Best jack placement

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 7:47 am

Say a guy had nothing better to do than pull off the front forks and replace the seals, which seems to be the going pastime with a lot of us, any tips and tricks for locating the jack? I looked under the bike and between avoiding the pipes, fins, and anything else fragile there didn't seem to be a lot of real estate under there... Embarassed

Any advice, as always, appreciated.

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 7:52 am

On my SOHC 750F, I used to use the oil filter housing. Put a block of wood between it and the jack. Probably NOT something I would recommend for someone else's bike....

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:04 am

For a quick lift , i use a 4x4 block of wood under the side stand and a floor jack under the right frame tube to get the front off the ground.
And the rear i get the floor jack under the center stand mount cause i have no centerstand.

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:15 am

Outback_Jon wrote:

On my SOHC 750F, I used to use the oil filter housing. Put a block of wood between it and the jack. Probably NOT something I would recommend for someone else's bike....

Now THAT'S a goddam manly place to put a jack! Laughing

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:17 am

INTIMIDA2OR wrote:

For a quick lift , i use a 4x4 block of wood under the side stand and a floor jack under the right frame tube to get the front off the ground.
And the rear i get the floor jack under the center stand mount cause i have no centerstand.

I assume, Lee, that you have a willing buddy playing safety catcher for you on this... actually sounds like a perfect solution! beerchug

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:29 am

Ireusa wrote:

INTIMIDA2OR wrote:

For a quick lift , i use a 4x4 block of wood under the side stand and a floor jack under the right frame tube to get the front off the ground.
And the rear i get the floor jack under the center stand mount cause i have no centerstand.

I assume, Lee, that you have a willing buddy playing safety catcher for you on this... actually sounds like a perfect solution! beerchug

Well it's no oil filter housing but i did say quick Laughing

However i have left my bike jacked up like that overnight ,but i jammed the 12 ton floor jack with a 2x4 .
Trust me the bike was not going anywhere and none of the precious engine cases were stressed in the process Cool

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:36 am

Another enthusiastic "Thumbs Up" for the 2x4!
I don't know where we'd be without it.
More uses than duct tape Very Happy

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 9:44 am

As easy as it is to drop the header I am just going to take mine off to put my seals on and paint the header some more at the same time. You know, kill two birds with one stone right?

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 9:48 am

With the bike on the centre stand I put 2 very heavy jacks on the rack of the bike, that got the front wheel in the air Laughing

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 9:55 am

I am thinking that I will just do a black and tackle from a nerby tree. Or just hold the front end up with one hand while drinking a beer and rebuilding the fork in the other hand. I will let you know how that goes. Also what is the record time that Ray has done this in? I wanna know if I beat his time while using the second method.

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 11:41 am

I have stock pipes, I assume you guys all have 4-1s. With the stock pipes I just lift mine by the pipes. The first time I did it, it was scary. but I figure with as many mounting points as the stock pipes have, and the load being spread across all four... Works for me.

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 1:31 pm

I have someone (daughter, wife, neighbour) sit on the passenger seat while the bike's on the centerstand, then I just slide a jackstand under the front two frame tubes.

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 3:13 pm

I made a wooden jig that rides on the two frame rails and has a cross member that drops down below the transmission cover and the 4 into 1 pipe. Place the jig under bike, slide jack under and presto lifto. Laughing

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 7:32 pm

for major work like forks off the bike, i like to use my cherry picker. much more stable and i can take the bike up as far as i need. but i have used blocks and only remove one fork at a time [leaving the other fork as support]. and bike stands and motorcycle jacks are pretty cheap and easy to come by as well. the motorcycle jack i have i just put a 4X4 on one side of the bike and let the header pipe sit on the other side with a piece of wood trim between the pipe and frame on that side. good header pipes should be stout enough to take that much weight, you just need to keep it from stretching the mounts on the head.
but the best place for Jack is in a short glass with ice and a nice Don Diago Wink