The longer you look, the worse it gets.

:eek:
 
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Wow, just the time it must have taken to even think that up is impressive, stupid but impressive. Hold my beer.....................
 
Any one part of that contraption fails, the whole damn thing is coming down.
 
Think I saw some Chinese juggler/acrobats doing something like that on stage once. :D
 
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Once upon a time I needed to pull an engine out of a 1969 Chevy Nova. I had rented a cherry picker for Saturday so I spent Friday evening getting the car ready. Things went faster than I thought on Friday so there I was with plenty of time, motor ready to come out and no cherry picker.

I was using the basement of my father-in-laws cabinet shop. I looked around and did my best Macguyver impression to use materials on hand. I put a 55 gallon steel drum on either side of the front fenders. Ran a 4X4 through the chain bolted to the engine. Lifted the 4X4 on one side of the car and had my wife put an 8" cinder block under it. Then moved to the other side and repeated. Back and forth, side to side stacking cinder blocks. It started easy but then got difficult. I happened to look down and one tire was off the ground. I had gotten a motor mount hung on an A-arm mounting bolt. Lowered it back down, got the motor mount loose and then started back up.

Now the truth is I honestly don't remember if I totally removed the engine that night or if I waited until the next day, it was a long time ago. I'm leaning towards the notion that I got it out that night. I had another engine built and ready to go back in so all I had to do Saturday was put in the new engine. I do remember I did pick up the cherry picker on Saturday.

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I remember my father telling me that right after the way he and some of his buddies got into building hot rods and dirt track race cars and since nobody out in the country had a garage, they used a stout tree limb to pull engines in and out of all of their race cars. The only time they did a job for money was for the only neighbor that had a nice Lincoln and of course the limb broke and the engine fell right on the fender! It was a funny story years after but I'm sure it was not funny at the time. They then decided to build an "actual" hoist frame out of huge timbers someone found. I got the biggest kick out of the description of actual hoist built of timbers like it was a precision steel frame crafted by the finest machine shop.
 
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That's way worse than me trimming trees....


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Etruett said:
I remember my father telling me that right after the way he and some of his buddies got into building hot rods and dirt track race cars and since nobody out in the country had a garage, they used a stout tree limb to pull engines in and out of all of their race cars. The only time they did a job for money was for the only neighbor that had a nice Lincoln and of course the limb broke and the engine fell right on the fender! It was a funny story years after but I'm sure it was not funny at the time. They then decided to build an "actual" hoist frame out of huge timbers someone found. I got the biggest kick out of the description of actual hoist built of timbers like it was a precision steel frame crafted by the finest machine shop.
Click to expand...

Hence, the term "shade tree mechanic".

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