Think I'm gonna get a transmission jack. Was rolling around under the car tonight and just didn't feel comfortable with my block of wood and cheapo car jack to hold the tranny up. What do you guys recommend? Want to be able to remove transmission cross member so I can access some stuff, and need to be able to hold the transmission up while the car is on a lift. Also, Is this safe?

 

As long as you're not removing the trans from the chassis, the jack and wood is fine. It's not going anywhere if you're just removing the x-member.

Just be conscious of the distributor hitting the firewall.

 

doing that with a lift isnt working very well. lift is in the way and have to crawl too low. Tried yesterday and decided I'm too old for that.

These look like they would be handy for all sorts of things.

 

I forget the brand but mine is blue. Only issue is that I have to bring the car down one notch from the top for the jack to reach. I also flipped the Legs so the casters are a bit lower to get some more height.... But then I'm 6'4"....

 

Does it look like these ? I may have seen your review on Amazon. Do u like it?

 

For most of us, a trip to the rental yard every few years is a better idea than buying one outright. They're BIG and HEAVY and EXPENSIVE for something you only use on (hopefully) rare occasions.

 

The Sunex one you linked to on Amazon is quite good overall. Fit and finish could be better but we have used that one in my shop now for several years. Probably done 500 transmissions with it. No problems really. Not at all a bad tool. We use it mostly on Subaru transaxles which are a lot heavier than any of the GM 2WD stuff as they incorporate a trans, front diff, center diff and transfer section in a unified case.

GD

 

Yes I love it! I just wish it when about 4" higher but have never found one that goes more than about 70-71".
But that's just because I'm tall.

 

The Sunex goes to 74" and it's much better. I'm also tall and prior to the Sunex I did have to crouch when using our old jack. I don't find this to be as much of a problem anymore...... of course I rarely use it personally these days. Mostly it's my tech's that are using it and they are all shorter than me so it hasn't been a concern for them. They ask me to look at things I have to have them raise the lift to "adult height" so I can get in there to inspect.

GD

 

right now height isn't a concern, I'm under 6 and my lift height is limited due to ceiling (that needs cut

I'm thinking it could be used for other things, like to stabilize the car when yanking on something hard (a bolt) or maybe even help lower/install the differential.

Think it could do all these things?

 

Sure. It can be used for all those things.

GD

 

The Harbor freight jacks are surprising good but I've never used their tall jacks as I do all my work on jack stands (trust me if my home shop roof was high enough I would buy a lift). Their expensive ($600) one will go 79.5 inches, cheap one is 70.75 inches.

 

I would personally use a non hydrallic support jack for the "I'm removing something that will change the balance of the car situations"

 

I did consider the non-hydraulic option, just wondering how big of a concern that needs to really be. your link points back to sunex equipment.

 

I bought mine when the kids moved out and I had to put the 700r4 in myself.... Just like the lift I don't know how I got along without it... Forget what I paid in 2016 got it but it was around $200 don't look at the $500+ ones as it's only used 1-2 times a year...

 

I agree with you on the usage frequency. top priority is safety, and then money. how does one know?

 

Agree on that, hoping it will find other uses. Plus I don't have a truck to go get stuff like this, another big heavy, expensive thing to be sitting around. keep threatening my wife I'm gonna trade her car in for a truck.

 

This is TECHNICALLY the wrong tool for the job, but it works great and I've never used anything else for any transmission on any car:

Motorcycle/ATV jack. They are cheap. I have two that were $25 used and $80 new. It's a nice big surface area with some decent weight capacity. Depending on transmission you may not need anything else, or you need to pull pan and filter, or you need to spend 5 minutes and cut wood blocks/brackets to get a good jacking surface.

With both available to me, I use the cheaper smaller one more often than the heavier duty one because it fits around frames and exhausts easier.

 

When you are working on the ground , you know , on jackstands or tire ramps or such , sure I can see a motorcycle jack working fine . But the OP is working under a 4 post lift which has the car 6 feet in the air , and I've never seen a motorcycle jack that will go 6 feet high . Earlier in the thread they were talking about transmission jacks able to reach 72 inches , that's 6 feet , and at that height it's gotta be safety first (as also mentioned earlier in the thread) and a specific purpose built tool

 

I was wondering about motorcycle lifts because of the price. The thing about all these tools is you gotta have room for them, so you need to find the one that is most versatile and can perform many different jobs - then it can earn its rightful place to take up valuable storage space in the garage.