your jack and lift under a box section and you should be good. I would use a 3x2 cut to length as a spreader under the rear axle to lift it in one though if it worries you that it might bend.

 

[richard s]

cheers pedro
i have some 3x2 in the shed so will look into that one first