Per the owners manual:

"Never use the rear differential as a jacking point." Reference pg. 124

From what I've seen at most tire installation shops (besides putting it on the lift), they jack up the rear from the pumpkin. Is this clause mainly for legal/liability reasons? Or can something mechanical actually get damaged?

 

Any shop that jacks-up using the differential is one to
avoid IMHO

 

Because you can bend the axle housings jacking up the car from the differential.

 

Just to elaborate on what V10 said, in case somebody doesn't follow . . . the springs are pushing down on each side of the axle, but the center is being held up, so the springs are trying to bend the axle tubes down below the pumpkin. If the springs can hold the back of the car up, then they can sure tweak an axle tube!

Maybe that didn't need explaining.

Oh yeah, it would be really easy for the car to fall off too.

 

Sorry,but a coil spring is not going to bend a solid piece of cast iron.Not even a millimeter no matter how hard it was pushing down.The reason they tell you not to use it to jack up the car is because of the differential cover.The cover is made of thin metal and the jack could bend the cover if the jack was placed just right and cause a leak.I have never seen this happen but I'm sure it's possible.

 

Yes it is supposedly bad. And yet I've done it hundreds of times without ever once causing a problem. I think it's just a theory that you could bend the axle tubes that easily. And the manual has it in there as CYA.

 

In the "old days". I guess I'm showing my age B) . You used to be able to jack the rear of your car there. The differential's housing were alot thicker and stronger then. It's just not that way anymore. Now if you don't use an actual part of the framework to support the weight you could damage something that is not strong enough to support it.

It is a warning for us old guys not to jack up the car the way we normally would have done years ago.

 

Are you 100% sure about this or are you guessing?

 

Thanks for your replies.

I have jacked up the rear of my Tacoma many times using the pumpkin (with a square piece of 2x4 on the jack pad) method, and those have leaf springs.

Looks like the Stang can be jacked up from the pumpkin, but it's not the preferred method. :scratch:

 

So, where should the car be jacked up, using a race car style jack, not the one that comes with the car?

 

The car should be jacked up where FORD tell us to jack it up at, they made the car, and know a little more about this car than anyone here.

 

Ok..and where does ford tell us to jack up the car. The only thing that I have found in the manual talks about changing the tire, not jacking up the car using a floor hydraulic jack. So where are we supposed to jack up the front and the rear of the car, per FORDS reco?

 

should have the jacking points in the owners manual, if not I'll check a book at work which contains just such information.

 

I've jacked up cars 1000 times by the pumpkin and never had a problem. The only reason they don't recommend you jacking it up from there is because it's unstable and could possibly slip off the jack....a valid point which I prevent by using jack stands to support the axle as close to the wheels as possible.

 

If someone has an industrial jack that work in different places than the OEM flat tire jack, go ask a trusted mech guy about jacking points. You can lift a C-5 using three jacks...in the right places.

 

The car can sure easily tip if you dont properly jack the rear housing. Does it do any damage jacking from there? I say no if you know what youre doing. I've jacked mine up many times already for work back there and several instructions tell you to jack the vehicle from that housing.

And never just use a jack to hold up a vehicle, use those stands! One of my friends worked with somebody that was crushed under a car due to a failed floor jack.

-Dan

 

Pressure on the differential seal can break the seal causing leaks.

 

OK...then how would you just raise the back end of the car to lets say.............do the exhaust. Would you still use the factory jacking pts if you're not lifting the car off the ground?

 

if you're changing your pipe that goes from the H-pipe to the mufflers then you can't raise it from the pumpkin because the pipes snake over the axles. I would personally carefully raise it at the pumpkin (or back up on ramps, than jack up from the pumpkin) and place jack stands at the factory recommended jacking points in front of the rear wheels and rest the car down on that.

 

I have been looking for a book that has the points of lift for a 'load bearing lift' for a long time.