evintho
Well-known member
I tried to spin my turbo'd 4 cyl on an engine stand and bent a 4' steel bar trying to turn it. I'm about to rebuild a Ford 302 motor and can't imagine trying to turn that over! Solution: Engine rotator. You can buy one with the stand for $200 and up. Not my cup of tea! I'd rather build one than buy one.
Here's how I built mine.
$15 swap meet engine stand.
The rotator is a HF manual trailer winch. Part # 63755. Cost - $30.
Took it out of the box and removed the cable and hook. Bonus: Now I have 25' of wire rope and a hook!
Next, cut the sprocket off the hub and ground it smooth.
Here's the 'big ticket' item. I happened to have a length of 2-3/16" round bar laying around from another project. If you were to purchase a 3" length it would be about $20.
I don't own a lathe so I took my round bar to a local machine shop. For $25 he chucked it in a lathe and cut it down to fit inside the engine stand head unit. He also faced the end and marked the exact center for me.
I centered the sprocket and welded it up. I also drilled a 1/2" hole through bar so I can pin it.
I cut up the mounting bracket that came with the winch and used that. I had to build a 1" standoff to line the worm gear up with the sprocket. Also had to build a small pad to raise up the worm gear 'cause I screwed up and mounted the bracket too low. Haha!
Added some diagonals for support too.
With a 40:1 gear reduction it should spin the small block Ford quite easily.
The bracket bolts to the stand with some long 7/16" bolts.
Blew everything apart and brought it into the back yard for blasting.
I had some leftover silver from the roadster frame so I used that and highlighted the rest with gloss black. It breaks down very easily to be stored away, also.
Here's how I built mine.
$15 swap meet engine stand.
The rotator is a HF manual trailer winch. Part # 63755. Cost - $30.
Took it out of the box and removed the cable and hook. Bonus: Now I have 25' of wire rope and a hook!
Next, cut the sprocket off the hub and ground it smooth.
Here's the 'big ticket' item. I happened to have a length of 2-3/16" round bar laying around from another project. If you were to purchase a 3" length it would be about $20.
I don't own a lathe so I took my round bar to a local machine shop. For $25 he chucked it in a lathe and cut it down to fit inside the engine stand head unit. He also faced the end and marked the exact center for me.
I centered the sprocket and welded it up. I also drilled a 1/2" hole through bar so I can pin it.
I cut up the mounting bracket that came with the winch and used that. I had to build a 1" standoff to line the worm gear up with the sprocket. Also had to build a small pad to raise up the worm gear 'cause I screwed up and mounted the bracket too low. Haha!
Added some diagonals for support too.
With a 40:1 gear reduction it should spin the small block Ford quite easily.
The bracket bolts to the stand with some long 7/16" bolts.
Blew everything apart and brought it into the back yard for blasting.
I had some leftover silver from the roadster frame so I used that and highlighted the rest with gloss black. It breaks down very easily to be stored away, also.
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