Daze

Well I am in the process of swapping the AOD in my Galaxie for a T5. A couple of days ago I put the car up on jack stands so I could get under it and get it done (2 jack stands under the rear end near the wheels, 2 under the frame at the front, as well as a jack under the rear end center section and one under the K-member not holding any weight but as a safty), Even though I got the car up in the air the other day, I did not get to the car until today. For most of the day all went well. I disconnected all the parts and dropped the AOD out no problem. Once it was on the ground there was not enough room to slide the AOD out so I began to slowly jack up the front end at the K-member just I had done when I put it on stands. As it went up I wateched all the jack stand with every pump of the jack and all went well. The car went up no problem, I adjusted the jack stand for safety and got the AOD out. The problem started when I went to drop the front back down to where it had been. I readjusted the front jack stand and as I started to lower the car the front legs of the back jack stands began to rise off of the ground. I immediately stopped, readjusted the front jack stands so that with hardly any movement the car would be resting on them and went to the back to reset the rear jack stands. If I had not been going slowly and continuously checking all the jack stands as the car went up and down, I am sure the rear jack stands would have tipped and the car would have come down, injuring me, messing up my tools, and worst of all damaging the car Safety First!!!! That is a motto that has served me well.... except that time I pinned my right hand between a coil spring and spring perch when the spring compressor failed, but that is another story all together.

Aussie66Fastback

good post daze
i had a similar experience last week when i had a single jack stand under the lower control arm. it seemedstable enoughand then it started to slide...scared crap out of me.

ninteen66mustang

I almost had a 500 ish pound golf car fall off of a jack stand once. I was being dumb and only using 1 cuz I wasnt going under the car, but it still could have hurt pretty bad if it fell in to me.

baddog671

You gotta be careful with those things, glad to see you didnt get hurt.

I bet that coil spring hurt like hell

valley firearms

Boy that was close. I think we all have had a close call now and again. It just goes to show you how how important it is to be cautious. Even when you are cautious, accidents can still happen. Glad to hear you didn't get hurt.
[align=left] [/align]

MustangMan628

Very important to remember. I have done many a transmission on my back on a concrete floor. I had a friend do that exact same thing, only he wound up with a big jack stand denting his gas tank. The reason why the stands started to lift is because you didn't raise the back end up first. I told my friend the same thing. There's usually more weight in the front of a car than the back, so naturally the rear should start off higher, because it won't have enough weight to push the front off the stands. Glad to hear no one got hurt.

Daze

It was an internal claw type compressor that sent me to the emergency room in June of 2005. After already removing the passenger’s side spring, I was working on the driver’s side assembly, had compressed the spring and was in the process of removing it when the compressor slipped, the spring decompressed and pinned my right hand by the three middle fingers, palm side up, between the bottom of the coil spring and the spring perch. As you probably engaging this type of compressor requires using two hands and, of course, I was alone, the garage door was down, my cell phone was on the passenger’s side fender out of reach and most of my tools, at least any that could have been effective in freeing my hand, were on the floor next to the passenger’s side where I had already pulled the suspension apart. All I had within arms reach was the ½� box wrench (no more than 6� long) that I had just used to remove the shock. I jammed the wrench in between the spring and the perch and was able to pry the spring up enough to get the finger next to my pinkie free. I then pried on the opposite side and got my index finger free. To get my middle finger out, I pried again with the wrench and pulled as hard as I could with the trapped arm and got my hand out. To make a long story short, I still have all my fingers and they still work, however, I occasionally feel some stiffness in the middle finger joints. I was lucky!!!!! Needless to say, it is my personal mission to convince everyone to use a bolt-in type compressor.

Gingercar

Where can I get a bolt in spring compressor? I will be doing a spring replacement and your story scares the s#%@ out of me. In fact, springs in general scare the s#$% out of me. When I replace mine, I plan on wearing my motorcoss helmet!

Daze

I have a web page that tells how to make one, and if you do not weld you could easily take the plans to a local machine shop and have one made for less than $50.00

4reboy

Not necessarily a jack stand story but a scissor jack story. My friend got a flat in front of my gf's house (went up curb and ripped the tire lol) so us two were changing the tire using the tools that came with the car of course. I placed the jack behind the tire on the frame and jacked it up to where the tire would slide off. As my friend was putting the spare back on I notice the car start to move, I was like "woah woah woah WOAH" and backed up as did he. the scissor jack FOLDED and the car came down. Luckily the spare was half way on so it didn't come down on the front end and brakes.

also watch those things, whether it be the jacks or the jack stands, you never know what could fail, could be a never used scissor jack!