Good Samaritan correcting my stupidity (no jackstands)

Someone once called that "belt and suspenders" to me. If your belt failed, your suspenders would still hold up your pants.

I find it tricky in the rear right of my wife's GM SUV, because the rear AC lines are there....when her car was towed, the chain also gently grazed one line.....

Definitely belt and suspenders here. I've had jackstands punch through pavement. And I have had a hydraulic jack give out on me. I'm a fan of wood cribbing if possible. When I was doing the engine swap on the grand marquis I had to have the RF tire off and it up in the air so I could connect the exhaust manifold and EGR tube. I had the frame sitting on wood blocks, a jackstand under the frame rail and a hydraulic jack against the frame crossmember just in case.
 
Ok. The reason it failed sooner then expected is corrosion on the aluminum. Clean the mating area, and coat the area and the mount itself with fluidfilm to slow corrosion. I have a 2007 mazda3.
 
Ok. The reason it failed sooner then expected is corrosion on the aluminum. Clean the mating area, and coat the area and the mount itself with fluidfilm to slow corrosion. I have a 2007 mazda3.
That's pretty much what I did - cleaned the mounting area with a fibre alternative to a wire wheel (not sure what to call it) on my drill, and sprayed both the new shock mount and the mounting area liberally with Rust Check spray.

Mazda does not sell the shock mount separately. I also wonder if the aftermarket ones are not as good as the factory ones that come with the shock.
 
I applaud your humility and admission. It’s easy to say, “ah, I’ll only be under there for a minute, I don’t need anything more than the jack” and, in fact, some folks have posted that exact sentiment on BITOG, but the passerby was right:

Don’t take the chance.


Very true…

I do not believe I have said anything about this on here but last year in early March I had a very minor yet bad accident with the lady’s 98 Camry… It was dark out and me not being smart did not have my flashlight right there. Jacked the car up and I DID have and use my 6 by 6 and 4 by 4 solid wood blocks underneath the Camry. Well I wasn’t pleased with the placement and the jack was holding the car above the blocks.

Car slipped of the jack.. I swear I didn’t have my hand between the top of the blocks and the underside of the car… But I think as I heard the car slip and make that metal pop sound I rotated my left hand just a tiny bit… I pulled my left hand free instantly.. But I knew I had gotten hurt. I didn’t make a sound… But I got up from the ground and jumped a foot off the ground. I knew I was bleeding from my left thumb. Go inside… oil off my glove and it was bleeding from the thumbnail. Not bleeding super bad but definitely to a degree. Had a ringing feeling in the left thumb… Wouldn’t go away… Waited 2 hours before going to the emergency room… The pain and swelling told me that blood build up inside was getting a bit serious. Broken left thumb on the last bone in the thumb confirmed by simple x ray. Thumb dressed and wrapped…

19 hours later the next day saw my patient who I was seeing every single day once a day. I never missed a visit with him in the next 2 and a half months.

I was very fortunate… Could have been way, way worse. Only hurt really bad for about 24 hours After that it was very manageable and I did ok.

I did have very limited use of my left hand for about 6 weeks… IM injections were not possible during that time.

If I would have had my flashlight I would have clearly noted how precarious the Jack was and made the correct adjustment.

Lesson learned… Only a minor, minor wound. And… at least I could treat it myself.. which I did after the ER visit.
 
Decades ago, in my much younger and slightly dumber days, I was working on the brakes on my Mustang II (yup, that long ago), using nothing but the factory jack. Unbelievably stupid, but whatever. I stuck my head under to check the exhaust, looked good. Turned around to grab the wheel to put it back on, and in that split second I heard movement and I turned around to watch the car come down in a huge metallic thud. I had literally just 2-3 seconds before that, had half my teenage body under that car. What a colossal idiot..... a very brutal lesson learned. Expensive too, the ball joints and tie rods didnt appreciate greeting the concrete floor that way.

Now, in addition to the various safeguards already mentioned by others (jackstands everywhere, any removed wheels shoved under the car, hydraulic jacks under crossmembers, wood blocks in various places, etc) I keep my cell phone, no further than arms length, predialed to either my wifes number (if she's home) or 911 if I'm alone. I also keep something to make a lot of noise.... a whistle... or a hammer, a piece of 2x4, whatever... close by that I can use to beat the crap out of the car and make enough noise that someone, anyone, might hear it and come over to ask what the hell I'm doing making all that racket. I have a few preferred methods of dying, and lying under a car suffocating or trapped and bleeding to death isnt one of them.

I always keep my cell phone and a noise maker on me when I'm up on the roof of the house as well. Every have a ladder slip and fall to the ground while you're up there? The definition of "eternity" is the amount of time it takes for someone to notice you're stuck up on your roof with no way to get down that doesnt involve breaking both your ankles.

In case you're wondering, 76 is the number of Christmas lights you need to remove from the 100-count strand and throw at your teenage daughters bedroom window before she gets up, opens the blinds and window and asks what all that tapping noise is. A cell phone or whistle would have been nice at that particular moment.....
 
Last Friday I was doing an emergency repair for an elderly (84) friend (the dad of the friend I'd done alternator repair for on the Versa the previous day).

His Mazda5 (2007?) was making a horrible clunking/banging noise from the R rear.

