How Badly Have I Screwed Up?

[postoak]

I just tried to jack up the passenger rear side of my Tahoe and I put the jack under some kind of stamped metal arm that goes back to the axle, and it bent a little. Is this going to cause problems? Where am I supposed to put the jack -- under the housing at the base of the shock?

 

[postoak]

Does anyone even know the name of that part? I was watching this video on changing the rear brakes, and if you look at 1:57, you can see the part and this guy actually has his jack stand under it. It looks like an I-beam in that video, but it is actually stamped steel in a deep U shape with the bottom of the U on the top.

Changing rear brake pads and rotors

 

[samotahoe]

sounds like you were jacking up the trailing arm. that can mess with alignment a lil, but its mainly to keep the rear end from twisting under load. think of it as a stabilizer bar on each side of the truck.... as far as where to put the jack, if you crawl under the truck there is this big bar that runs from the front of the truck to the back on each side. its called the frame. thats where you want to put the jack and stands. if you get all four wheels off the ground then you should have a total of four stands at least. hope this helps..... oh and as for using the bottom shock mount to jack the rear end, you can but at the same time you risk damaging it, so y risk it when you can just use the guarantee which is frame.

 

[postoak]

Trailing arm, thanks!

Actually I thought that WAS part of the frame when I was doing it. Since this error, I looked in the manual and see that they recommend putting the jack under the rear axle and in the front under the frame where two of the frame members overlap.

 

[samotahoe]

good to go