Lifting NA1 NSX Up Off Its Wheels on 4 Post Car Lift?

[GreenOnBlack]

I keep my NSX on a Direct 4 post lift but want to be able to get wheels up in the air. Has anyone used a bridge jack with a 4 post lift on their NSX? Does it work well? This is the one I'm looking at:

RJ35BK - Pro Jack 3500

The Pro Jack 3500 is an economical sliding jack that makes any four post lift complete. This versatile jack requires no air or electricity. It operates by the manual hydraulic pump, and is adjustable to fit most four post lifts. To see if the Pro Jack 3500 fits your four post lift, please check...

directlift.com

The biggest concern is that it lifts both driver and passenger side at the same time. The typical jacking procedure for an NSX is to lift at the mid jack point on one side at a time and put jack stands on the jack points near the wheels OR to use a 2 post lift on the jack stand points. With the bridge jack pictured above, I would have to use the jack stand points on either the front or rear of the car, and I don't think I would be able to get all 4 wheels up in the air at the same time unless I had 2 bridge jacks (which I won't). Are there any circumstances where I would need to get all 4 wheels up at the same time?

I thought about maybe buying an air jack like this: https://www.amazon.com/Mophorn-Pneumatic-Lifting-Capacity-Extremely/dp/B075W7731K/. However the minimum and maximum clearance seems a bit challenging and tipping the car on one side laterally seems a bit precarious on a lift. The NSX also doesn't have any lift points in the middle of the car as far as I know so the jack tray that comes with the 4 post lift is pretty useless.

 

[docjohn]

I have thought about this. My Bendpak lift has a sliding tray to support a bottle jack, but I just don't like the Feng shui , so on the ground it goes to change wheels..

 

[GreenOnBlack]

Unfortunately my floor has pretty decent slope for drains so the car ends up pretty tilted to one side.

 

[mochanges]

I've been debating the exact same thing, it's like you read my mind. In theory the bridge jack seems like it would be great for wheel swaps and brake work. My only concern is if my car is too low to use the jack. I have a few different low ramps I could use to lift it high enough to get the lifting pads in the right place, I think.

 

[GreenOnBlack]

Well I ordered the bridge jack so I will report back once I get it. It should clear everything fine in theory.

 

[Wild Turkey]

A friend of mine has a 4 poster and he just bought 4 used scissor jacks and and lifts the fronts, rears, or either side with 2 of them, while chocking the other 2 wheels. If it's going to sit for more work, he adds the 2nd two jacks either to the middles if it's front or back lifted or to 1 middle if he's lifted one side. It's impressively solid that way. It doesn't get in the way of very much like some of the add-on jacks do.

 

[GreenOnBlack]

A friend of mine has a 4 poster and he just bought 4 used scissor jacks and and lifts the fronts, rears, or either side with 2 of them, while chocking the other 2 wheels. If it's going to sit for more work, he adds the 2nd two jacks either to the middles if it's front or back lifted or to 1 middle if he's lifted one side. It's impressively solid that way. It doesn't get in the way of very much like some of the add-on jacks do.

He doesn't use jack stands? The scissor jacks are known to fall.

 

[Jerry@Mobile]

I have a BendPack 4 poster and a three air bag jack like the one mentioned above. The three bag lift is too tall in the relaxed position to fit under the NSX. The two bag jack looks like it will fit un Der the NSX. The three bag setup works well for my C-2 and C-3 vettes if I use the jack plate. Before I bought the air jack, I made and used a wood platform the same height as the lift in the down position. I used my floor jack to lift the car and used a jack stand and the jack plate to keep the car up. Once the car was on the jack stands, I used the lift and the wooden platform stayed on the ground. This would work for all four wheels, however you might need a second jack plate. Lifting all four wheels is a pain in the butt, but how often will you do it? BendPack sells an air jack that will lift the front or rear of the car. Again you could do that with two jack stands and a jack plate, but the Bendpack air jack is around $2K. Jerry

 

[GreenOnBlack]

The wood platform on the floor next to the lift is a great idea. Might be harder to execute for me due to the slopes in my floor.

