When our Plus 6 eventually arrives, I would like to be able to jack the car to remove wheels and check underside etc... The manuals state only use a 4 point lift to elevate the car on the approved mid car reinforced lift points and that use of a jack on the side should only be done in an emergency to clear debris.
So how do you go about jacking the car in a home garage, apart from purchasing an expensive hydraulic scissor lift to lift on the mid car areas?. For our Roadster I made up two lift beams to fit and lift at the front and rear of the car in the area a jack would reach, however, that approach will not work if the lifting points that Morgan say have to be used are mid car.
When we undertook our factory tour this Spring I can not recollect seeing scissor lifts in the build area prior to the chassis being fitted with wheels, so they must use some sort of jack to elevate the car onto their moveable build frames?.

Does anyone have experience of jacking a CX platform car for home garage work??

Dave

Hello Dave, Congratulations on ordering a top of the range car I don't have a CX so will refrain from comment on jacking.

This is a previous thread from a while back posing the same question.
A curates egg with useful to very humorous in true TM style.

Dave, the Aero tub has 4 jacking points, 2 on each side, about 20cm from the wheel towards the mid point. I have no issues using a trolly jack to lift the car at one of these points.

The CX tub is claimed to be far stiffer than the Aero tub, so I don't understand why they talk about using only a 4 point lift.
BUT there is a tendency in the motor industry to discourage DIY work of any sort, I suspect to mitigate the possibility of liability falling back to the OEM. So the advice to use only a 4 point lift could be more to discourage any DIY servicing than anything else.

Peter

Thank you Peter, the CX jacking points are similar it would seem. I would have jacked it the same as you say in a standard vehicle.. Jack one side at the jack point, place axle stand, then jack the other and insert 2nd axle stand... I suspect you are correct re Morgans handbook comments ref the liability aspect to discourage owners tinkering with their cars..
However, while out for a drive this afternoon in the Roadster to Porlock Weir in a very sunny West Somerset. I came up with the idea of a heavy duty aluminium I beam cut to size to fit across and under the car with rubber on it at the chassis jacking contact area and using two jacks, one each side.. so it could lift the vehicle in a level plane, it would be a bit fiddly/slow and a tad Heath Robinson, but it should work safely if done slowly and on the proviso that the car is not jacked a long way up in the air, the going up bit seems doable, but the coming down would need to be done in very small stages... I will give this idea some more thought. A revised thought on this, would be to simply to use two jacks one each side at the jacking point and jack back and forth, but same caution needed when coming back down.

Also thanks Richard for that link ref onboard equipment or lack of it.. No tools in our intended Plus 6 its not quite new, but very very low milage. I have susssed out a German version of the Sealey scissor jack that comes in a soft carrying case, plus Coninental tyres do a nice little tyre kit comprising of an electric 12v compressor/dispenser and a cannister of puncture sealant, you screw the sealant canister into the pump dispenser then inflate the tyre, the compressor injects the sealant as it pumps up the tyre.. Now this is nowhere as good as a spare, but it may be better to have something rather than nothing.. The sad bit is that this will all have to go behind the seats using up some of the space that Morgan " improved " apon from the Trad design....

Dave

Wonder if you might consider this type of jacking system Dave.
https://www.quickjacklift.co.uk/

Yes, looked at this option.. I was hoping to use the equipment I already have. ie standard low profile jacks.. but a hydraulic twin lift scissor may be the answer in the end...but I would have to sneak it past " she who must be obeyed"
Dave

I like that, but the height might be a problem: the Plus 8 with 19" AeroMax Wheels and 35 profile tyres is VERY low.

Lots of vids on the Quickjack site apparently it may be 3" when folded down ....?

For that price you might as well go for the convenience of a full size hydraulic scissor lift. My Automotech AS-7630 was £1500 delivered.



After nearly a year of very regular use I have nothing but praise for it. It can reach full extension with my Roadster roof down, allowing leisurely work underneath using old office chair. You do need scaffold planks to raise car adequately to drive over it though. Have also since added stainless plates for the rear scissor rollers to run on.

Yep, deffo. I've got the Strongman equivalent. Ace bit of kit.

