Supplementing Chassis Lifting Points
On my 360, there are four lifting points on the chassis. Each lifting point is located by the position of a threaded insert in the frame. Now this is fine for those of us who are familiar with the location, but I worry about the tire jockey at the local tire shop ... and, for that matter, the rear lifting points are recessed inside the belly pan. Marked "D" on attachment.
I have cobbled together a solution to the mitigate the risk of using an improper lifting point and would like an opinion from others.
The threaded insert takes a 12mm x 1.75mm bolt. I have taken three 1" washers and one 0.5" x 2" fender washer, I have glued the washers together using RTV Silicone adhesive ... aligning the center so that I can insert a 19mm socket thru the 1" washers so I can thread the 12mm bolt thru the fender washer into the threaded insert of the lifting point. This way, the bolt head is not protruding beyond the face of the outer washer. What I have now is a "hockey puck" that I am able to mount to the lifting point. This "hockey puck" is now used as the lifting point for my floor jack or the lift arms at the tire shop. There is no stress on the bolt as the head of the bolt is under the outer face ... all force is directly applied to the surface of the lifting point. The RTV adhesive only needs to keep the washers from separating when not attached to the car and glue the fender washer to the top of the stack. Once you apply a force to lift the car, the RTV adhesive is not stressed. I only have to finger tightened the 12mm bolt using the socket so it is easy to install / remove the hockey puck.
Of course, this might be over kill ... one could use a small block of wood for this, but I like the idea of screwing in the hockey puck ... especially for the tire jockey at the tire shop ... and it makes my life easy in the garage locating the floor jack as the hockey puck stays put while I move the jack in position.
Any comments?
Regards,
Steve