Body stiffness & door gap, when jacking the 914 Options

[howardchen327]

Hi, can anyone help me here:

(1) when jacking the car, when both the front and rear tire leave the floor, is the door gap suppose to remain the same during jack up? or there is a acceptable gap change?

(2)when jacking the car, are the both front and rear tire suppose to leave the ground at the same time?

Thanx alot (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smoke.gif)

[ChrisReale]

Ideally, there will be no change in the door gap, but due to the fact that our cars are 30+ years old, it usually flexes a bit, how much depends on the condition of the tub. Not sure about the second question.

[howardchen327]

I did some measurement:

Door gap before jacking: 0.5cm

After: 0.7cm

so there is 2mm difference and the measurement was taken under such condition: only one side (passenger side) was jacked up and was not place on any jack stand.

So sounds reasonable?

[scotty914]

as for the jacking yes the whole side of the car comes up because the jack points are basicly the center of balance

as fore the door gap difference i hope you mean .5 cm not mm. and did you do this test with the roof off, a 40 % change in door gap with the roof off i would think to me would mean start looking for rust but not terminal just looking or do some reinforcing. a 40 % change roof on means i would start looking NOW for rust. but with these cars start looking for rust even if the car is perfectly solid

[howardchen327]

Damn, thx for remindind me about the unit (I've revised my post). All measurement was measured without roof on. The door gap before jacking is 0.5cm and and after lift the car up, the gap is 0.7cm. I used the rear jack point (not the jack tub, but the one under it). So is it a good fiqure?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smoke.gif)

[scotty914]

if i were you i would get engmans ( sp ?) kit and look for rust just to be safe. also you might want to jack the drivers side for comparison, if both sides are the same i would feel better. i hope these numbers are at the top of the door, if its at the bottom it might not be good.

just be safe grab a screw driver and poke away it cant hurt anything unless there is rust

[SirAndy]

The door gap before jacking is 0.5cm and and after lift the car up, the gap is 0.7mm.

that ain't right ...

0.7 mm is less than a millimeter. that would mean the gap shrank from 5mm to less than one mm when jacked up ...

i think you mean the gap is 5mm (0.5 cm) first and after the car is in the air, the gap is 7mm (0.7 cm), which means the gap got 2 mm (0.2 cm) wider ...

now, 2 mm more is quite large. try jacking it up on the drivers side and see if that side behaves the same.

usually, (especially on the pass. side) a gap change that large means that you have rott in your longs. just installing a stiffening kit won't cure the problem, just band-aid it for a while.
you should check your longs and the hell-hole area for rust and if you find some, fix it first, before you slapp a stiffening kit on there ...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) Andy

PS: post some pictures of the hell-hole area and the longs (without the rockers) ...

[scotty914]

andy he said a 2 mm change, now i would think at the top of the door that would not be that bad. 2 mm in 2 feet is probably less than 1 or 2 degrees of flex. but i agree he needs to look for rust. if no rust install the kit to stiffen it up. also i agree and stated to jack the drivers side too.

sorry if i was not clear enough

[Brad Roberts]

I dont think it is bad. I'm not overly *happy* about it. But it doesnt really concern/worry me. I get concourse cars on the shop lifts that open up more than that with ZERO rust in them. Gauging from his screen name.. he has more weight in the rear than all of the 4cyl or 6 cyl cars.


B

[jwalters]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) This gives me a thought--I remember a while ago a gentleman posted an ad for logitudinal stiffeners--made the same way as the rear arm ones but these get welded to the inside of the passenger compartment along the longs---anyone know about this???? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[Brad Roberts]

He is in our vendors area under "Engman". His kits rock.. (they where heavily influenced by me..LOL)

We have a install thread buried around here somewhere.


B

[howardchen327]

OK, Because those measurement (roof off) were taken yesterday night, therefore, I redo all the measurement (roof off)this moring.

***All measurement were taken at the top of the door (same as yesterday)***

Passenger side:
Before~ 0.5cm
After~ 0.6cm

Driver side:
Before~ 0.35cm
After~ 0.45cm

As you can c, passenger door gap is already wider than driver's. I know that ain't good <_< but both side seems to shrunk 1mm(+- 0.5mm).

I'll take off passenger's side rocker panel to check out rust devil. The driver's side is already off. I only see rust on the bottom of the jack receiver plate, and it didn't rust
through.

For the passenger's side...man it is pain in the ass to get it off. A earlier post I mentioned that I broke the notch on all 3 screws that are under the rocker panel...I'll try to get it off asap.

I'll take some picture to show to guys.

[Brad Roberts]

Does it have a V8 in it ?


B

[howardchen327]

No, it has a GA motor in there

[Engman]

Yep I make the kits. These were directly inflenced by Brad and he was used in the initial developement and testing. Does not sound like your gaps are all that bad. Any gap increase is to be of concern but these are 30+ year old cars. I will have to measure mine with the kit - but it will be a while before I have the chance to do it.

M

[Trekkor]

Here it is:

Longs stiff install thread

KT