Modifying a Engine Stand - Your Opinion

[canuck]

You all know what a pain it can be to rotate a engine on a engine stand by yourself, especially if you have added or removed parts after mounting it. Heavy side wants to spin to the bottom.

I have a 1000 lb. capacity stand, "H" style legs from Princess Auto, Ya the same made in China stuff that everyone sells.

Was recently given a 1500 lb. capacity worm gear winch with a 31/1 ratio. With the worm drive, it is self locking in any position. The drum assembly is just about the exact OD to fit inside the shaft of the engine stand. Thinking that with some mounting brackets fabbed up and a couple grease fittings added to the shaft that it would provide a self locking rotator. I know the cheap ones they are selling with a rotator have a 63/1 ratio for the crank, but someone has removed the crank from this winch and welded a nut on the shaft so I was thinking a impact or rachet could replace it.

Do you think that I am out to lunch on this idea or is it worth pursuing?

Would love some input on this.

Thanks guys

Canuck

 

[rsanter]

good idea but is it worth it?
I would say that if you use the engine stand alot then great addition, but if you only use it once a year of less then Im not so sure

one thing to look at is that theones I have seen that have the worm and gear setup to rotate the engine also have much closer tollerance between the head shaft and the stand pipe thing it fits into.
what Im thinking is that you could fix that slop my measureing the ID and OD and then get some brass or copper sheet (even steel I would guess) that you could then roll into being a bushing. with some grease in there and the forces spread out better you should have no trouble upgrading that thing.

as far as using an impact I would say no. just make a crank or use a ratchet/socket

bob

 

[evildky]

you do know that you can buy crank operated engine stands right? if you feel that you want or need this feature and woudl rather do the work than spend the dollars, by all means do

 

[Danglerb]

Use more care when you mount the engine to the stand so it has better balance.

If I was set up for welding, had lots of parts to play with, maybe.

Trouble is it currently isn't worth my $$$ to buy one of the crank turners, and they are around $250 I think, so not too likely I would spend a lot of time trying to make one. How many hours per year do you spend turning a block on a stand?

 

[bobcatdan]

I have a geared head engine stand and would never think about going back.

 

[Outlawmws]

I don't think it's just a factor of how many hours you spend on an engine stand, even if you only use it a couple of times a year, it's going to be safer when you have to rotate it.

Worth it? Yes, IMO its a fairly quick job that pays dividends...

 

[canuck]

Bobcat, a question for you -- the rotator stands that I have seen on the market seem to be advertised with around a 63/1 ratio, they don't say if they are taking into consideration the length of the handle. The winch that I would be modifying has a 31/1 ratio in the gears.

How hard is it to turn the crank with a engine on it?

That seems to be one issue with my proposed set up with a different ratio.

The fabrication and welding is easy.

Outlaw, you are right, the safety and ease of use are the goals. The work involved is minimal. Being able to balance the motor so it rotates easy them pull a cylinder head off and rotate again with ease would be great.

This is just another tool to help with the build of this:

http://a425coupe.shawwebspace.ca/blog/

Been hanging out over on the HAMB for quite a while now.

Canuck

 

[Outlawmws]

Bobcat, a question for you -- the rotator stands that I have seen on the market seem to be advertised with around a 63/1 ratio, they don't say if they are taking into consideration the length of the handle. The winch that I would be modifying has a 31/1 ratio in the gears.

How hard is it to turn the crank with a engine on it?

That seems to be one issue with my proposed set up with a different ratio.

The fabrication and welding is easy.

Outlaw, you are right, the safety and ease of use are the goals. The work involved is minimal. Being able to balance the motor so it rotates easy them pull a cylinder head off and rotate again with ease would be great.

This is just another tool to help with the build of this:

http://a425coupe.shawwebspace.ca/blog/

Been hanging out over on the HAMB for quite a while now.

Canuck

With a handle 2X as long you get the same effort, if at a longer crank circle. (Archimedes lives..)

 

[Danglerb]

Last engine I had on my $49 HF H base stand I fiddled with for several days, cleaning and inspecting a shipped junk yard mess (why clean when you have spray paint and cell phone pictures in the ads), so was flipping it around much more than usual. It wasn't a big deal.

My problem is that something that I would really like, rotator, full drip pan, etc etc would take up too much space besides costing me too much money I would rather spend on other stuff.

Something I was wondering about is if anybody has made an engine stand without a base? Two ideas I was kicking around are; wall mount for the head, or putting a sleeve in the floor so the upright slipped into it when I wanted to use it, but still easy to store the upright when I don't need it.

 

[PCO6]

... I have a 1000 lb. capacity stand, "H" style legs from Princess Auto, Ya the same made in China stuff that everyone sells.

canuck - I'm not sure from your post if you mean that the Princess Auto engine stand you currently have is a basic non-geared head stand that you want cut the head off of and replace with the with the 1,500 lb. geared head that you were given - OR - if you have PA's pro.point 1,000 lb. stand that comes with the geared head (63:1 ratio).

Princess Auto doesn't have the 1,000 lb. geared head on its website but they do sell one. The sku is 8368755. The regular price is $179.99 but it's on sale now for $90 (at our local store anyway). I just picked one up with the intention of scrapping the stand (or repurposing it) and fabricating the geared head into a welding jig. The stand is fairly decent and I may pick up another one and actually use it for it's intended use as an engine stand.

I hope this helps and good luck with your Model A - it looks like a great project.

 

[PCO6]

Something I was wondering about is if anybody has made an engine stand without a base?

Danglerb - We used to build our VW off-road engines on a stand that we fabricated and attached to a work bench when we needed it. I realize you might be talking about much heavier engines but I'm sure you could make it work.

Our bench was similar to the benches you see on here that use trailer hitch receiver tubes (or something similar). From memory we used about a 3" O.D. round pipe with a plate welded on to the end of it. We slid it into a slightly larger receiver tube that was welded in as permanent part of our bench. The bench was securely mounted to the wall. In fact our garage was such a dump it probably held up the wall!

 

[canuck]

PC06 - The stand that I have now is the basic P/A "H" base stand. The plan was to use a 1500 lb. winch that I was gven as the rotator.

The axle part of the drum is the right size to side into the head of the stand. Pin the two together. Weld a bracket onto the upright of the stand to mount the worm gear off the winch. If it works, fabricate a guard for the gears, if not scrap the project and put the winch back together.

The concern isn't whether it will work, more so regarding the ratio of the winch versus the ratio used on the gear head engine stand. Will the winchs ratio be adequate for a engine rotator?

Canuckl