I use a "EZCarlift from Holden Vintage and Classic - https://www.holden.co.uk/p/car_lift_e_z_mobile_for_home_and_professional_use

Winds up with an electric drill



I hang it on the wall of the garage when not in use - you can see it on the right in the picture below

Wow that's way over the price of mine . At my age I need to be able to sit underneath

I admit I can't hang mine on the wall although there is provision to wheel it around.

Good to see one in operation in their video https://youtu.be/rERxNMiSWnY.
Having coincidentally just spoken to somebody who recently had a his car collapse onto him while working unerneath, it has to be an improvement on axle stands, jacking beams etc ?
Even at a couple of Grand (with the desirable/necessary extras)...... Last time I had to get some work done on my car, trailering it cost £275 each way. So could be worthwhile ?
I do foresee burning out a few electric drills, and the castoring wheels are really scary.

[quote=Saxonian]I use a "EZCarlift from Holden Vintage and Classic - https://www.holden.co.uk/p/car_lift_e_z_mobile_for_home_and_professional_use

Winds up with an electric drill

I hang it on the wall of the garage when not in use - you can see it on the right in the picture below.

Ian, in the photo taken outside of your garage, does the floor slope slightly?. The reason I ask Is that I have a slight slope in ours, as its a converted stable.. Most of the scissor jacks state to lift on level ground.. Now I can get around this with some tapering planks under the scuissor jack, but this takes away some of the access height to deploy the jack under the car.. If the Holden jack will work on a slight slope, then that would do the business..

Rgds Dave

Lovely spot (and good beer at the Bottom Ship), but the road from Porlock village to Porlock Weir is really narrow and one of those where I hope to never ever break down / need to change a wheel on any car. And what about on Porlock Hill ? A real nightmare I would imagine.

Hello Peter, yes it is a tad narrow between Porlock and Porlock Weir, best to go slow and steady through this lane, but it is worth the squeeze to get down to Porlock Weir and the sea. We are only 25 mins car journey away, so its a good run out for a coffee and to look at the sea and coast., It was not too busy midweek, at weekends it would be difficult to park in the little parking area. Porlock hill can catch quite a few out with its hairpins and steep rise, the private toll road to avoid the mainroad hill is actually a nice drive and slowly meanders up along the hill side, with good views out over the sea and Wales, this road is also a bit narrow in places but not too bad.. We are lucky living on the edge of Exmoor we have a lot of good driving roads where you can escape.. Sat nav's and the rise of mobile homes seems to have increased the traffic in the summer, more so the last 3 years, but its still possible to drive at relaxed speeds away from the madness. I particually like an early morning bimble accross Exmoor on my BSA's or Royal Enfield in the summer...

Dave

Sorry no its relatively flat
If anything it slopes slightly away from the house
I'd check with Holdens to see what they say
The lift has "square feet" on one end and rollers on the other - The pieces of ply you see in this pic are for the rollers to sit on, rather than "rolling" across the concrete.



I do have a set of low car ramps that I drive onto and then roll the lift under the car as space is tight

Sports Car Ramps

Apologies for the thread drift -- we enjoy the drive across Exmoor from Lynmouth to Dulverton. Proper 1950's stuff. Living "on the edge" is good, we live on the edge of the New Forest. The beach is half an hour's walk (well it was last time we did it, but we were fitter then), or less than a 10 minute drive. We are of to play later (it's our 49th wedding anniversary). The wonderful drive from Cranborne across the Chase to Shaftesbury would be a good excuse to visit Tim Ayres, but we are meeting-up with family. None of those roads would be a good place to change a wheel on the Roadster.

The lmost attractive aspect of the quickjack was that it dous not seem to obstruct areas under the car in areas where one is likely to wish to work and you do not have to climb through scaffold to reach gearbox propshaft etc. Also the lightweight and storage capabilities... ?

I decided in the end that I am far less likely to work on my cars and no not need anything else to store in the garage along with workbench filing cabinet tool cupboard ladders, trestles lawn mower..etc. etc. etc. I will struggle on with my low level jack and multiple axle stands and heavy hard wood blocks which I am well used to working with,and if they get to bee too much of a faff I guess it that will be time to just give up...

