Homemade and Unique Tools

[5twins]

So, I've been busy with the welder again, lol. You may have seen the fancy rotating engine stand I made so I could flip one of these motors over and access the bottom end. Well, I got to thinking, what if I get in there and there's something wrong? What if I need to source replacement parts from another motor? Yep, I needed a second upside down stand. I didn't need another fancy rotating job on it's own cart, just a simple bench top or garage/shop floor stand. The second question that occurred to me is how do you get one of these 150 pound hulks upside down without busting a nut? Here's what I came up with, a "flip" stand. You start by attaching the "flipper" to the top rear and front motor mounts of an engine already out and on one of the little angle iron stands .....

Then, getting it upside down is as easy as one .....

..... two .....

..... three .....

It works great and isn't hard to "flip" at all.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Good one 5Twins.
You knew that flipping a (later version) XS1B engine would get my attention...

 

[5twins]

That old XS1 motor is the only one I have all together. All the others are half torn down, lol. The finished product, a little 99 cent spray paint works wonders, lol .....

I added a cross brace to the rear for more stability, not that it needed it .....

The rear hitch pin is from Tractor Supply. Unfortunately, they don't come any longer. For the front, I needed to make my own. One and a half washers welded to the end of some 3/8" rod did the trick, the other end getting a quick-pull pin .....

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

I like that homemade hitchpin. Gonna remember that one...

 

[kondorp]

Did somebody mention shop computer,

.......or diversion?

If anybody recognizes this stuff, I'd be impressed.
View attachment 54672

I have never seen such

 

[gggGary]

That's sharp 5T. I keep seeing hoyer lifts for about 100 -$150 and thinking a mod here and there.

 

[glennpm]

I made an "upside down" stand out of 1 1/4" angle iron this week since I had to split my cases to replace a bad 5th overdrive gear. Not as fancy as 5Twins but it works well. I have a small crane and was able to split the cases after about 5 minutes with a heat gun on the seam, a little lifting and foot action on my stand base.

 

[Stoop22kid]

My 2 minute Pamco initial start up with a seperate battery tool.....probably not the safest but it'll work

Connect left side to the left coil and the right side to the right coil and the middle to a battery or battery charger

 

[5twins]

This idea was suggested I think by Fred in a thread about a stuck motor. It was a "piston pusher" consisting of a wooden "plate" fit over the 8 long studs and a couple of long bolts through it that could be adjusted downward by a nut on the bolt tightened up against the the bottom of the "plate". The guy made it up but once the pressure got too great, the board broke in half, lol. To solve that problem, I made one up of all metal. The plate is 1/4" steel plate. The holes were laid out using an old head gasket. 8" to 9" long lengths of 3/4" all-thread were used as part of the "pusher" set-up. They don't do the actual pushing, 3" long pipe sleeves placed on them do. You set the all-thread height maybe 1/4" to 3/8" above the stuck pistons and lock it to the plate. The pipe sleeves are then pushed downward with a nut and washer on the all-thread. The pipes push against little 1/8" thick squares of aluminum to protect the piston tops .....

It works very well but unfortunately, this motor is still stuck, lol. Next up will be a larger diameter pipe maybe 6" or 8" long with some plate welded over one end. The pipe will have a big enough I.D. to fit over the 3/4" all-thread and it's nut on top of the plate. Then I can have screw pressure applied and beat on it with a BFH at the same time, lol.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi 5T,
nothin's as much fun as messing with another guy's problem.
Try:-
Using ratcheting box ends in place of the crescent wrenches.
Good lubricating oil on the jacking threads.
Puddles of penetrating oil atop the pistons.
Large diameter push sleeves with plates across the top to put the force on the piston walls instead of the piston crowns.
running an air hammer atop the pressure bolt as you reef on it.
And good luck, eh?

 

[gggGary]

Weld the nuts to the plate, weld a nut or grind flats on top of the all thread. I hack sawed the dome off an old piston to make the pusher. To the ham handed among us, mark and watch that both pistons are going down the same distance at the same time. Usually only one is really stuck. Watch the crank rotation this set up could bend a rod or send the crank right out through the lower case if you exceed BDC piston travel. At some point you have to raise the cylinders and insert spacers between them and the crankcase.

