Re: Engine Hoist - fixed or on tracks?

["Jay Mackro" <jmackro@domain.elided>]

Giller,Bruce had written:

> 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 

Bruce:

I have removed - and replaced - engines from 101, 105, and 115 Alfas
multiple times, using a hoist that was fixed to the garage joist.  As
you note, the car needs to be rolled backwards.  While having a
movable hoist would certainly be better, using a fixed one is really
no big deal.

The potential problem with using a fixed hoist is that the center tie
rod needs to be out of the way in order to allow the flywheel and
bellhousing to move forward.  And, of course, it's kind of a pain to
push a car with no steering.  My trick to solve this (an I apoligize
to those who have read this countless times here, but I'm just so
PROUD of having thought it up <after doing it the hard way any
number of times>), is to pop the steering arm off the shaft of the
steering box, push the center link + left side link down, pull the
engine out enough to clear, and then temporarily re-attach the
steering arm.  The car can now be easily pushed around.  
Reverse the process when re-installing the engine + transmission.  

Oh, and don't forget to properly re-torque the nut holding the arm 
to the steering box, and to use a fresh cotter pin.  This technique
doesn't mess up your alignment, and I have found it easier to
press the oily steering arm off the sector shaft, than to pop
the dry, slightly rusted tie rod ends out of the steering arms.

Those who remove the engine and transmission separately can
ignore all this - I think that's the more difficult approach, but
don't want to get into a holy war over it.

Regards and Happy New Year

Jay Mackro

------------------------------