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| Dropping the cradle but from what starting point? (Page 2/3) |
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olejoedad
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FEB 10, 04:25 PM
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Bolting/clamping casters to the cradle would really limit the room to get the cradle bolts out, as the car would be very low to the ground.
Cradle bolts are known to not give up their jobs easily, they can put up a good fight, even with air tools.
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PhatMax
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FEB 10, 04:44 PM
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I hear ya. The two rear bolts both broke and one of the front ones broke... the last one came apart pretty easy. I don’t see an issue with the castors as they are fairly tall and I have the body panels off ... dealing with rust repair.
Oh ! I also have the front raised on blocks 5.5”..
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oneinch
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FEB 10, 04:57 PM
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I'm going to build TODDSTER's platform, but I'm going to get car skates for the wheels. I can use the skates in the future whereas I don't need casters. I plan on having the front tires sitting on 6" blocks. Never thought I'd being doing this, but I am looking forward to it. ------------------
Stanton
'88 Formula, red on gray
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olejoedad
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FEB 11, 09:22 AM
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Be sure to chock the front wheels, ahead and behind.
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thesameguy
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FEB 11, 01:47 PM
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Haha.... I'm in the same boat. I was planning all sorts of tomfoolery to get the trans out for a clutch change, but I've given up. I'll just drop the cradle and work on the whole thing out the car. It'll give me an opportunity to do other things, like clean up wiring, repaint various surfaces, etc. Overall, it seems a small amount of extra work for a whole heck of a lot of convenience.
For "drop the subframe" operations on other cars, I've used Harbor Freight heavy duty furniture dollies to move subframe+drivetrain around. $15, support 1000lbs, and roll nicely even on concrete. A couple of them tethered together with a 2x12 do really well. And it never hurts having a few of them around for moving stuff around the house or the yard.  I've even used them to move stripped out shells around the driveway so the scrap man can take them away.
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oneinch
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FEB 11, 02:15 PM
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thesameguy, I plan on taking advantage of having the engine out to do other things too. Some repairs and making things purdy. I'd like it so when I need to work on it, it's just not a filthy mess. I'll re-gasket the engine and paint it. I'm not a fan of black engines; paint or grease. Cleaning up the engine bay is a project too. I'm pondering replacing the insulation. It's falling apart as is. Good luck to you. ------------------
Stanton
'88 Formula, red on gray
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cvxjet
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FEB 11, 07:20 PM
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First off, I screwed together a pallet specifically to support the cradle/engine/trans, then after jacking up and supporting the car I used the engine hoist to lower the assembly out of the car onto the pallet; This way allows access to the cradle bolts, whereas lowering the whole car down onto the pallet makes it difficult to get to those bolts. And you need a heavy duty hoist to lift the car anyway....So why not lower the assembly down out of the car?
After the whole assembly was sitting on the pallet, I then used the hoist to lift the car up high enough to allow me to roll the whole shebang out from under the car. Removing it I had a pallet jack, but reinstalling I used Sprinkler PVC pipe as rollers to move the pallet back under the car.
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thesameguy
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FEB 12, 10:53 AM
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This is probably the approach I will use... It's how I generally drop subframes out of cars anyway. Car on jackstands, engine attached to hoist, remove subframe bolts, lower subframe onto dollies, disconnect hoist, lift car over dropped subframe.
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bjc 350
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FEB 12, 01:57 PM
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I read somewhere that you don't need the cradle cart. So after removing the engine in the "mini wide body" car using a cart, I decided to reinstall it using the legs of the hoist as the cart. Really worked well. I'm sure the motor can be removed using the crane legs as the cart as well. A couple pictures of the process are included. A few more pictures are on page two of the mini wide body thread. Oh, by the way, the front wheels were raised on a set of ramps with some wood chocks bolted to the ramps, for safety. That reduced the angle of the car while raised for the engine removal. Felt safer to me!
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oneinch
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FEB 12, 02:35 PM
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That's very slick bjc 350. Good execution. I've invested in the cart, doesn't mean I have to use it though. I still have all the little things to do first. Drop time is coming. ------------------
Stanton
'88 Formula, red on gray
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