You don't have to with a scissor lift either. The front and rear are completely clear, and there's enough room to reach under to get to the seat bolts. If you needed to remove the floor panels they are accessed from inside the car. If there was some reason why you absolutely needed unfettered access to the bottom side of the floor then it's no big deal to lower the car onto a couple of trestles and drop the lift out of the way, but in the 6 years I've owned my scissor lift it's never been remotely necessary.

Any news on the plus 6 and jacking option Dave? I was edging towards the Quick jack system..

Hi Mike, I havent made much progress on this yet. I did talk to Williams about jacking the Plus 6 front and back and they were fairly cagey in their reply, they accepted you could side jack it on the approved areas in an emergency to change a wheel or when rotating the wheel when you inject wheel sealant goo, but they did not go for using jacks fore and aft to lift the P6.. They did say that scissor jacking using the 4 approved lift points together would be fine.as this would be similar to the garage lift. I havent progressed further on a scissor lift system as our Plus 6 only came home for 6 days and then went back for work on the wiper system. When the P6 returns I need to check the height between the chassis ( platform) lift points and the floor. Although I can get around this as I have 4 low profile wheel ramps that you simply drive up and on. These give about an exta 50mm or so of height. They were developed for low sports cars to allow a jack to get underneath. My second consideration is that my garage work area has a slight slope, as it is a converted stable.. I think the max degree of slope is around 5 deg and ours is more than this, so I may have to come up with a packing system to make the scissor jack and car level.

Thanks Dave, I might progress the quick lift option and do some measuring up. Hope you get the car back soon.

Richard,
Quick thread drift: I have just ordered side pipes from Librands, to fit the existing silencers and now see your oval pipes. Were they a factory fit by any chance ?

Hello Mike, a very late reply ref 4 point jacking. In the end I purchased a Quick Jack for the Plus Six. The model is a BL-3500SLX and lifts upto 1600 Kg. It is portable and easily moved around. The distances between jacking points works on the Plus Six perfectly. The lift has two locking positions at mid and full rise and when locked it can be left safely with the car jacked up. The only downside of the system is making sure each side of the jacking system is in alignment with the Plus Six 4 lift points, the jack comes with two adjusters to help push and pull the lifts into position. Also because the lifts are running down each side of the car access to the centre of the car is only possible from the front or rear, but still plenty of room available. I would say they are ideal to undertake normal maintenance under the car etc, but maybe not the kit to use if you wanted to drop out a gearbox..

Thanks for the reply Dave, not yet taken the plunge but think the quick jack is the way to go, good to have the model number that fits.
Once again thanks
Mike

Apologies for very late reply, only just seen your post and realised it was directed to me. The MMC AR side pipes for my 3.7 Roadster are the factory option but were fitted well after purchase by myself. They include round section silencers with integral side pipes and oval diffusers, similar to standard rear exit ones.



The silencer front caps are removevable, presumably to add/remove baffle material, and have same flared ends to fit directly to CAT's.

Only obstacle with retro fitting is the location of rear support L shaped bracket, bolted to chassis just behind seat cross member. For the shorter AR silencers this bracket needs to be ideally bolted to chassis just in front of cross member as would happen if they were spec'd from new. I found that a considerable amount of work would be required removing seats, belts and trim to access chassis and drill fresh holes.

This is the solution I came up with using thick stainless plate to extend OE mounting forwards and bolts up to provide firm mounting, proven to be fine over time.

Interesting, Dave. I purchased a scissor jack for touring in case I needed to remove a wheel on the road and for wheel removal in my garage so I could clean back of wheels. First time I used it in the approved and reinforced pad, the crank handle of the scissor jack sheared. Now, could just be the crank handle was made of monkey metal but my suspicion is that the amount of effort to raise a scissor jack from an almost flattened position under load is the real issue. I resorted to taking the jack back and buying a two tonne trolley jack for the garage and will use the high quality scissor jack from my Lexus when touring. All wheels removed and cleaned this week, courtesy of the trolley jack.

Porsche used to do a really nice quality scissor jack in alloy, light & yet strong, I managed to buy a used one a few years ago from a specialist breaker which I now keep in the Mog because it's very compact and lightweight