Engine Stand for X1/9 1300?

On the subject of engine stands and equipment to remove/install them, I've been thinking about adapting another item I have. It is a motorcycle lift jack, like this...

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If a engine cradle (similar to the ones discussed earlier in this thread) could be attached to the top of this, the engine can then be wheeled under the car and lifted into place. Two potential problems; I'm not sure how steady it would be, and I'm not sure if it will raise high enough. Both need to be tested.

Another possibility with the same concept might be to use one of these lifting tables (also with a engine cradle attached to the top)...
Z3Izowfo5oy.jpg
 
On the subject of engine stands and equipment to remove/install them, I've been thinking about adapting another item I have. It is a motorcycle lift jack, like this...

View attachment 24515

If a engine cradle (similar to the ones discussed earlier in this thread) could be attached to the top of this, the engine can then be wheeled under the car and lifted into place. Two potential problems; I'm not sure how steady it would be, and I'm not sure if it will raise high enough. Both need to be tested.

Another possibility with the same concept might be to use one of these lifting tables (also with a engine cradle attached to the top)...
View attachment 24516
You might get by with a limited lift range if you also bring the car down after the engine is up all the way.
 
But unfortunately there aren't a lot of other good attachment points at that end of the engine.
You know that Fiat put engine lift/hook mounts on every engine/trans?
There's one on the trans near the starter and one near the water pump. I have no idea if the factory used them to install the drivetrain or not, but they did install them. They may be missing on your car?
 
Sometimes I see the lifting eye on the trans mounting bolt but have never seen one at the front of the motor. I have used the dog bone mount or the clutch slave bracket as a lifting point at the back of the motor and the vertical stud that Fiat didn't use for the FI motors at the front or one of the four tapped holes in the cam box just below that bolt as a mounting point at the front.
 
You know that Fiat put engine lift/hook mounts on every engine/trans?
There's one on the trans near the starter and one near the water pump. I have no idea if the factory used them to install the drivetrain or not, but they did install them. They may be missing on your car?
I am aware such items may have existed at one time, however unfortunately none of my X's still had any of them when I got the cars. But for those that have the hooks, they are certainly the better option. ;) In essence those lift hooks are what I was sort of replicating with the anchors I made. However the ones I made are fitted specifically for my engine lift/leveler.

As an aside, to be honest I'm the type that would have removed those hooks in order to try and clean up the appearances of the engine a little. I confess to being a hacker with all of my cars; to me that is one of the major pleasures I get from owning them, I make a lot of small (plus many large) changes like this as part of my efforts to customize them. I can only assume a similar reason the lift hooks seem to be missing from many cars.
 
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You might get by with a limited lift range if you also bring the car down after the engine is up all the way.
Good point. And that would be easy to due because the engine hoist would not be used for the engine if one of these optional lift items was used. So the height of the car could be adjusted using the "cherry picker" hoist, while the height of the engine is adjusted with the motorcycle / table lift.
 
You know that Fiat put engine lift/hook mounts on every engine/trans?
There's one on the trans near the starter and one near the water pump. I have no idea if the factory used them to install the drivetrain or not, but they did install them. They may be missing on your car?
After my experience with the factory trans lift hook bending quite a bit when I put the engine in, I'm not sure I would trust them again.
 
After my experience with the factory trans lift hook bending quite a bit when I put the engine in, I'm not sure I would trust them again.
Dang! Those things are about 4mm thick, and hard to bend. The pic below also includes one of the variants of the front lift hook too. This one is part of the alt. mounting bracket that was bolted to the water pump housing, others had a thinner bracket bolted to the front of the water pump.
In my experience these work great and are worth seeking out if you don't have them and you're planning to remove your engine & trans.
20190823_160827.jpg
 
Dang! Those things are about 4mm thick, and hard to bend. The pic below also includes one of the variants of the front lift hook too. This one is part of the alt. mounting bracket that was bolted to the water pump housing, others had a thinner bracket bolted to the front of the water pump.
In my experience these work great and are worth seeking out if you don't have them and you're planning to remove your engine & trans.
View attachment 24531
Looks like the trans bracket in the photo is bent like mine is now. The two holes are supposed to be at right angles to each other.
 
Looks like the trans bracket in the photo is bent like mine is now. The two holes are supposed to be at right angles to each other.
No, it came "bent" like that. I know it looks like it would be at 90', but none of them are. I think it would take a lot of heat and a BFH to bend it back to 90'.
 
