Steering Rack Woes

[bottlecapE30]

I tryed to put my car on jack stands today to change the steering rack with a 2.7 turn lock to lock rack. I did evey thing as i normaly do and when i let the jack down from the engine carrier the car tilted foward and the rear wheels started to come of the ground I stopped and jacked it back up. I then tried a few other spots for the jack stands and found my jack will not go high enough to fit the jack stands on the rail behind the cross member. I then tried it by leaving the jack on the carrier but this gave me no room to remove the rack . I guess this means i will be bringing it to a shop to do. does anyone know about how many hours this should be for a shop to do?
I have all the parts i have just given up and don't want to deal with it any more.
In my serching for the jack stand points i found this photo http://www.r3vlimited.com/Tech/Jackpoints.jpg

[cliffybabe]

about 2 hours to fit the rack etc.

I,m going to attemped changing ,mine this weekend Im figuring me doing it myself it will probly take all day 4 hours looking at it then a break, 2 hours taking it apart then a break, then 2 hours re-fitting it then a break, then refilling the fluid and then a road test.

[Widge]

Try putting a block of wood between the car and the jack, this should give you enough room to get the stands on the rails behind the subframe.

[bottlecapE30]

Will try the block of wood idea can't beleive i didn't think of that . If that works then i would think it will take me 2 days as i have a slow learning curve. thanks

[Ziggy]

If that fails, get yourself a new jack! Cheaper than paying a garage & you won't have the same problem next time...