I remembered I have a scissor jack in the trunk of the CRV and it worked great to get one side up. I'm a little worried about how tippy it is towards the other side of the lift but if I raise the side by the wall first, it should be much safer to get all four wheels up in the air.

Do you guys think it's safe to use the scissor jack on the other side to get all four wheels up? The problem with the scissor jack is that it doesnt slide like a regular car jack does so raising the other side of the car might be sketchy as the scissor jack may want to tilt due to the angle of the car going up and down. Maybe the angle isn't extreme enough and I'm seriously over thinking this haha.

 

[mochanges]

I think the bridge jack is a safer way to go, but I may also be over thinking it.

 

[Wild Turkey]

He doesn't use jack stands? The scissor jacks are known to fall.

I don't think I explained it well enough. That is only for lifting either the 2 front wheels, or the 2 rear wheels, but not all 4. For lifting the left or right wheels only, I did it like @GreenOnBlack with 1 scissor & 2 jack stands, but ONLY ONE side at a time. Never lifting all 4 wheels while on the lift.
All jacks are known to fail, but 4 failing all at once? They're each holding about 20% of their rated load. With 4 jacks to lift the front OR back wheels and the other 2 chocked wheels on the lift, we've reefed on it and can can't move it. But you need to be sure the center point jacks aren't unloading the grounded wheels significantly.
But I think the bigger concern with scissor jacks, and all jacks really, is tipping.
I would NOT recommend scissor jacks to get all 4 wheels in the air, or ANY jacks without jack stands. Especially not on a lift. As one side of the car goes up, it translates a bit laterally because of the angle, which is why I use a rolling floor jack perpendicular to the car so it can roll as the jack point on the car translates. It translates even more when you lift the second side with the 1st side on the jack stands.
For 4 wheels up, I use an alternating floor jack in the middle and jack stands at the 4 corners as shown in the service manual, but I would only do that on a nice level concrete (or similar) floor. See the pic here:

Getting the Car up on Jackstands

I decided that I finally should get around to changing out my coolant hoses and thermostat. The new parts have been sitting in a box for three years now. The plan is to get the car up on jack stands at the jack points and I have seen photos posted of the NSX supported like this. I have...

www.nsxprime.com

 

[docjohn]

right ..the bendpak solution only allows for a center jack point not the sides..so I just change wheels on the ground.

 

[DRIFTER]

I got one similar to that I remove the lift pucks when not in use But it clears even really low cars as it sits on the rails between the car lift. You can lift the front or back without worrying about the entire car lifting up and off the lift it’s very stable and strong the way it mounts. It can’t go anywhere, and has like Teflon pads so you can slide it front to back fairly easily. It don’t move when you get the weight of the car on it. But the way it jacks the large plate makes it difficult to get at the important center bits. So while it has a purpose it’s hard to do any kind of real work with it other than tires, breaks, control arm kind of work.

Honestly don’t use it much other than changing tires occasionally. I have a 2 post for doing any kind of real repair work.

 

[FlopShot]

I've thought about buying this same type of sliding jack for my 4-post, but the price on them has doubled since COVID. I'm not sure why it would be an issue to use it on just the front, or just the rear, jack points? I only use the center jack point when I have a need to lift both the front and rear of the car (like switching wheels).

 

[mochanges]

I'm picking up a bridge jack on Friday and the price is reasonable, it was $829. Actually on sale since they have too many in stock.

 

[GreenOnBlack]

I was quoted $1050 and held off after trying the scissor jack.

 

[FlopShot]

I'm picking up a bridge jack on Friday and the price is reasonable, it was $829. Actually on sale since they have too many in stock.

Lol I guess "reasonable" is personal perspective haha. When I bought my lift 4 yrs ago, I could have gotten it for $350 but I hesitated and then COVID happened. Then it went to $700 and I thought that was unreasonable for the amount of time I would actually use it (once a year?). Now it's $969! Oh well...