Underneath the Beast; a Tour of the Dark Side

My Nissan Leaf Forum

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Herm said:
IMO I would just carry an extra can of tire sealer just in case.. only time in my long driving career that did not work is when I ran over a piece of 1/2" rebar sticking out of the ground. You really wont get too far from civilization with a Leaf.
Reminds me of a time someone decided to drop off their aluminum ladder in the middle of the interstate. Ended up with two flat tires!
 
Are there places where a floor jack could be used? (not including the lift point under the doors). The 2011 service manual shows two spots (front and rear), but I think the manual is wrong.

I'd like to get the whole car off the ground using a floor jack and four jack stands, leaving the wheels free.

Thanks for the great pics!
 
mcochris said:
Are there places where a floor jack could be used? (not including the lift point under the doors). The 2011 service manual shows two spots (front and rear), but I think the manual is wrong.
Yeah, the pics (page GI-42) looks wrong. Certainly, the pic of the rear shows the lift point being near a differential, a drive shaft, and two cat converters and exhaust pipes!

mcochris said:
I'd like to get the whole car off the ground using a floor jack and four jack stands, leaving the wheels free.

Thanks for the great pics!
Just curious: why do you need four wheels in the air at the same time?

The service manual shows use of "board-on lift attachments" between the door sill lift points and a "board-on lift". (It's apparently a generic Nissan pic that's also used for, for example, "2009 Nissan-Datsun Altima V6-3.5L (VQ35DE)". I have a similar adapter for my hydraulic jack.

When I need to get both wheels on the same side in the air at the same time (e.g. rotating tires), I jack the car up at the front door sill jack point high enough so both front and rear wheels come off the ground.

When I need to get both wheels at one end in the air at the same time (e.g. when changing the anti-roll bar) I put the jack under the A arm, jack the car up, put the jack stand in at the sill, and repeat for the other side. For stability and safety and longevity of the door sill jack point, I use a home-made "adapter block" between the jack stand's head and the sill:
 
Thanks for the detailed info Andy. I want to get all four wheels off the ground to make it easier to move around and work under the car, apply undercoating, work on the back of the wheels, brake lines, drive boots, etc. It's not necessary to airborne the whole car by the frame, but it makes some things easier.

There may be a way to get the car off the ground by the wheels (e.g. ramps) but I don't know an inexpensive way to do that for all four wheels at the same time.
 
aqn said:
When I need to get both wheels on the same side in the air at the same time (e.g. rotating tires), I jack the car up at the front door sill jack point high enough so both front and rear wheels come off the ground.
This is what I did the other day when rotating my tires. Lift up the front high enough so that the rear just comes off the ground. By then it's high enough to slip a jack stand under the rear seam and lower the front a bit which picks the rear tire off the ground a bit more. Problem is that it doesn't make getting a jack stand under the front seam easy so you have to hold the car with the hydraulic jack which isn't recommended.

Got a better pic of your seam adapter? The one I have could fit a bit better!

I looked briefly under the front a-arms but I didn't see any obvious points that looked beefy enough to support the car. My last 2 cars had easy front/rear lift points for jacking which I took for granted!

Google turns up a few adapters which might help for getting one side of the car up on jack stands easily:

Couple of these: http://flyinmiata.com/?deptid=5673&stocknumber=35-70000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
One of these: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-918008/?rtype=10" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Doubt that 34" is long enough, though - probably need at least 55" or so? The Flyin' Miata guys say that their adapter is good enough to left one side of the whole car, but don't know if the LEAF's sills are reinforced enough in the middle to do the same.
 
drees said:
Got a better pic of your seam adapter? The one I have could fit a bit better!
"Better pic"? Better how? Everything I've got is in the wiki:
Jacking up a LEAF

There are diagrams for a "jack block" as well as its Google Sketch-Up schematic.
Let me know if you need something else.

How I use it:


drees said:
I looked briefly under the front a-arms but I didn't see any obvious points that looked beefy enough to support the car.
I generally put the jack's head at the inboard end of the A arm, or on the subframe, like this, on my old VW. If there's not a convenient spot, I'd put a length of 2x4 under the A arm spanning the bushings at its inboard end, at the two white arrows' end in the following pic, from http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2011/03/2011-nissan-leaf-suspension-walkaround.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;:


drees said:
Google turns up a few adapters which might help for getting one side of the car up on jack stands easily:

