I decided to pain my brakes silver. I had painted the Eurovan’s red and that was easy so I thought that this would be easy also. Now I have one silver and one black with brake dust. When the sun shines again and after I get a better jack I’ll do the other one.

I put the bus in park, emergency brake on and loosened the lug bolts slightly, and wheeled my high lift jack under a lift point and raised the bus. Hmm, not good enough. A 20 inch jack won’t get the Sprinter off the front tire.

I pulled out the Sprinter’s jack, made sure the pressure release thingy was tight, put it under the lift point and started to jack. I am used to my high jack which reaches maximum height in 2 strokes. The Sprinter’s jack must take something like 100 strokes.  Finally I got the jack up to about 22 inches and was able to gently remove the wheel.

At 22 inches, the jack stands were an inch too short, and the jack was leaning. The bottom of the jack, by-the-way, is not flat so it wobbles around and being almost maxed out (24 inches is the maximum height) even the hydraulic lifters looked stressed.

If at all possible, never use the jack that came with the Sprinter. If you have to use it, set it on a wooden block so it does not have to extend so far. Never go under the Sprinter while it is on a jack. I wouldn’t use the stock jack in a high wind even – looks so precarious to me. If I have a flat on the road I will for sure use a Road Service. I some how ended up with 2 – Progressive and GoodSam.

Now to find some 2″ wooden blocks so I can finish painting the brakes.