Anyone ever built a geared engine stand?

[JFoshee]

I'm going to build an engine stand at my shop and had the thought of welding a ring gear to the rotating part of the engine stand and building a bracket to hold the pinion and put a handle on it. Was thinking of mabey a lawn mower ring and pinion set or something small. Has anyone ever tried this? Do you think the gear ratio would be low enough to turn a complete engine?

[69charged]

i built one years ago but i made the mistake of using little gears inside a homemade gearbox. the gears were like, 1.5 inches in dia. and a 1:1 ratio. looking back now im not sure what i was thinking with that ratio. if i was doing it again i would use a ring gear or something from a snowmachine and the matching pinion. little better ratio. the ring gear is usually about 9 inches with 40 or so teeth and the pinion gear is about 7-8 teeth so you would get a killer ratio then! i will try to get a couple pics of the stand if i can as it was also a fold down one for storage. built it out of 2" square tubing 1/4" wall so that it could handle my 440 for my car.
clarence

[JFoshee]

A few pics would be great. Mainly interested in how you mounted the gears and the "brake" mechanism. Tubing is great for a frame, but I already have some pipe left over from other projects. It'll be a little heavy, but should hold whatever I put on it. Also, neighbors won't ask to borrow it as much.

[Freejack]

My brother used a final drive assembly from an old JD combine...but he was building the stand for big diesels. You many not have the need for anything quite so robust.

Jake

[JFoshee]

I've acquired a ring and pinion along with the housing for a Honda four wheeler. It just needs some bearings. I think I can make this work.

[engnerdan]

I know a ring and pinion was what was availible but if you scored a worm gear and pinion you would not need a brake as the pinion can not bake drive. I know Napa sells a stand with one on it for about $200, I have been looking for a used one for a long time.

-Dan

[Jared]

Use an old slack adjuster of a truck with air brakes, they have worm gears in them you should be able to an old one for free.