I had previously replaced both rear shock mounts a few years before, and one of the replacements had failed. (There could be a couple of causes here - first of all, our roads are badly potholed, and secondly the aluminum shock mounts are underbuilt for the vehicle - I believe the same part is used for the Mazda3 and Ford Focus, both much lighter vehicles.)

I lifted the R rear of the vehicle with my hydraulic jack under the spring seat, which works well.

Unfortunately, it's really hard to find a good place for a jackstand. I tried to put the wheel under the side, but didn't have enough clearance. (In retrospect I should have used the factory scissors jack.)

But anyway, I figured I would duck under with my electric impact and zip the bottom shock bolt out in seconds. No luck - I hammered away on it in bursts of about 10 seconds for several minutes. I was using an impact extension and a short impact socket.

Then this car stopped across the street, and a man came over and said apologetically, "Hey, I'm really sorry to intrude, but I see you're working under the car without jackstands - you could get crushed if your jack fails!"

I thanked him, said he was quite right, explained the difficulty in trying to provide a backup, and then piled up a bunch of short lengths of 2x6s under the side of the vehicle.

Good fellow, with no motive other than my well-being.

Approached the bolt from the other side (so I didn't have to be under the vehicle), and used a deep impact socket and no extension, and zipped the bolt out fairly quickly.

The rest of the job went well (and safely). When I used my drill and a fibre brush to clean up the shock-mount perch, I wore safety glasses.

Lesson learned.

Here's the old upper shock mount:
View attachment 189589
That was your guardian angel...
 
Yup, I (usually) err on the side of safety. That was a stupid bit of laziness on my part.
I fear for myself when I am tired, overworked, late, etc. ........it's go,go,go. That's when I cut corners and I have to constantly slow myself down. A few weeks ago I landed in Urgent Care because I ran a drill bit into my finger (just stitches) - trying to finish a job on Friday night, after hours, dark, rainy, on a ladder..........recipe for disaster.

Thanks for the reminder thread.
 
I fear for myself when I am tired, overworked, late, etc. ........it's go,go,go. That's when I cut corners and I have to constantly slow myself down.
And it's not just jack stands and ladders, I'm guilty of running a cutoff wheel with only prescription glasses for eye protection because "it's a quick job." Then there's long term stuff like breathing asbestos and solvents soaking through one's skin.
 
Timing of this post is excellent for a healthy reminder of good safety practices. Thanksgiving weekend. Time to install the winter wheel/tires. No short cuts. Just going to take it slowly and methodically.
 
Friend of mine almost did that with his AWD yukon a few years ago. Put it in park and never thought that the viscous coupler wouldn't be enough to hold it with the front driveshaft alone. As soon as he popped the rear shaft out, the truck started moving backwards. Rolled 40 feet or so into the street.

The bigger question is, why aren't people using their parking brake which is the intended purpose of this thing? Ever since I've been old enough to reach the pedals I've setting the parking brake in whatever I get out of, it's a habit when shifting into park.

Nowadays these are even automatic, you shift into park and electronically the park brake sets too.
 
I fear for myself when I am tired, overworked, late, etc. ........it's go,go,go. That's when I cut corners and I have to constantly slow myself down. A few weeks ago I landed in Urgent Care because I ran a drill bit into my finger (just stitches) - trying to finish a job on Friday night, after hours, dark, rainy, on a ladder..........recipe for disaster.

Thanks for the reminder thread.
I've often been guilty of not having time to do it right the first time, but having lots of time to do it right the 2nd time ...
 
The bigger question is, why aren't people using their parking brake which is the intended purpose of this thing? Ever since I've been old enough to reach the pedals I've setting the parking brake in whatever I get out of, it's a habit when shifting into park.

Nowadays these are even automatic, you shift into park and electronically the park brake sets too.
My employer strongly encouraged us to use the parking brake. I did, and my fellow team members would get consistently frustrated at finding it set when they went to use the truck.

I always set it in my own vehicles as well. I hate parking an automatic on a grade and having the shift lever jammed on the parking pawl. I apply the parking brake, shift to N, let the vehicle settle, and then shift to P.
 
A thing I forgot to mention with that rusty Mazda5 - I've never before had so much trouble removing a wheel. I tried (unsuccessfully):

- holding a piece of wood against it, and hitting the wood with a sledge hammer, and

- lowering the hydraulic jack quickly to break the wheel loose.

For the first time ever, and with misgivings, I put the wheel nuts on finger right, lowered the vehicle, and drove (very slowly) backwards and forwards on my driveway a few times.

Raised the vehicle again, and the wheel came off after another hit with the sledgehammer on wood.

I ground the oxidation off the alloy hub with a fibre wheel on the drill, ground the rust off the rotor, and applied anti-seize. Yeesh!

The weird thing is, the owner runs winter tires on steelies, so factory alloy with 3-season tires would have been installed just last Spring.
 
I fear for myself when I am tired, overworked, late, etc. ........it's go,go,go. That's when I cut corners and I have to constantly slow myself down. A few weeks ago I landed in Urgent Care because I ran a drill bit into my finger (just stitches) - trying to finish a job on Friday night, after hours, dark, rainy, on a ladder..........recipe for disaster.

Thanks for the reminder thread.

There is wonderful saying in the Rhineland dialect near Cologne: "Mach et joot, awwer nit esu schnäll!" - "Do it properly - but not so fast!"
 
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