Pulling engine

[davepl]

Originally Posted by HO455

This question revolves around the equipment your using to lift the engine. Low dollar Harbor Freight style NO! Quality picker with lots of height and long, wide set legs or a an A frame style with a good chain fall. YES! Go the first path and things will go wrong at some point. It may be minor or major but it will happen.

I've been using my Harbor Freight cherry picker for over 20 years without incident, and I don't own any small blocks. And I usually pull with the trans. And I used it (with the board-sourced blueprints) to remove the cab and bed too!

They may make cheaper ones than what I have, I don't know, but the legs are as wide as the wheels allow and they're plenty long.

What are you suggesting will happen? Will a weld break or the cylinder fail or what's the risk? I can -afford- a new hoist, I just don't have any issues with my old one... yet!

[HO455]

I too have a HF cherry picker I purchased back in the late 80's that has been used to pull and install dozens of motors most of which were Pontiacs. The safety issue was to the OP's query about pulling the engine with the transmission still married to the engine. Those cherry pickers are rated for that amount of weight but the boom length will be too short at that weight. So then you pull the boom out far enough to get enough height for the lift and then the back wheels will come off the ground. Just pulling a 550 + pound Pontiac engine from my lowered GTO is difficult with my old HF picker. The job requires more height than the boom will give at the rated weight. I have in the past pulled the engine with the boom fully extended at the 500 setting and stood on the picker while jacking it up and and got the engine out without issue. Lowering the engine after it is clear of the car a different story and I have a crushed oil pan to show for it. Due to the change of leverage when lowering the engine as it gets closer to the ground the back of the picker will come off the ground and drop the engine. My post was lazy as I didn't explain the issue with pulling the engine and tranny together with the wrong equipment. For which I now apologize to the group.

[68bowtie]

since we're on the topic of engine hoist safety and using another individual's tools, i thought i would share a recent near miss a couple weeks ago. i sold a 402/th400 combo on craigslist. used my hoist to load it into my truck. the guy wanted me to load it in his expedition (no joke). he was local so i offered instead to deliver it for him. i asked if he had a hoist (he said yes) so i didn't need to worry about loading mine beside the engine. well i got to his house, backed in nice and tight next to his camaro, and we worked on setting up the pick. there were lots of red flags like he didn't know how to use his hoist, it was old, and the wheels didn't turn well. but it was late and it was mostly his deal at this point (20/20 hind sight). as i began to lift the engine/trans, just as the oil pan left my truck bed... BOOM! one of the outer hoist wheels (way out front) exploded into a mess of ball bearings. i got lucky it went that quickly, the engine simply setted back onto my truck. driving home i thought about the various things that could have happened if it failed after i drove my truck out from underneath.

[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.

[MARKDTN]

Pull them together. It can be quite a challenge to stab a transmission and get the motor mount bolts to align at the same time. It is so much easier to mate the engine and transmission on the ground. Just remove and add the torque converter bolts while it is in the truck. You can partially dress it while it is on the ground too.

[Ironangel]