Engine stand blues

[frankendat]

I bought a used engine stand of Marketplace and was pleased that it is older, thicker, heavy duty then the HF engine stands I was considering. But, I might have screwed myself. Are there different engine stands for foreign and domestic. The stand has the 4 adjustable bolt holders and I fought with it for hours trying to get them to line up with holes in the block, without success. I don't have an engine hoist and wrestled the engine into a wheel barrow, using 2x4's for levers to lift it up to the stand. I'm lucky no one called the cops, as to those passing by, I probably looked like a monkey vigorously making love to a football.

In the end, I put bolts, through the bolt holders into the bottom 2 holes in the block and used a ratchet strap to secure the engine to the stand at the top. What engine stand magic am I missing?

[ratpatrol66]

Post up some pictures of what you have now that you can.

[frankendat]

Hopefully, these photos will explain my problem. The bottom 2 bolts are anchored in the bottom 2 bellhousing holes. The top 2 are unreachable by either of the remaining (will call them "bolt holder tubes". The problem is that the bolt holder tubes are designed to move around the outside of the engine stands mounting wheel. Pic "stand" shows the mounting wheel and

and Pic "Stand1" is a side view, showing how the bolt holder tubes are longer to slide on the wheel edge. Like a rubic's cube, I tried many, many different combinations, but never found a setup that allowed more than two (of the four) mounting bolts to connect. Since the bolt holder tubes cannot move inside of the mounting wheel, I haven't been able to get all 4 connected. Either, this stand is not made for smaller engines, or I am making a dumb ass mistake. Hopefully, the later, because dumb can be fixed.

[wayno]

You need to slide the bottom brackets that are bolted to the engine in closer to the pivot, they are extended all the way out, all 4 brackets need to be sticking out past the round center piece evenly, it will be very difficult to do this with the engine stand taking the weight of the engine, maybe you can use the tailgate of a truck to rest the engine on so you can start over.

Basically you need to loosen all 4 of them bolts/nuts that hold the bolt holder tubes on the circle, adjust the bolt holder tubes over each block mount point and put a bolt finger tight in each point finger tight at the most, center the tube that is part of the circle piece in the center of all 4 mount points and then tighten all 8 nuts and bolts, then put it back onto the stand.

[Ranman72]

stand the engine on its nose if possible and do everything wayno said 

start with everything loose 

stands are made universal and i haven't seen one that wouldn't bolt up to almost any configuration 

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Ranman72

[frankendat]

2 hours ago, wayno said:

You need to slide the bottom brackets that are bolted to the engine in closer to the pivot, they are extended all the way out, all 4 brackets need to be sticking out past the round center piece evenly, it will be very difficult to do this with the engine stand taking the weight of the engine, maybe you can use the tailgate of a truck to rest the engine on so you can start over.

Basically you need to loosen all 4 of them bolts/nuts that hold the bolt holder tubes on the circle, adjust the bolt holder tubes over each block mount point and put a bolt finger tight in each point finger tight at the most, center the tube that is part of the circle piece in the center of all 4 mount points and then tighten all 8 nuts and bolts, then put it back onto the stand.

 

Thank you for replying Wayno. Sounds like I cornholed the mounting (that was as polite, as I could say it) and I am going to have to enlist a neighbors and/or get a hoist, because this isn't a one man operation. So, correct sequence, the engine is hanging from a hoist, I lower it into position to mount on the stand; line up/center bolt holders with mounting holes, tighten bolts holding bolt holders, then slide bolts through bolt holders and into the block (finger tight) Bob's your uncle and the engine is mounted.

 

Hopefully, my solo scab attempt hasn't damaged the block. I used the bolts that go through the bolt holders, in combination with ratchet straps, to move the engine off a wheel barrow onto the engine stand---way more than finger tight.  I eyeball centered the engine stand and loosened the bolts that hold the bolt holders, one at a time, lined them up and installed bolts into block and tightened, first the bolt into the block and next the bolt holding the bolt holder. If the aforementioned process started on the bottom two bolt holes in the block, then I could not get the bolt holders to line up with the bolt holes at the top; If I started at the top, then the bottom holes wouldn't line up.

If I understand the sequence you recommend (as outlined in the first paragraph), with the engine supported securely (and without effort) in front of the engine stand, positioning the bolt holders will be obvious.

Thank you again, for guidance.

[frankendat]

5 minutes ago, Ranman72 said:

stand the engine on its nose if possible and do everything wayno said 

start with everything loose 

stands are made universal and i haven't seen one that wouldn't bolt up to almost any configuration 

 

That's intriguing...the "nose" part isn't 100% clear. Do you mean, get the engine block resting on it's front (where the fan attaches) on a table or bench, tip the stand up, lay it on the block and connect?

[ratpatrol66]

That is an interesting face plate on your stand, I have seen worse. You should be able to make it work like the others said.

[wayno]

This is how I do mine, first I remove the part(mount assembly) that bolts to the engine from the stand and loosen all the nuts/bolts so each arm moves freely, then I  put it on the engine finger tight using the transmission mount bolts, you can see how the upper arms are extended out because the upper arms are taking the weight of the part(mount assembly), then I lift the part(mount assembly) up to center it on the engine(I go as high as I can) and I tighten the 4 nuts/bolts on the part(mount assembly), then I tighten the mount bolts in the tubes onto the block, then when done it can be slid into the engine stand like the guy did in the video and then I let the stand take the engine weight.

This is how I do it, my part(mount assembly) is not like yours but as mentioned engine stands like yours and mine are made to be used on all normal size engines, as we are not talking about a semi truck diesel engine here, mine has another set of holes to make it more adjustable, yours has slotted holes to make it more adjustable, mine looks home made, yours looks professionally made, I would rather have yours except for I suspect mine has the engine up higher so I don't have to bend over, that is nice.

[frankendat]

Thank you all for the informative replies. My stand is configured a little different and I did not realize the mount assembly could be removed from the stand, that is going to greatly simplify the process. I can't wait to get home tonight and apply this new knowledge. Thanks again

[Ranman72]

yes if it can be stood on the front of the engine so the back of the motor is flat and on the top it will allow for easier movement of the arms 

but the motor can be in any position and definitely remove the mounting plate from the stand itself 

[frankendat]

Success and a couple of questions. First, the stand is sorted! After monkeying around with it for far too long, I discovered the mounting plate is on a threaded bolt and screws out (first image). Mounting the plate to the engine and then placing the engine on the stand was much better.

 

In the second image, I circled the mounting plate for the flywheel. Do I need to remove this to remove the crankshaft? If yes, then do remove it with a gear puller?

 

In the third imaged, I circled the last crankshaft bracket. Do I need to remove this to remove the crankshaft? If yes, then what are the steps to remove it?

 

Thank you for showing the way

 

 

[frankendat]

Update:  It was necessary to remove the engine from the stand to access the pieces pictured above. There is a bushing inside the metal disk, where the fan mounts. To remove the bushing requires a special tool. I tried a method discovered on youtube that entailed stuffing the hole with bread to push the bushing out. The bread trick was unsuccessful. I removed the bushing by sawing through it with a hacksaw blade and freeing it with a small chisel.

 

While working on removing the fan mount, I discovered the answer to my other questions. There is a small section of the engine block that removes, the section circled in red in the picture above and frees the crankshaft, allowing it to be lifted out. I will post other engine questions in another thread.