No, it came "bent" like that. I know it looks like it would be at 90', but none of them are. I think it would take a lot of heat and a BFH to bend it back to 90'.
From the factory, they are at 90 degrees. That is how mine was until I used it to put the new engine in. It escaped getting the old engine out, as not having a hoist at the time, the trans, head, and block all came out separately. They may have been better off using ones that were straight. That way there would be no reason to bend with a vertical load.
 
Today I threw together (literally) a simple dolly/cradle that will accomodate a combined engine and transmission. I wanted it to be long enough to securely support the whole assembly, but narrow enough to fit between the legs of my hoist. I did not want to use two of the smaller furniture dollies because the swivel casters tend to get jammed going opposite directions when there are 8 wheels. So I started with a old large size furniture dolly, disassembled it, cut the width down, and reassembled it. Then a used some scrap wood planks to make a "box" similar to the one Don has, and mounted it directly to the base of the dolly. Crude (I am not a woodworker by any means) but should make engine/trans installation/removal a little easier. Combined with the anchor hooks I made for the leveler/hoist, I'm hoping to avoid all the monkeying around that usually takes place.
I need to get some more wood screws, and will try to get a couple pics when I'm completely done.

Funny thing is I really think the motorcycle jack/lift I have will be much better for this purpose. And I will likely make a cradle for that soon, meaning these latest items will be trashed. But we'll see how motivated I get after trying it once this way first.
 
Today I threw together (literally) a simple dolly/cradle that will accomodate a combined engine and transmission. I wanted it to be long enough to securely support the whole assembly, but narrow enough to fit between the legs of my hoist. I did not want to use two of the smaller furniture dollies because the swivel casters tend to get jammed going opposite directions when there are 8 wheels. So I started with a old large size furniture dolly, disassembled it, cut the width down, and reassembled it. Then a used some scrap wood planks to make a "box" similar to the one Don has, and mounted it directly to the base of the dolly. Crude (I am not a woodworker by any means) but should make engine/trans installation/removal a little easier. Combined with the anchor hooks I made for the leveler/hoist, I'm hoping to avoid all the monkeying around that usually takes place.
I need to get some more wood screws, and will try to get a couple pics when I'm completely done.

Funny thing is I really think the motorcycle jack/lift I have will be much better for this purpose. And I will likely make a cradle for that soon, meaning these latest items will be trashed. But we'll see how motivated I get after trying it once this way first.

Pictures or it didn’t happen. Just pull out your phone and snap a couple, you know you can do it...we won’t judge

I have a furniture dolly under the box holding the transmission for my other X and find the hard plastic wheels don’t roll very well, in general a disappointment.
 
Pictures or it didn’t happen.
I need to get some more wood screws, and will try to get a couple pics when I'm completely done.
;)



find the hard plastic wheels don’t roll very well, in general a disappointment
Agreed. The older dolly that I cut up to make a 'narrow' version had been used to move a very heavy piece of sculpture a few years ago and the wheels have never worked the same since. They are just a pin through a hole in the plastic wheel casting, no bearings. I suppose if you really wanted to make the ultimate engine dolly you would start from scratch using much better casters and build the frame to suit your own design, likely using steel instead of wood. And that is another issue with the one I just modified, the wood frame was bowed from being overloaded previously. Between that and using an old warped plank for the box structure, it is not "square" or pretty by any means. :oops:
 
On the subject of making a custom design engine dolly. If anyone decides to make one of the really cool ones with a metal frame, good casters, proprietary mounting tabs to bolt the engine to, etc, then consider making the casters offset to lower the whole frame as close to the ground as possible. I'm talking about the way creepers have the center lowered below the caster mounting height to maximize under car clearance. This will reduce the height of the engine at the top, allowing it to roll under the car at a lower working height (i.e. don't need to raise the back of the car as high). I considered that when modifying the old wood dolly, but with wood it wasn't practical (at least not for a lazy guy that did not want to spend much time at it).
 
A slight off topic drift...the 850s were the best. Stick a skate board under the oil pan, unbolt the rear body panel and slide the motor out the back.
 
Maybe even better were the old air cooled VW Beetles; four bolts and it pulls directly out the back without removing any body work. Plus it is light enough you don't even need the skateboard.
 
I'm now prepared with my new 2 ton hoist to unload the engine!

2 Ton Lift.jpg


But first I need to get my ass back to prepping then paining the engine compartment...
 
Great, that will work fine (I have one like it). If you want to get a little more "reach" with it (to get things lifted higher up) then you can do two things. First remove the short chain at the top (red circle) and connect the 'leveler' directly to the hoist. And second these power-trains are light enough that you can easily set the hoist's arm out to its furthest point (last hole for the bolt - yellow arrow).

2 Ton Lift.jpg


I used one of these to connect the leveler to the hoist:
DSC_8986.jpg
 
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