Pulling engine

[davepl]

Can't believe I'll tell this one in the same month I hooked up battery cables backward, but...

About a year ago I was letting one of my kids help me in the shop, and I was letting her lift the engine to stand height (with me helping of course). So she was in the "normal" place on the right of the hoist where the jack handle is and I was standing on the left side of the hoist.

When it was at the right height I reached over (across) to tighten the valve to make sure it didn't move. However, since my position was now REVERSED, turning clockwise actually opened the valve. The engine dropped some, but I was able to catch it.

Now nothing went wrong here because of the 10 other safety steps (no one under the load, all of that). But it could have.

Moral of the story is that when you've got a ball of steel that weighs near a ton bouncing around in the air, that's a LOT of potential energy that badly wants to be released.