OT Did people only use bumper jacks?

[mm]

OT Watching a Patty Duke epiode from 1966, another teenager keeps working under his car with nothing holding it up afaict but bumper jack. There scenes like that.

I know I didn't have safety stands until 1970 or maybe much later, but I also didn't lie under the car when it was jacked up.

Was this sort of standard in 1956, for teenagers, amateurs, even pros?

I've had my car fall off the bumper jack twice, once when it was on a hill, I was only changing a tire and I didn't put anything under the car, only my arms in the wheel well for a few seconds. Once I had to borrow a jack from another guy on the street, to get my jack out, and then I used both jacks.

[Fat-Dumb and Happy]

Yes, Bumper jacks were the most common way to lift a car and probably the only way for most shade tree mechanics. A lot of brake shoes were changed using nothing but bumper jacks to get the wheel off the ground. Most people were a lot skinnier back in those days, I could usually take a drive shaft out with having to raise the vehicle. Oh the good old days, a piece of cardboard to lay on and a hand full of tools and you could fix a lot of things on the old cars....

[Jim Elbrecht]

I'd say through the 60's in my neck of the woods. I did know a guy who didn't trust jacks so he used a come-along and a 6" branch on an oak tree as a lift. He'd jack a Cadillac front end up high enough to change oil easily. They don't make bumpers like *that* anymore.

Candy asses might put a chunk of firewood under the bumper as a safety-- and if they were feeling exceptionally nervous, maybe even chock the wheels.

Lucky we were all pretty much invincible--- 'cept for the ones that weren't.

Jim

[Bob Villa]

I had a '66 Chev Impala...I used ramps (and still do). That was before "spin-on" oil filters. There was a filter "cartridge" inside a heavy gauge steel cylinder with a big MF'n bolt thru it. (No, I don't have the Chev anymore...I have an "old man's" Buick)

[Bob Villa]

Yes, and you can hold it in your hand (OBD-II).

[Bob Villa]

Actually, the computer is in the car and the OBD reads the codes. Amen!

[Jon Danniken]

Back when I was a kid I had a Mazda 808. Neat car.

I used the scissor jack to lift up the back end, then proceeded to crawl under the car for some maintenance. Fortunately the tires were still on the car when the jack slipped, and I was laying flat on my back.

The car fell and compressed my chest a few inches before the suspension drove it back up again. I ended up with a few hairline fractures to my ribs, and a lot of damage to the connective tissue between my ribs and sternum, which made breathing extremely painful for a few weeks, but I was otherwise alright.

The thing was that I knew better, and used the jack because "it was just for a minute".

You can bet that I always use jackstands now, no matter what I'm doing (and I use a better jack, too).

Jon

[RonB]

A lot of folks did work under cars supported by those things. A few aren't here anymore.

They were even dangerous for changing tires, especially on the rear (with rear wheel drive cars - nearly all of them then). That is when I learned to:

- jack the car up with lug nuts already loosened, and the spare on the ground between ground and frame,

- pull the flat off and quickly swap it with the spare,

- install the spare, then pull the flat out from under the car and lower.

That way if the car fell it wouldn't go all the way to the ground and you could still get a jack under the bumper. Otherwise you were pretty well screwed.

I still do that today with the better socket or screw jacks.

RonB

[Vic Smith]

Jack stands and wooden blocks have been around forever. Good stands were more expensive than now, but there was more wood around. I didn't trust the first "affordable" sheet metal stands, so used wood blocks until I bought good stands.

Like what happened to you, just about everybody had a car slip off a jack. Probably more then than now, since tires weren't as good and there were more roads where you had a soft shoulder for the jack base. It was just as stupid to be under a car on a jack then as it is now. First thing I did when I pulled a flat tire on the road was slip the flat under the hub. That way if the car/truck slips off the jack you have room to reposition the jack. Did the same last time I changed a tire on the road. But that was probably 20 years ago. Even a good hydraulic floor jack can leak down or suffer a failure.

[Steve B]

Before the scissor jacks, about the only advancement was a slit in the bumper where the jack inserted, making it only a LITTLE safer. I always carried a bottle jack and a small floor jack, as many times you needed a combo of jacks. And now, if you have a flat, and the ground is uneven, you can't even get one of those scissor jacks under the car. And it takes a gorilla to turn some of those.

I have stopped to help a few motorists, and when I pull out that floor jack and zip zip zip, I believe I have sold a few floor jacks for companies. As on trailers, sometimes they're so low that a little floor jack is all you can get under there.

Steve

[Jim Yanik]

Fat-Dumb and Happy wrote in news:ir8249$95r$ [e-mail]:

I used jack stands(screw type) in 1968,when I worked on my 64 Triumph Herald. but I had a scissors jack for that lightweight car.

