engine stand

[spider2081]

Soo I got up early and here is my first attempt at posting a photo. I don't feel as comfortable with a computer as I do with a wrench.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3561/331 ... 3064ef.jpg

[mdrburchette]

Here's your picture. If you right click on your picture and go to properties, it'll show you the url address. Copy the url address. When you're writing your message, hit the Img button and paste the url address between the brackets.
Cool looking stand! Mine's used to break in new engines:

[pope]

Denise, do you use a cherry picker to install the engine and trans attached? Do you have to change the angle of the Spider to get the trans to go through the engine compartment? Can you tell us how you do it.
Thanks

[mdrburchette]

Pope, here are a couple pics I took while Ron and I were pulling the engine. In the first one, Ron is disconnecting everything from the tranny area. We had already pulled the radiator, centerlink and everything else to free the engine.


Here are the brackets we made to help lift the engine out:


Here is the engine completely out. Notice we only took the chrome part of the shifter and knob off.


Ron stays under the car and guides the tranny and shifter through the tunnel while I work the cherry picker and pull the engine. A few places where it's a tight fit but will clear if you take it slow is the crank pulley at the radiator support, the oil pan at the radiator support, the cam boxes at the firewall until you get the engine pulled forward a bit and the shifter as it comes out of the tunnel. When the shifter is ready to clear the tunnel,the engine and tranny are at a steep angle and it is imperative that the cherry picker operator is moving the engine forward as well as lifting it. We didn't put one little scratch on my baby and since we had a few practice runs, we were able to pull the engine from start to finish around 30 minutes.

[spider2081]

Thanks Denise,
If I live long enough and keep trying I'll figure posting photos out.
I use a cherry picker and a load leveler. The leveler costs about $60 and I think they are worth the money. They allow one person to change the tilt of the engine and do the lifting. I like to remove the shift lever or the entire shift extension as in the photo. With it off it doesn't get hung up on anything and the tilt of the engine is less.
The box makes it easy to assemble the flywheel/ clutch and tranny.
If I knew a way to run the FI engines before installing them I might be tempted to copy you stand Denise. It looks great.

[pope]

Wow Denise, thats quite an operation. I see you have all 4 corners of the Spider on jack stands?
I have ramps for the front tires, and usually slide under there and remove the trans first. I dont know if I'd have the necessary room to pull the engine and trans together from ramps, but I might.

[mdrburchette]

Yeah, it looks kinda dangerous up there on jack stands but it stays stable while it's being worked on. I've been bugging Ron for a lift but he made the ceiling too low.