Any good/bad stories? Any to avoid?

Best deals, additional info for wheel swapping tricks?

Thanks.

Looked at some Griot's stuff, pretty nice, but not sure that's the best. Not going to use it weekly, but once in a while.

Jack stands
Jack
Jack pads?
Torque wrench

Other ideas.

TIA

 

I went to walmart and bought 4 of these:


They're not exactly those, but similar. They're like $30 a piece and have a safey place to stick a metal bar in case of failure.

I use all 4 at once and it holds the car up nicely for brake work, etc. If one fails, the car will stand on the other 3 easily because it's so stiff.

I also own a nice racing jack from Sears for when I'm doing stuff at the track vs. the garage.

For a torque wrench and jack stands... go to Sears.

 

I have an AC jack and their jack stands.

AC Jack
AC jackstands

The DK13HLQ will fit under lowered cars and can reach the crossmember forward of the engine on the TT to lift the rear so you don't have to jack against the engine case.
It will also reach the front jack point or rear differential on an S2000. The jack stands are extremely nice and work great with the jack points on the 996.

Griot's has nice torque wrenches. I've got their 1/2"
1/2" torque wrench

You can spend a lot less but if you use this stuff very often it's worth it.

 

I also have the AC jack and love it

 

AC all the way. i LOVE mine. and they have been worry free for years with heavy shop use.

dave w

 

Hi.
I have the Griot's one. It's very good!
It has a feature which allows it to lower
the car slowly without having to carefully
twitch the handle. It is also the lowest
jack I know, and goes easily under my
lowered 996tt.
My torque wrench is from Tire Rack, and
works fine too. I use a DeWalt 12-volt
chargeable impact wrench to remove
lugs, and with car, I use it to spin them
on. The max torque for the wrench is
below what would be dnagerous, but I
still don't trust that, so I spin it to hand
tight and then go to the torque wrench.
Joe

 

I have Craftsman jack/jackstands which work fine, but I don't have a lot of comparison points. I use this Snap-on torque wrench, which is excellent. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog

 

Eric,
If you plan to use only on occasion, Harbor Freight has an aluminum hydraulic jack and a cordless 19.2 volt 1/2" impact wrench that work well. Reasonably priced. I've had both for two years with no problems.

 

I went through a similar search for the right jack a couple of years ago and also settled on the AC. More expensive, but worth it, IMHO. The key factor is the quality of the seals used on the jack. Reliable jacks use seals made in Japan, which adds a lot to the cost of the jack. Cheap jacks use seals made, like everything else, in China. Some of those seals develop leaks pretty quickly, and you have to throw the jack away (BTW, that is why you never want to support the car with only a jack).

AS NC Bob says, there are many Harbor Freight jacks that have been just fine (not ALL the seals made in China leak). But if you look in the archive here or over at Rennlist, you will find plenty of stories from people whose cheap jacks either bent or leaked. And no stories about AC jacks that have done either. So it comes down to whether you feel lucky, or maybe whether you have room for two Harbor Freights so you have a back-up.

 

How do you adjust the torque of a cordless impact wrench?

 

By putting it down and using a proper torque wrench.

There are some torque bits, used for wheel nuts, that you can use with an impact wrench. Never been a fan of those.

 

So the best tool is either a full on air impact wrench that you can set by the PSI or just a regular torque wrench?

 

I use an impact wrench that is too weak to over-torque.
It makes just enough power to loosen lugs, and I don't
let it go into impact mode when using it to tighten. I
get it about hand-tight and finish it off with a torque
wrench. If you don't have to turn the lugnut at least
a 1/4 turn before the torque wrench clicks, you used
too much impact wrench.
Joe

 

Good stuff, Joe - few impact wrenches max out under 96 ft/lbs though - I'll see what I can find

 

I like these........ have a set of 4.
Snap-on also has a very nice shop jack to go with these.....but I have the Tire Rack unit.....not cheap.........no way I'd use a cheap jack except temporary or in a pinch.