New at this car thing, jacked up my 1964 Chrysler New Yorker at the wrong spots, just behind the wheel for the front, and just in front of the wheel on the rear (so I could put them on wheel dollies ). Now to be fair, there appears to be a partial frame in each of those spots. And, I actually thought, those earlier cars would be framed, not unibody. Newbie mistake. I don’t see any obvious issues , like broken welds, windows, floor pans pushed up, etc. even the doors and openings seem the same as before. Any thoughts on this? Did I just make a colossal mistake and all my hard work fixing her up of the past two years is for naught?
Check to make sure you didn't crush any brake or fuel lines or wiring if it is under there, front and rear wheel alignment. If you did a rotisserie job and painted the underside touch it up and drive it.
Look at where the jack was, and see if you made any dents. If you can't be sure, take some pictures and post them here. Generally if the car is not rusty, and if you use a wood block on top of the jack (like a 8" long piece of 2x4), you'll be just fine jacking an old unibody American car under the rocker panel, it's the strongest part of the body.
Highlander ,, That’s a cool old Lincoln,,,,when I was a kid,,my daddy had a 58,,,and a 59 . He had the 59 first,,and then the 58 ,,,he had the 58 in around 1968 . I loved the 58 the best,,,,,two tone paint,,,,,yellow with white top . Powerful engine,,,I think like 375 hp 430 cid . It had electric power everything,,,,,the windows,,,vent windows,,,even the rear glass lowered into the trunk area . I’m sure the seats were powered as well,,,,I can’t remember . Man,,,,,,those were great days . Tommy
Thanks all. This beast weighs 4400 lbs, and I checked and no damage from the jack stands or where I used the hydraulic Jack. I guess my worry was twisting it. The service manual, that I did read after the fact, said to Jack the rear axle pumpkin, and for front the lower ball joints. I don’t like the front Jack suggestion by the manual. I had someone tell me to use the bumper Jack, not so sure about that.
Nothing wrong with lifting there and most likely the best and where to jack to check ball joints and wheel bearings, definitely safer than a bumper jack. To check ball joints jack up there just enough to place a 2-3' long steel bar under the tire and see how much play there is when you lift slightly on the bar. Do not try to lift the car just see if there is any up and down play. When checking the wheel bearings and steering components grab the tire at 9 and 3 O Clock like your steering wheel and gently move back and forth. any slop will indicate either wheel bearing or steering component wear and bear further investigation. Just be careful there is not a grease zerk on the bottom of the ball joint when jacking there as you could break it off or damage it.
Just for general info, the majority of unibody cars are substantially constructed near or behind the firewall. Out back, usually just ahead of the rear springs there's added strength as well. In older cars that strength was made by overlapping box sections or indeed welded reinforcement plates. As time went on the steel ratings were increased and current ratings call out HHS (high strength steel) and UHHS (ultra-high strength steel). Even though the frame and body are unitized as a single component the forces required to do the "work" of being a car are the same. Unless you have a car that spent it's time in a steel mill or driving 100K miles on salt roads the subframe sections are normally still stronger than the rest of the car. To the O/P, wheel alignment? Save your money. If the only reason you're doing it is because you jacked it up it's a waste. I'd bet a set of finned aluminum valve covers you did NOTHING to the car unless it's rotten or you jacked it up on a torsion bar. Relax...
You'd be amazed at how much damage a unibody can absorb and still function. I had a '62 Comet that had been hit HARD in the front passenger cowl area, enough to buckle the front subframe up against the transmission. It still drove and steered and braked straight, which is why I didn't notice the damage until I was repairing the front floor. ( another reason to always get under a prospective purchase and scope it out!!)
I have been jacking up Chrysler unibody vehicles like this since about 1965. Chrysler product vehicle is about the only vehicles I've owned, and I have owned a lot of them over the years. I even worked at Chrysler dealers, auto shops, and actually spent 30 years welding the frame and suspension points on all cars in my own shop. I dirt track raced Chrysler product unibody cars on a dirt track for 30 years. Unless the places where you have jacked the car up at was rusty and that area bent, crushed, or clasped, you have done no harm.
On rear wheel drive Unibody Mopars the subframe that unbolts from the unibody has the motor munts for the specific engine that the factory put in that car and the subframe also supports the torsion bars or and or lower control arms. I've checked a lot of Mopar ball joints over the year, you support the lower control arm next to the ball joint with the jack and then use the bar to lift the wheel and tie while watching and measuring the amount of movement. NOTE!! Mopar ball joints on up into the 70's cars had a measrable amount of slack in them from the factory. You have get into the book and find out the exact amount of movement allowed. In the early 70's I got in the middle of a lawsuit when some guy with a new Mopar took it to the 5.00 alignment shop across town and without checking age or mileage on the car they proceeded to tell him that his ball joints were worn out. He sued Chrysler, my shop was one block from the county courthouse in Waco and we did a lot of work on cars for people who worked in the courthouse. The Chrysler rep brought the car in, I set it up on the alignement rack got the factory specs out and waited for the people from the courtroom to show up. I had a John Bean Visualiner with big screens that were great for show and tell and a great sales help. I explained how it worked and how you tested the ball joints on that model and how to measure the movement. While there was movement it was well within factory specs and after seeing the results the judge says "I think we have seen enough" and away they went. Over the years I worked in that shop I got an average of two customers a week who had come directly from that 5.00 alignment shop with a long list of what they told them they needed to replace on the front ends. Usually it needed upper control arm bushings and a tie rod end or ball joints but not what they said it did. I
We just had the five day long "Semesterracet" here last week, racing where old junk cars are used and they're all for sale for a fixed price after the race as a method to keep costs down - you may not want to put too much money into a car if that makes it so good other people will want to buy it, but if you do want to it's possible to spend as much money on the car as you want. I think there was one single car on frame in the entire event, the Volvo Duett 40 seconds into the clip. As for all the unibody cars, here's some examples on the kind of abuse they see, and often live through. So... Unless you've got big, visible damage, I wouldn't worry.
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