Jacks

[Jeff W.]

Does anyone have the history line on the dating of jacks? Specifically, when did the dating change from year/month to month/year?
thanks
Jeff

[D S.]

Re: Jacks

I'm going out on a limb here and say that I believe 1967 was the last year of the Month/Year stamp such as B7. In 1968 they start showing up as Year/Month such as 8C and this seems to follow that trend through 1977. In a previous post I made about the 'A' on the jacks Joe Lucia provided a lot of insight into the jack date coding. I was only aware of a two character date code stamping until some started showing up with four character date codes stamped on another area of the jack such as 0A31. I assumed this practice began in 1978 through 1982 to avoid confusion with the 1968-1972 date coding. I also assume that the jacks that were manufactured by Ausco were shipped to the GM Corvette plant and were date stamped there as the cars were being produced.

The jack 'A' conversation I posted got me to doing a bit of research which is not revealing a whole lot of information yet but here is what CEO Dennis Houseworth of U. S. Jacks recently wrote me:

<Dear Scott, Sorry for the delay in answering you but I have been in Florida for 2 weeks. I worked for Ausco at two different times. (1970-1974) and 1984-1988) which at that time I purchased Their Aftermarket Jack business. Being a former owner of three mid year corvettes I have always had an interest in them. I have two original jack drawings from Ausco that I sell copies of for $75.00 each. They are drawing 1104 which shows load curves, durability testing, material specs, part numbers, date code info , and a layout of the jack showing bthe stamped A on the load pad. Thia drawing is for the 1969model. The other drawing that I have is for 1965,66,67 which contains the same basic info. Contact me with check or credit card if interested. Remember, Ausco did not always build the handles for these nor did they always build all the corvette jacks. There competitors were Seeburn in Canada, and Universal tool and stamping in Butler, In.(purchased by Dura corp and recently sold to a company from India ) Regards Dennis>

Once I learn more, Jeff, I will share it here on the NCRS TDB. I hope others will add to this information.

[Ray G.]

Re: Jacks (Did anyone buy a drawing ?)

Hello;
Curious, if anybody bought the 65-7 drawing.
Thanks
Ray

[D S.]

Re: Jacks

I don't know why Mr. Houseworth offered those copies of drawings. I asked for information regarding date stamping on the '63-'67, '68-'77, and '78-'82. For someone on the TDB the drawings might be helpful and even some of the jack manufacturer history as well. After I sent the request to him I realized that the jacks may have been sent to GM and the date stamping was performed there, not at Ausco. I was probably barking up the wrong tree but maybe got some useful information to be shared anyway. At least I'm learning something from this.

[Jeff W.]

Re: Jacks

Has there also been an inconsistency in the depth of the stamps? The 0B that I just sold had a deep stamp and I looked at several 2E and F (bought a 2E) had very light stamps to the point that I am probably not going to repaint the area of the stamp in fear that it will not show.
Thanks
Jeff