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Platform size for engine lift

I'm dropping my engine next week. Spectators are urged to stay at least

10 meters back. Helpful suggestions will be considered. Shouting, jeering, and heckling will be met with stony silence at the best, and an offer to duke it out at the worst.

Costco has a reasonably-priced ATV jack that I plan to put a rectangle of plywood on top of to put the Type 1 engine on. Haul that thing out, stick on the missing cooling bits, take the throttle body off the right-hand Kadron and install the new one with vac port, drop one of the shoot springs ("Shoot, where did that spring go?"), change out the distributor, see what kinda condition the clutch and TO bearing are in (image of chimp studying mechanical part with furrowed brow and chin in hand) . . . heck, adjust the valves while I am at it. In general, get into a whole lotta trouble.

Question: is there a standard, recommended size for the plywood platform?

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot
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Actually, you would be better off making a frame of 2x2" or 2x4" (using the 2" side). A flat platform will likely wobble, letting the engine tilt or fall off. I have one in the snowed-in shed but if nobody else comes up with the dimensions, I'll shovel it out and measure. Later.

Reply to
jjs

So we want to set the engine in a pocket. Can the 2x4 frame be fastened to a rectangle of plywood - in other words, is the 2'' (1-5/8ths'') side high enough to cup the engine, or do I need to cut a hole in the middle of the plywood platform so the engine's middle bits can hang down farther?

Any help in this regard would be appreciated -- the goal is to concentrate on the engine work -- not on R&D of a mounting surface.

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot

Bout 6" x 6". I have one on my floor jack. Just take out the little round thingie that comes on the jack's jackpoint, and get a piece of 1/2" to 3/4" plywood about 6x6 inches, drill a hole in the center, find a bolt about 1/4 to 3/8" threads and maybe an inch or two long, countersink the bolt's head below the surface of the wood by chiseling out a nice countersink space, then bolt the wood platform on your jack. The bolt goes through the wood platform from the top, and a nut will hold it on from underneath on the jack's jackpoint, minus the jack's little circular thingie! ;-)

John Kuthe...

Reply to
John Kuthe

I have dropped and installed a couple of engines with a cheap floor jack and a piece of plywood about the size of my 15 inch monitors screen.., a square maybe 10 or 12 inches wide... it balances just fine if you place the jack right on the oil drain.

Reply to
Eduardo Kaftanski

wrote:

Well, I will be using an ATV jack, and will be hauling this engine over some bumpy surfaces from the bus to the garage. Hate to see it tumble off. So I think that maybe jjs's idea of fastening four 2x2's in an open frame on top of the platform to create a box to set the engine into is a good idea. All I need is an idea of how big the inside dimensions of that box should be.

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot

I think maybe the stock rails on the ATV stand will be fine. See what they line up under. If you don't remove any tin underneath it may work out fine. I never used mine for the VW engine but made a cradle for the Soobey and tranny combo. You don't want to build up too high! If pulling tranny and engine together (my preference, but I've done it every possible way and two different impossible ways!) You may use

4x4 cross pieces and take an axe and whittle down a low spot >

wrote:

plywood platform?

cheap floor jack and

screen.., a square

you place the jack

this engine over

see it tumble

2x2's in an open

engine into is a

dimensions of

Reply to
Busahaulic

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