 

[gruff54]

It works very well but unfortunately, this motor is still stuck, lol. Next up will be a larger diameter pipe maybe 6" or 8" long with some plate welded over one end. The pipe will have a big enough I.D. to fit over the 3/4" all-thread and it's nut on top of the plate. Then I can have screw pressure applied and beat on it with a BFH at the same time, lol.

Is there such a thing as fine thread all-thread? Not sure. If so, that would increase your applied force.

Mike

 

[gggGary]

I made this today, I think it will work better than the supplied HF wheel balancer axle rod.
11/10/16 I am quite happy, I have balanced at least 10 wheels/tires using the new rod.

 

[5twins]

Than the rod HF supplied for what?

 

[5twins]

Well, I finally put the finishing touches on my one man engine removal/install cart. It came out nice and works quite well. The base came from an old shopping cart I found laying in a ditch out in the country. It wasn't a full size cart but rather one of those smaller half carts. It proved to be the perfect size, low enough to roll under a 650 frame on the centerstand but large enough to hold and support the motor. I cut the top basket portion off, lowered the handle, and added a shelf for the motor to sit on .....

I assembled a rolling chassis from spare parts to use for final testing. I expected this to reveal some little flaws, which it did, but it also showed me a major error in my design. I originally built the thing to come in from the left side. Most of the overhead 650 engine pickers and hoists I'd seen were set up this way. Well, for my 2 arm ground based set-up, this just didn't work. What I failed to notice or realize is that the 650 motor is quite a bit wider on the right side compared to the left .....

It turned out to be darn near impossible to wiggle that wide right side of the motor through the frame from the left side. So, I had to re-fab much of the cart so it would come in from the right side. I also needed to thin down the lift brackets, mostly the front one, where they attached to the motor.

The lift arms and the pivot bar they rotate on are solid steel bar stock. Everything's adjustable, either by rotating and sliding or by all-thread adjustment. Both ends of the pivot bar adjust up or down individually. The holders for the bar pivot on top of the all-thread supports .....

A section of the shelf was cut out so a little bottle jack could be positioned under the installed engine to lift it a bit and help get the long bottom bolt through .....

Next problem was how to hold the engine in the lifted position so the stand could be pulled or installed on the bottom. That was solved with simple little hooks made from 1/4" rod. Another problem that surfaced was that if lifted high enough, the weight of the motor would slide the lift bars back down through their holders. That was solved with little pipe sleeves w/ set bolts .....

 

[5twins]

OK, here we go, lol. Engine set on the cart and attached to the lift bars. Pipe extensions are used on the handles to give the necessary leverage .....

If the lock hooks are positioned just right, they swing under the handle once you lift the motor and lock on by themselves .....

Once locked on, if you angle them back the other way and lift a little more, they automatically unlock themselves. Pretty cool and stone ax simple.

Stand removed, now the engine/cart can be rolled most of the way into the frame .....

Then, a little lift to unhook the locks, and the engine can be worked the rest of the way in .....

Bottle jack under the motor and with some rocking and wiggling, the bottom bolt can be fed through .....

 

[retiredgentleman]

That is a really great tool for sure! 5twins................you are a master builder of tools for these bikes.

 

[5twins]

I just enjoy building things from steel, lol. I was exposed to it and involved with it for many years in the building trade I was in (Ironworkers) but I specialized in the sheet metal part of that trade. We didn't do a whole lot of cutting, fabbing, and welding with heavy iron. But that didn't stop me from buying my own little welder and setting up "shop" in my back yard, lol. Pretty much all the steel I've used over the years I was able to scrounge off of job sites. It's just amazing the good stuff they throw in the dumpsters (or plan to). But, the party's over, so to speak, lol. I retired about a month ago after 39 years in the trade. I don't miss getting up at the crack of dawn but I will miss the scrounging, lol.

 

[weekendrider]

I wondered about how the bottle jack was going to fit in the picture. Now I see it is a separate accessory. And your bars hold the motor at an angle instead of parallel to the ground? This helps to work the starter mounting bolts past the frame?
Good job as always.

 

[5twins]

Even if you pull one of these by hand, you have to angle the top out (or in). I was hoping the arc of the pivoting lift arms would give me the angling I needed and well, it did. Key to the operation is having the height of the pivot bar set just right. Then the motor goes in easy and comes out even easier.