Home built engine lifting jig

G'day,

I had an idea for a lifting jig for removing/ installing the engine. It's based on adjustable lifting forks we use on job sites for craning pallets to different areas.
I'm sure someone else would have done this already but I haven't seen one before.

It packs away nice and compact as well. I also made a trolley after looking at I am Carbon's idea on using 2 step ladders. For this I used my home made wheel oilng stand turned upside down.

One of the main reasons the jigs in all individual pieces is I'm such a shit welder I would never have got it to line up if I welded it all tight, then I found it takes up no room afterward.

Now I know ther's a bunch of people out ther who wear their underpants on the outside and pick the engine up with 2 fingers while necking a bottle of Jack at the same time. this is not for them, ther's also a bunch out ther, like me who's shoulders, necks, backs etc have gone, or they don't want them to.

Anyway, based on my primitive welding skills anyone could fabricate this. I hope it works for some.

Cheers,
Pete

Well, I'd have to wear underpants to wear them on the outside; it takes one whole arm, not just two fingers (boy, don't take that statement out of context); and I generally drink Scotch or sometimes a proper Kentucky Bourbon, but never Jack. The 650 is much lighter than most other engines I've been dumb enough to manhandle by myself!

That said, I love your solution and might just make a version of it.

Interesting contraption to be sure. Very clever. Thanks for sharing and the good pictures also. I love stuff like this!
Tom

You are the man XSPete! Love it.

My old back is fine with the bike on the lift table and a small floor jack to raise the engine up an inch or 2 to clear the mounts. Pulled one that way Tuesday. BUT putting it back in is harder.....

xspete, pretty nifty set up.
The space it takes on break-down is a big bonus.
Are you going to leave the board and roller in place?

xsPete.....................that's the type of lifting rig that everyone should be using to protect their back from injury. The macho guys will still insist 165 lbs is nothing for them to lift, but the smart way is to use mechanical lifting aids.

xsPete, you should post those pictures in the "Tech" section under "Homemade Tools".

retiredgentleman said:

xsPete.....................that's the type of lifting rig that everyone should be using to protect their back from injury. The smart way is to use mechanical lifting aids.

xsPete, you should post those pictures in the "Tech" section under "Homemade Tools".

Click to expand...

X2

IF I were going to repeatedly remove engines THIS would be the deal to have ! Since I HOPEFULLY will do it VERY infrequently I will just enlist the help of a buddy.

I REAALLLY like the fact it breaks down as space IS limited in MOST peoples garages.

GOOD JOB !!!!

NOW get your arse out there and make an attachment to be able to bolt the XS motor to a standard engine stand !

xspete I like the whole thing. the trolley is bad azz.
its good to use the back for more inportant things like riding the bike.
SO

retiredgentleman said:

...The macho guys will still insist 165 lbs is nothing for them to lift, but the smart way is to use mechanical lifting aids...

Click to expand...

Is that what these things weigh? Sounds like more than it felt like. The funny part is that I would never even consider lifting something that heavy if I was at work.

I am not a macho man and I am 62 years old but I still pull and fit my own engines. Maybe five years from now I may not be able to do it but, until that day arives I will continue to lift and place my engines. It is just less hassle for me.

Bit of a hi-jack but related. Engine stands are nice but at the least have a cradle built to sit the engine in. drill some holes, thread in a chunk of rope and you can drag it around the shop.

cross members 8" if you cut the long pieces at 16" you can make 2 cradles out of one 8' 2x4. 11" inside front to back. raising the cross members about an inch helps the way the engine sits in the cradle. Just 8 3" drywall screws holding it together, if you grease them you don't even need to predrill the 2x4,

Great idea! Oh, love the old Benz, my grandpa drove an identical one.

Thanks for the approval,
Whatever I'm doing with welding, steel fabricating etc, Ive bever done till I started this build, cars, bikes, boats etc I've also payed to get it done. So the XS build has been a real challenge for me. My speciallity is bricks, especially furnaces etc and always got mates to do the fabbing for me. Doing this stuff is a blast for me.

It's good to think I've finally put something back in this site.

weekendrider said:

xspete, pretty nifty set up.
The space it takes on break-down is a big bonus.
Are you going to leave the board and roller in place?

Click to expand...

Tks, Yep It'll stay there, I didn't get it right when I made it for oiling the chain. I had the rollers too close to the braces running in the same direction. I put my Z900 on them and the weight of it just pushed the rollers into the braces and locked it up. I've got some more rollers so I'm making another chain oiling stand but this time the rollers will be closer together with lots more clearance all round.

retiredgentleman said:

xsPete.....................that's the type of lifting rig that everyone should be using to protect their back from injury. The macho guys will still insist 165 lbs is nothing for them to lift, but the smart way is to use mechanical lifting aids.
Never a truer word spoken, I spent 30 years humping bricks and scaffold, the price nothing between lots of joints in the upper body, this thing with it's it's centre of gravity is soo easy to fit a motor.

xsPete, you should post those pictures in the "Tech" section under "Homemade Tools".

Click to expand...

That was where i was going to put it but it ended up here, I have no idea how to redirect it there.

I am Carbon said:

xspete I like the whole thing. the trolley is bad azz.
its good to use the back for more inportant things like riding the bike.
SO

Click to expand...

