New bendpak lift, a couple of issues

So I just got my HD-9 installed today. It wasn't the lift I wanted or ordered, but it is the one I received. Oh well, it will work. I do have a couple of questions though.

1. The lift will not go all the way down. It stops about 1.5 inches off the ground. There are no obstructions, it just doesn't want to drop to the ground. I haven't tried driving a car onto the lift yet, just worried something isn't right. Should I loosen the cables? Will they stretch when I drive the car onto the lift?

2. How the heck do I park a car underneath when the ramps drop down so much? Do I need to remove them each time I raise the lift?

Pics will be coming soon, since I know you all like pics.

What ? You ordered a lift and didn't get the one you ordered ? You went ahead and installed it anyway ?

if its not the one you ordered then its free

I wanted the revision M of the hd-9, the one that is 7" narrower than the standard hd-9. I emailed Bendpak in April asking if it was available, and was told that it was in stock. I ordered from a local distributor, again asking specifically for the rev. M version. Of course, when I got the lift delivered, it was the standard width rather than the rev. M version. After contacting the place of purchase, who then contacted Bendpak, turns out the rev. M is not available and apparently won't be until July. So I was stuck with what I have. It fits in the garage, but it isn't the ideal size. I figured it's better to have a lift now rather than the hassle of sending it back and waiting.

Pics

Pics. Everyone loves pictures.

The Fit first. My dog Jack approves.


You can see that it isn't going all the way down.


About as high as this car can go, without closing the garage door.


Son of a B***h!


Okay, back it on.




How the heck do you park anything underneath with these in the way?


The RJ45 clears the undercarriage nicely.


Now the NSX has 3 lift points under each side. The idea is to use a jack under the middle lift point and lift one side of the car, slip jackstands under the two outer points, then repeat on the other side.


So I was thinking of using the bridge jack under the middle lift point and lift the entire car with it, then slip jackstands under the outer lift points. This is assuming that the middle lift points line up with the car's centre of gravity. Good idea?


View of the amount of space between the lift and the Fit. It's not bad.


Here is where the Revision M would help.


Overall view of the garage.

Looks good but I agree the rev m prolly would have been a slightly better fit. Love the porcelain (for the win!)

Awesome NSX! Lol

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

I see what you mean by the fit of the slightly wider lift....but that exta width might actually be a help one day.

The droopy ramps. I'm sure they do that for safety reasons, as they become a "chock" of sorts. I bought the extra cost ramp locks to be able to double park without removing the ramps....but they drop too far anyhow to double park. I'm going to figure something out. (I can raise my lift to max height and I still can't sneak a Viper underneath)

As far as your clearance when pulling on...you likely should have ordered the longer, optional ramps. They are about a foot longer....and I can pull the Vipers on with no issue. Of course, the longer ramps hang down further when the lift is raised.

Not going all the way down. I installed my own...and I'd bet the cables are slightly too tight. If you paid for the install....get them back to fix it.

Try putting a pice of 1x under the end of the ramp and see if your car will clear.
I put 3/4" plywood squares under my posts on my porcelain/ceramic floor.

Very cool looking. What is your ceiling height? Mike

Wish i had something helpful to contribute but its out of my realm. Its crazy how you have both ends of the Honda spectrum.

I believe the front spoiler clearance issue you have is because the lift is sitting too high when it's down. That causes the ramps to be at too much of an angle and the ends sit too proud and rub the bottom of your bumper. If your lift sat on the ground when lowered, that would not happen.

Looking at the adjusting bolts at the top of the towers, you appear to have enough threads left to adjust the cables correctly and lower the lift. I don't believe the cables will stretch enough to make up for that amount of misadjustment and it's not acceptable to have the weight of a car suspended on the cables at all times. the lift needs to be left either on a safety stop when up in the air or on the ground when lowered completely.

So, yes, your lift is not installed correctly. It should sit on the ground (or more correctly, it should sit on the pads of the towers) when fully lowered. I believe that's an issue with your cables being misadjusted. Your installers probably paid too much attention to it being level and the safety locks engaging simultaneously (all four should "ping" at the same time as it goes up) and too little attention to the lift being on the ground when at rest. It's a simple fix but one which needs to be done.

As for your ramps hanging too low, you have two choices. The first is to invest in aluminum ramps that are easy to install and remove when you are storing a car on the lift. The second is to buy the ramp brackets that Bend-Pak sells. They install on the hinge pin of the ramp and keep the ramps from sagging too much when the lift is raised. The ramps will still sag a bit (they need to, to adjust to the floor), but you will gain a great deal of clearance when the brackets are installed. With the brackets installed on my HD-9, I have enough clearance to drive my '67 Mustang under a stored car.

Enjoy your lift--I love my HD-9. BTW, love the NSX. It's almost like you own the George Milton and Lennie Small of the Honda world.

HTH, James.

Thanks everyone for your help. I did adjust the cables, and got it down to the floor with the exception of one corner, where I'm just short another 1/2" and ran out of cable. Hopefully the cables will stretch somewhat in the coming days. I put some scrap 3/4" plywood under the ramps and that helps, but I will be buying the longer aluminum ramps in the future since they seem to be designed to be removed rather than being on all the time.

SILVERPLATE said:

Very cool looking. What is your ceiling height? Mike

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Mike, the ceiling height is 10' and I lose about 9" when the garage door is up. When I was in the planning stages of this house, I initially was set on getting the Maxjax lift, since I liked the idea of being able to unbolt it and move it to the side when I'm done. Then I started reading more about 4-post lifts on this forum, and then I started going back and forth on whether I wanted a 4-post or 2-post lift. Spent a lot of time with a measuring tape, trying to picture the lifts in the garage and seeing how they would fit. That was when I really regretted not putting in a higher ceiling. Oh well, I can still fit another car underneath, as long as it is pretty low. And as luck would have it, I think the next-gen NSX would fit quite nicely in that spot...

We have really low cars here, and have to stick 2x6's under the ramps just to level out the tabs on the other end to not rub

You'll have to get the locks, or make some kind of locks to hold them mostly straight out so that they don't hang down

As far as lifting the "middle" jack points, that should be ok since it's fairly close to the rear end of the car, but you want to try to avoid having the bridge jack right in the middle of the lift if you can help it, so just check about where it falls

How wide is that garage? Looks like the perfect width for those who don't have the space for the larger garages we often see on here.

Your lift not going all of the way down is something that is "normal" to me. I see it all of the time.

I see the problem...That place is just way to clean and organized!! Hell you probably can actually find things in there!

apexit1 said:

How wide is that garage? Looks like the perfect width for those who don't have the space for the larger garages we often see on here.

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Garage is 24' wide x 26' deep, with an 18' door. It's a comfortable size for a 2-car garage. Of course, I would have loved to make it bigger. Given the width, the Rev. M of the hd-9 really is a perfect size for the garage; not too narrow like the hd9st, not too wide like the standard hd9. It's amazing how much difference a few inches make.

here is what I did with my ramps.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146476

Crusty, I love that ramp prop idea. I might have to steal that.