Any thoughts on a decent jack puck or suitable alternative?
Lots of them advertised and a mixture of reviews… as usual.
I use an ebay item No. 282802158999.
Slotted and reinforced Slovakian Vegum hockey puck. It works.
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Hi Ian,
I have a reasonably compliant version… fits nicely on the jack-head ( is that the correct name?)… but not a very good fit for most jack-points on the car I’ve found 
I have a good selection of wood offcuts now… I find them much better fit to the car and spread load better, as long as care taken with their position on the jack-head (hope that’s the right name!). That’s just my own experience…
Cheers, Tim
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I think it’s called a saddle…
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I did think about buying a puck for my newly purchased Halfords jack. I just carried on with what I have, a thick piece of rubber warehouse matting. Cut into small pieces to fit both jack and axle stand saddles they work a treat at preventing any slippage.
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I have the halfords advanced 2 ton trolly jack and this fits it perfectly
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Best approach is having a bunch, imo. I have some that fit nicely onto sill jacking points, (different ones for each car) ones that work great on my jacks, ones that work great on my stands… ANd most of all, Blocks Of Wood tm which are artisanally carved from actual trees, and which can be used to adjust the height of lift perfectly. Of course, at any given moment half of them are lost, or stuck to the underneath of a car and forgotten about, so that’s the other benefit of having lots.
Slightly different Blocks Of Wood as little ramps are tailored for each car so I can drive onto them first, making jacking easier, and allowing more jacking height too.
No such thing as one best one in other words.
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I just use 45x17x500 bit of wood that sits just behind the lip and proud of the sill. It’s the only thing that makes contact with the jack and spreads the load along the sill which MIGHT be counter productive on reflection. Should you really concentrate all the pressure between the two markers?
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Don’t know actually, with these cars. Usually it’s because that part’s far stronger than the rest of the sill, on my subaru it’s as simple as that bit’s weightbearing, the rest of the sill isn’t. But these, especially with Legendary MX5 Build Quality, maybe it could actually help to spread it?
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I too am looking at buying a rubber jack pad for use with my trolley jack when jacking at the prescribed jacking points on the sills. I’ve read about using a hockey puck with a groove cut in it to take the sill seam, and looked at the many ready made rubber jack pads that already have the cut out for the seam.
My question is, is the groove/cut out there to avoid putting any weight on the seam, instead transferring it all to the sill itself? If this is the case, the cut out would need to be wide/deep enough to take the full depth of the seam at the jacking point (which most don’t seem to be).
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Be wary of using rubber pucks on a trolley jack. I bought one of these pucks. It was made of a smooth hard rubber with a slot in for the jacking point seam. However when jacking my other car up to change a wheel the puck slipped off the trolley jack head, luckily the wheel was still on the car. What I found was the puck was hard and shiny so as the jack went up the jack head slipped on the puck instead of the trolley jack wheels moving on the garage floor. I have now gone back to a piece of softwood on the inside of the seam so the jack head grips the wood and the jack wheels move as the jack rises.
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I may be wrong here but surely all the load should be directly on the seam. There are at least 3 sections of steel welded together so this will be much the stronger area. The load will be spread vertically through the outer, inner and central area of the sill construction. Surely much safer than putting all the load just on the inner part of one section of the sill.
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I don’t know about the earlier models but the NC has a flat reinforcement plate on the inner side of the sill seam where the OE jack locates and takes the load. I have a puck with a slot and also a small relief on the outer edge so that all the load is taken on this point. I would not put any load on the pinch weld as the load is concentrated on a very small area which can’'t be good…
Fo
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I appreciate that the load on the jack or puck is along a long thin edge but the load on the car is sent vertically through the strongest part of the sill. Thin sheet is strongest by some margin when you have it on its end.
I will check the ND for this strengthening plate when I next go in the garage,
Perhaps Roadster_Robbie (Mr Marsh) could tell us where Mazda tell you to put the lifting platform when they train their technicians.
From the diagrams in the handbook and online manuals it appears to say use the seam although it is not absolutely clear so willing to be proved wrong.
Having said all the above I have reached a good age without any issues using ‘my’ method so perhaps its not too important as to exactly where you but the strain.
When using a 2 post lift the lifting pads should be positioned at the jacking points that the emergency Jack uses (“pucks” are not specified for a 2 post lift). When using a trolley Jack the centre of the front cross member is specified as the place to lift the front and the brace under the rear differential (ND) or the differential (other models) for the rear. Axle stands should be placed at the emergency jack positions, again no reference to using pucks. There is no instruction to use a trolley Jack at the emergency jack positions.
Who was it on here who attached a photo with chewed up diff seals as evidence of why he is doubtful about the wisdom of using the diff as a jacking point?
Sorry, I don’t know.
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Many thanks for your input.
Just to clarify, the lifting pads will be positioned on the vertical seam?
Thank you.
Yes they would.
From an Owner’s Point of view, the Owner’s Manual states that you should only use the supplied jack and only lift in using those designated positions.
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