The real problem was when you didn't do a full downstroke on the jack handle and the ratchet didn't catch(or it was worn) and the thing would ratchet back down with the jack handle flipping back and forth as it went down. Scary,and hazardous.

of course,that is when cars had real bumpers. Can't use the bumper jacks on today's cars. I use a hydraulic jack for my cars. it's much easier (and safer,IMO) than the scissors jack that comes with most imports.

[Steve B]

Dude, where do you live that you get such good TV programming? Or what is the name of the company. I'd buy.

This stuff they got on today sucks bigtime.

Steve

[Red]

But sometimes it does take a computer to fix a car. The digital dash panel in my explorer died, disabling the entire vehicle because that's where the security circuits reside. The instrument cluster was replaced and the shop used a laptop to reprogram all default vehicle values, including the odometer reading based on last oil change.

Red

[mm]

That's true. I knew the sheet metal was thinner than before, but it's twice as thinner. Just trying to break ice in the crack between the hood and part of the body that surrounds the grill, I put tiny indentations in my car with my own hand, and it didn't even hurt. I only see them when the light is just right, but I couldn't have dented my '65 or '67 Pontiac without breaking my bones.

[Erik]

I was up in the middle a couple of days ago, and while ripping through the channels saw a few minutes of that same Patty Duke episode.

Back in the 80's, I was driving through downtown LA, and came across one of those HUGE 70's vintage Ford station wagons. It was in a red zone, about 2' out from the curb on a narrow street, and right next to a busy intersection. The back was up way high on a bumper jack, and undulating around while some guy was up under there... like possibly reaching up in area in front of the fuel tank. Oh, and did I mention the two kids playing in the back?

Scared the hell of me, still sends chills up my spine just thinking about it.

Erik

[DerbyDad03]

I just saw a car the other day with the slit in the bumper. I didn't catch the year/make/model as I was too busy asking my son "What do you think that little slit is for". (He had no clue.)

The summer cars are beginning to hit the roads now that spring is finally here.

[DerbyDad03]

re: "I did know a guy who didn't trust jacks so he used a come-along and a 6" branch on an oak tree as a lift."

I once slid a '65 Dodge Coronet into a fire hydrant, bending the door pillar in far enough that it was touching the driver's seat. I was in the Coast Guard at the time, so I took it over to the docks, borrowed a come-along and hooked it up to a 50,000 lb buoy sinker.

I started cranking the come-along and the car started leaning over, so I jammed a big block of wood under the frame. A few more cranks and the pillar straightened right out, making the doors operable again.

Of course, that didn't do anything for the large hole that the hydrant punched into the rear door panel. :-(

[mm]

LOL.

I didnt' know the ones that fit the slit were safer. I thought about it, but hadn't reached a conclusion.

But I sort of didnt' like them, becusae it meant the jack in my car would only fit a bumper with a slit, instead any bumper (any bumper at the time.)

I actually tought the scissors jack wasn't an advance but a sacrifice to the fact that cars no longer had bumpers that could be lifted, without cutting their vinyl cover.

That second car I had that fell off the jack was on a scissors jack, and I don't think I was even on a hill, but I leaned against the rear bumper iirc and the car fell off the jack. What was good is that the jack wasn't stuck in place after that.

Anyhow, everyone, when did safety stands become popular, for pros who weren't using a lift, and then for amateurs???

[mm]

Ah, an answer to my question. Anyone notice them before then?

Yes, if it did that without my encouragement, it woudl be scary.

I only had that happen when I wanted it to. I felt cool and very skilled that with one stroke, I could get the car to go all the way down. I kept my hand near the handle, though, just out of caution. I think I could have stopped it.

The advantage of the scissors jack is the hole that mades with the "bump" under the frame. Do bottle jacks have anything like that?

Or is it even an advantage? Soetimes it's a pain trying to get the two parts to match up, and I'm not really sure what good that does.

[mm]

Yesh, that's what I sort of thought.

Yeah. In those days I didn't work under the car much and when I did, I parked one or two wheels on the curb. At least the curb doesn't fall over.

I can't beat that story, but when I worked road construction part of the summer, I had a '50 Olds with both an X-frame and a box frame (an [] frame) and it seemed invincible. People parked in the man-made valley where the Interstate was being built. To go to lunch, I could either back up and turn around in a small space or plunce over an 8 foot pile of dirt, like a quarterback jumping over the linebackers from both sides, to make a touchdown.

Of course being the manly man I am, I chose the second. I got a running start and drove up the hill, and in a second or two the car stopped moving. I got out and all four wheels were off the ground, off the dirt pile. I had to go to the guy who drove the cherrypicker and ask him for help.

He did, after lunch. It took him a couple minutes, and because of the great frame, there was no damage to the car.