Re: engine hoist

[Simon Favre <simon@domain.elided>]

No, no, no, Bruce. You're doing this all wrong. FIRST you locate the
right garage, THEN look to see if a decent house comes with it. ;=)

There are still a few options to consider. Most of the recent crop of
shop cranes can be had in a fold-up, or knock-down variety that takes
up a lot less space then one like mine does. Folded up, you might
mistake it for a Stair Master. (Lay off the peppermint Schnapps.) You
could also put up a small storage shed in the back yard, or next to
the house to keep the crane and the engine stand in. I have actually
taken my crane apart to put in my truck to pull remote engines. (Have
crane, will travel.) You can also rent such cranes. The rental ones
come with a trailer hitch, so you just hook up and go.

The first Alfa engine I pulled was done with a miserable rope hoist,
attached to flimsy garage ceiling beams that had been very cheaply 
reinforced; I made a "fascia" (in the original sense of the word) out
of angle iron, additional wood beams, and steel wire. I even pulled a
truck engine out with this setup, but murmured prayer was in evidence
on that occasion. Pulling an engine with a ceiling hoist usually means
you have to pull the tranny out from underneath first, along with the
driveshaft, because you need to roll the car back. I don't really like
the idea of a hoist on a rail. I'd find someplace to put the crane.

Bruce Giller wrote:

> We are looking at buying a house that has a 1-car garage.  This means
>that I won't have the floor space for equipment that I only use every
>once in a blue moon.  I need to rebuild the engines in both my Alfas,
>GTV and Spider.  I was thinking of putting a chain hoist (1 ton model)
>in the rafters of the garage to hoist out the engines but this means
>that I'd have to move the car to get the engine out instead of moving
>the hoist.  Then I thought of attaching the hoist to one of the
>old-fashioned barn door tracks with the track attached to the underside
>of the rafters;  maybe a 4 foot length of track would surf ice  But I'm
>not sure how much weight the track and the roller hardware can handle. 
>The Northern Tool & Equipment catalog sells an 'adjustable trolley' that
>runs an I-beam but this means I'd have to mount a heavier I-beam to the
>rafters and the trolley itself looks pretty massive.  Has anyone done
>this with success (and failure)?

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