Couple of these: http://flyinmiata.com/?deptid=5673&stocknumber=35-70000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
One of these: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-918008/?rtype=10" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Doubt that 34" is long enough, though - probably need at least 55" or so? The Flyin' Miata guys say that their adapter is good enough to left one side of the whole car, but don't know if the LEAF's sills are reinforced enough in the middle to do the same.
Yeah, Miatas are like 2600-2800 lbs. The LEAF is at least 3350 lbs. which at least an extra 275-375 lbs per side. I suppose one can lift the car slowly and let it back down quickly if there are creaking or crumbling sound or if the sill starts to buckle :D . I kinda think it'd be OK since the sill is part of the side's perimeter and would need to be strong to resist a big side impact. OTOH, I don't want to be the first to find out that it's a bad idea to jack a LEAF up at the middle of the sill! :D

I wouldn't go with the Miata adapter since the LEAF as a little hump on the inside of the pinch weld at the jack point, which would prevent equal contact with the sill on either of the weld. My jack block accounts for that hump.
 
aqn said:
< cut >
Everything I've got is in the wiki:
Jacking up a LEAF

There are diagrams for a "jack block" as well as its Google Sketch-Up schematic.
Let me know if you need something else.

How I use it:

Hi aqn,

Will using 2 cheap 1.5 ton rapid floor jacks simultaneously be safe enough to do tire rotations? Harbor Freight sells the 1.5 ton for quite cheap. I already have one, and was thinking of picking up another one of those.

I just never liked using the cheaper standalone jack stands.
 
that is what i have used for years. not sure of the rating on them but i found it to be a quick and easy job. nowadays, it takes me about 20 minutes but in my younger days i could do it in 12-13 minutes rotating all 4 tires.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
that is what i have used for years. not sure of the rating on them but i found it to be a quick and easy job. nowadays, it takes me about 20 minutes but in my younger days i could do it in 12-13 minutes rotating all 4 tires.

Thanks for your reply Dave.

I was a bit worried hence asking the question as the 1.5 ton Harbor Freight rapid jack limit was close to the curb weight of the Leaf (approx 3,300 pounds).
 
mxp said:
I was a bit worried hence asking the question as the 1.5 ton Harbor Freight rapid jack limit was close to the curb weight of the Leaf (approx 3,300 pounds).
That would definitely be a concern if you were trying to lift all four wheels with a single jack. But I think there would be much more serious balancing/tipping concerns with a strategy like that. :shock:

Ray
 
mxp said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
that is what i have used for years. not sure of the rating on them but i found it to be a quick and easy job. nowadays, it takes me about 20 minutes but in my younger days i could do it in 12-13 minutes rotating all 4 tires.

Thanks for your reply Dave.

I was a bit worried hence asking the question as the 1.5 ton Harbor Freight rapid jack limit was close to the curb weight of the Leaf (approx 3,300 pounds).

only one tire goes off the ground...not to worry ya, but i HIGHLY recommend you not lift more than 75% of the rated. so if rated at 1.5 tons that is only 3000 lbs. i would go no more than 2250 anyway. besides, by lifting one tire on a 3300 lb car, the actual "balancing" force is only 400-500 lbs onto the jack. lift the entire side with two jacks and the entire force is only about 300 lbs per jack and the higher you jack up the car the lower the resting force on the jack and so on...

My Brother was a tire store manager. he was source of a lot of interesting random tire stuff.
 
TonyWilliams said:
Drive motor, looking aft:


IMG_0676.jpg



Looking right to left; Right half shaft leaving gear box, aft of motor. Steering rack and pinion is aft (left in the picture):

Whoa. There's a a scan square on there. Whyyyyyy?
 
Mauileaf said:
Whoa. There's a a scan square on there. Whyyyyyy?
Scan it ant find out :lol: Looks like a normal QR code to me. Probably the VIN and/or inventory information.
=Smidge=
 
Thanks for the pics. Let the mods begin. it's like starting the hotrod age over again. We can't even get to 100 mph just like the early 50's. Hot Rodding will be wild and unpredictable again, that is so cool.

You can see the aft motor mount in this pic also; there are three, and they are HUGE for such a tiny horsepower engine. - The torque is only 207 lb. ft, but it comes full on at 0 rpm. In addition there is no softening of the application of torque like a clutch or torque converter. Remember the Tesla/Lotus conversion started out with a 2 speed transmission but they axed it because it kept breaking.

If a 225/55-R18 tire and wheel combo could fit in the wheel wells, the top speed would rise from 92 to 102.6. Not sure what effect it would have on range, handling, and the ECU. I just hate the fact that it gets the lowest top speed "black mark" in the CD road test summary.
 
ALF said:
Thanks for all the photos! I thought that it looked more like this:

Pa170312b.jpg


I think that's the beginning of a PHEV F150. Just put the new compact 1.0L 123HP ecoboost up front and a 60-80KW battery in between.
 
I hope you got it all back together LOL

Nice tour that many of us would never see. I'd like more of the battery pack and electronics myself. :mrgreen:
 
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