Cars falling off lifts

This reminds me of the tire shop I worked at during college it had one of those old in ground single cylinder lifts that was air powered. The cylinder was about 20” diameter. The valve was over by the door and when you would lift the car it would spin about 10-15 degrees. When you set it down you would have to stop it about 6” from the ground and push it back straight then let it down the rest of the way. It was fast and always worked. I think last time I went there it was gone replaced with one of those new blue lifts.

They also had one that rolled and was air powered. They only had one and we only used it for big tires getting out of the back of trucks. But the old man there said they user to have 2 and that is what they would lift cars with one on each side.

There were no safeties on either of them. That place was all about safety third.
 
woods said:
what. the ****. are those floor lights.
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Leftover hexlights from the ceiling. Throw on floor and plug in to see under vehicles. In this moment I had dropped a black screw in front of the engine so OCD got the best of me. Belly pan off, 2 hours, and a borescope I located the ****er.
 
NotmyJK said:
Leftover hexlights from the ceiling. Throw on floor and plug in to see under vehicles. In this moment I had dropped a black screw in front of the engine so OCD got the best of me. Belly pan off, 2 hours, and a borescope I located the ****er.
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nice. I'm going to have to do something like that for when I undercoat. I setup tarps to keep the overspray in the bay, but it also blocks out all light. I wear a headlamp that works questionably at best.
 
NotmyJK said:
Never lifted or owned one before and hasn't taken a dive yet
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What kind of car is that? it looks pretty fast from this view yet its definitely not a Chevette.
 
Right out of high-school a couple friends of mine worked at the local tire shop and l would hang out on occasion. They had 3 very old 10k 2 post lifts that never got serviced. The guy that ran the counter figured if the lifts were rated for 10k, they would lift/work on anything.

One day l was there and they had an Excursion on the lift getting 4 tires. A guy took the front/passenger tire off and we all heard the clunk of the arm sliding out from under the opposite corner, and in slow motion, the truck started tipping backwards.

2 guys ended up pushing up on the rear bumper while 2 guys were hanging off the front bumper (l was one of those). The alignment guy saw what was going on and ran over and put the truck down.

That was dicey!!
 
mdmike said:
One day l was there and they had an Excursion on the lift getting 4 tires. A guy took the front/passenger tire off and we all heard the clunk of the arm sliding out from under the opposite corner, and in slow motion, the truck started tipping backwards.
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I can't recall what the story was on the lifts when I was a tech, but mine at home locks in place. the lift arms won't budge. sometimes its a bit of a pain because I have to lower it all the way to realign it to the frame or something.
 
woods said:
I can't recall what the story was on the lifts when I was a tech, but mine at home locks in place. the lift arms won't budge. sometimes its a bit of a pain because I have to lower it all the way to realign it to the frame or something.
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Yeah they're supposed to, doesn't mean they always do
 
woods said:
I can't recall what the story was on the lifts when I was a tech, but mine at home locks in place. the lift arms won't budge. sometimes its a bit of a pain because I have to lower it all the way to realign it to the frame or something.
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There’s usually a temporary bypass to move the arms when locked. Here’s mine on my bendpak. If the lift is up, you push the yellow handle down and move the arm. As soon as you let go, it’s locked again.

My Rotary had a bug ring on the lock to pull up on to move the arm
IMG_3969.jpeg
 
NotmyJK said:
Never lifted or owned one before and hasn't taken a dive yet
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That is because using the factory lifts points works fine.

That is a Z, right? Why do the rear tires not look crazy wide? Just a weird camera thing?

Those 345's take up some room
 
crispins said:
2) you sound 100% the same as Clift from Cheers
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Agreed, but he has an AVE way of talking.

Motorcharge said:
This.

I've sat through the lift training, it's a 30 minute video of corporate ass covering that's very non vehicle specific. Most **** you can more or less just kick the arms under and be ok. It's pick up trucks and other **** with weird centers of gravity you really have to pay attention with.
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I'd almost say it was a "crash" course. :flipoff2:
Most mom and pop shops give a small lecture, but it doesn't do much good.
Most techs aren't trained well enough when they start out. Auto repair is more of a baptized by fire job.
 
Rttoys said:
My Rotary had a bug ring on the lock to pull up on to move the arm
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My import one has something similar. When the arms are all the way down, the lock pins hit the ground and unlock so you can move the arms. If you lift the arms more than maybe 1/2" up, they're locked and you can manually lift the pin to move them. If you lift and rotate the pin it stays in the unlocked position. Biggest problem is leaving the pin unlocked and going about your business with something on the lift. I do that way too often.
 
woods said:
nice. I'm going to have to do something like that for when I undercoat. I setup tarps to keep the overspray in the bay, but it also blocks out all light. I wear a headlamp that works questionably at best.
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I bought a pair of the milwakee stand lights. theyre great for lighting underneath and you can use them outside, in the house or anywhere else you need a lot of light.

481J05_AS01.jpg
 
D_JEEPER said:
I have an Atlas 9k here and I get the vehicle about 6" off the ground and then re-inspect, then bounce it by pushing down on the bumper firmly a few times to look for any bluetooth pad contact or signs of scary **** lol. I hate being under the vehicles and do my best to spend as little time there as possible.
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Same here. I’m paranoid.
 
In high school I worked at a gas station with two bays both had in ground single piston lifts, neither one worked right. going up they were slow as hell, and when they were up they would bleed off, we had to use 1/2" ratchet extensions as a safety stop.

And going down they would lurch and jerk. we would regularly lift our F500 tow truck and never thought twice about it:eek:

I was smart enough to never have anything fall off though, so there is that.
 
KungFooMASTA said:
He has only got to drive it for the tank of fuel that was put in at the dealership too. :flipoff2:
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another one caught fire last week, dude fueled it up, left the gas station and noticed lots of flames from the back, pulled over and car was done.

**** is stupid.

I watched a video about the Ferraris that burn down today, those the fuel pump hose barb gets brittle, pumps fuel out onto the cat right under the fuel tank. That seems like a really horrible design.

On these Z06's had they just put the cooler and fan on the other side (passenger) it would have prevented this issue.
 
posford said:
Yeah they're supposed to, doesn't mean they always do
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This.

The locking pins on the lifts l was talking about had long been removed or bent. The lift pads themselves were smooth steel because the rubber pads had worn away years ago.

That shop was put together with duct tape and bailing wire, but they cranked out the tires.
 
mdmike said:
This.

The locking pins on the lifts l was talking about had long been removed or bent. The lift pads themselves were smooth steel because the rubber pads had worn away years ago.

That shop was put together with duct tape and bailing wire, but they cranked out the tires.
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My locking pins on the Atlas are out of sync by an inch of vertical heigh or so. I have caught one but not the other when lowering down to the pins before and it started leaning the vehicle over. Scary as hell if you arent watching for it. I make sure I get the click and go another second on lift before settling back down. :eek:
 
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