Hey Bloke, it was looking at your thread that got me thinking, I just didn't want to hang all that weight off the head. So, 1 idea leads to another

tonyc said:

I am not a macho man and I am 62 years old but I still pull and fit my own engines. Maybe five years from now I may not be able to do it but, until that day arives I will continue to lift and place my engines. It is just less hassle for me.

Click to expand...

Ah tonyc, if i was a punter I would have cleaned up, If I was a fisherman and you were a Murray Cod I would have been feasting for a week.
This answer looks like a cut and paste from previous threads on making life easier and safer.
I'm 62 and can lift heavy things
Soo...... the question is...... where do we post the cape and underpants to.

gggGary said:

Bit of a hi-jack but related. Engine stands are nice but at the least have a cradle built to sit the engine in. drill some holes, thread in a chunk of rope and you can drag it around the shop.

cross members 8" if you cut the long pieces at 16" you can make 2 cradles out of one 8' 2x4. 11" inside front to back. raising the cross members about an inch helps the way the engine sits in the cradle. Just 8 3" drywall screws holding it together, if you grease them you don't even need to predrill the 2x4,

View attachment 16266 View attachment 16267

View attachment 16268 View attachment 16269

Click to expand...

gggGarry, No hijack just extra ideas to make life easier, thanks for the previous response and I'll be knocking one of these up. The thing about this compared to a stand is no trying to take the weight and slip a bolt in place, just sit it down nice and safe. I like.
When I did this I had the engine mounted in a stand on my welding trolley so I could move it around the garage. Having the engine supported on the lifting jig meant the engines just hanging there and you simply need to bolt the stand to the engine, solo the cradle would kill it for ease.

Cheers,
xsPete

retiredgentleman said:

xsPete, you should post those pictures in the "Tech" section under "Homemade Tools".

Click to expand...

Done, hope you don't mind xspete.

weekendrider said:

Done, hope you don't mind xspete.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that weekend rider, it's there for eveybody.

xsPete

Nice. I built one similar to that a while back but mine operated from a bike jack made to lifet bikes from under the frame, motor area. I ran into problems because i have found over time that the motor likes to go in and out from the right side of the bike easier. It also needs to be tilted and dropped in over the right side lower frame hoop. There was no realistic way to do the tilt move without getting into lots of fab and welding. I felt it was more time and effort then justified considering I have a 22 year old son that goes to the gym 4 days a week and loves a challenge. My hardest part consists of not yelling at him too loud as he scratches the paint on the frame bouncing the motor off every tube while slapping it in place.

TurboFarviknugn said:

X2

IF I were going to repeatedly remove engines THIS would be the deal to have ! Since I HOPEFULLY will do it VERY infrequently I will just enlist the help of a buddy.

I REAALLLY like the fact it breaks down as space IS limited in MOST peoples garages.

GOOD JOB !!!!

NOW get your arse out there and make an attachment to be able to bolt the XS motor to a standard engine stand !

Click to expand...

Ah a challenge, I love a challenge, do you mean one of those car engine stands with the 4 adjustable widgets for bolting the engine up. I think I saw a guy had one setup on a chair base to roll around his garage and he could rotate it, I'll see if I can find the story.
Let me know what type of engine stand to butcher

TwoJugs said:

Nice. I built one similar to that a while back but mine operated from a bike jack made to lifet bikes from under the frame, motor area. I ran into problems because i have found over time that the motor likes to go in and out from the right side of the bike easier. It also needs to be tilted and dropped in over the right side lower frame hoop. There was no realistic way to do the tilt move without getting into lots of fab and welding. I felt it was more time and effort then justified considering I have a 22 year old son that goes to the gym 4 days a week and loves a challenge. My hardest part consists of not yelling at him too loud as he scratches the paint on the frame bouncing the motor off every tube while slapping it in place.

Click to expand...

The thing with this is because the balnce point is down low on the engine it's really easy to tilt, I was thinking of adding a female socket to fit on the back of the upright to make it even easier to tilt the engine, I got this from looking at Hans form Hollands back saver, the bacl lever positioned to pivot at mounting bolt level and the top horizontal bit with the hook attachment would make it a peice of piss to tilt.

I like the adjustable lift points. I'll bet the balance point on one of these engines changes slightly depending on whether you drain the oil or not, or which components have been removed (alternator, clutch, side covers, etc.). You can compensate for that. I don't think I'd ever build one that wasn't adjustable for these variations.

The only thing that amazes me is that 2 single bolts attached on one end only support this engine without bending.

5twins said:

I like the adjustable lift points. I'll bet the balance point on one of these engines changes slightly depending on whether you drain the oil or not, or which components have been removed (alternator, clutch, side covers, etc.). You can compensate for that. I don't think I'd ever build one that wasn't adjustable for these variations.

The only thing that amazes me is that 2 single bolts attached on one end only support this engine without bending.

Click to expand...

Yeah, if you set it down and move either of the 2 balance points a fraction it changes the way the engine sits.

The attached pic is what we use on some job sites and what I based it on.

I used high Tensile Bolts to go through the mounts because that was a worry at 1st, with it all coming loose when the clamping bolts are undone it comes apart no prob's as well. I also lifted an old Chev 400 block (block only) before I tried it on my 650 engine to see how it went.

I'm starting to think there may be a way to have this so it can become a rotisserie once the engine is out of the bike.