How to Jack Up a Car

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Nat McCullough on behalf of Expert Village. In these clips, we're going to talk about the proper way to remove and replace a front wheel drives vehicles ball joint. In this clip, we're going to talk about the proper location for placing your floor jack and jacking up the vehicle. What you're shooting for is the pinch weld or sub-frame of the vehicle. The pinch weld is one of the strongest parts of the car. It's where they establish a lot of the structural integrity. On this particular vehicle there are ground affects in the way so you won't be able to see it. But what you're looking for is a sandwiched piece of metal. It will be approximately an eighth inch thick. This is your vehicles pinch weld. As you can see, I have my jack located right on it. Another or an alternate jacking location is the vehicles sub-frame. Which is going to be this piece here. You can see it runs a significant portion of the length of the body. That is another place where the vehicles entire structure is built off of. Once you have your jack placed, you can go ahead and take your jack handle. Make sure to tighten down the release screw and begin jacking up the vehicle. You can see as I'm working the floor jack, the vehicle is coming up off the ground. The suspensions traveling. Once you have it high enough in the air, it's okay to go ahead and place your jack stand. What you're looking for is just a very sturdy part of the vehicle. It can either be control arm, sub-frame, or pinch weld. I'm going to slide this guy in place. And I going to leave it on the jack and have my jack stand in place. Because two things holding the vehicle in the air is better than one."