Thanks for all the patience and advice in response to my previous cradle drop queries. My planning & pre work payed off. We started the actual drop at about 9:30 this morning, and by 11:45 we were done and breaking for lunch. I threw together a quick page with some photos, you can check it out here http://home.comcast.net/~rrisc21/drop.htm
Couple things to note, First I did this with the front wheels up on ramps .... definitely made things easier, gave more room underneath, etc. But one thing I'm really glad I did & would highly recommend is to secure the front wheels to the ramps. I did this with ratchet straps. One of the replies from my cradle drop question thread said when you start to raise the back, the front may want to move.... and it did. But since I had the wheels strapped to the ramps the ramps just slid along the floor a little.
The other thing I asked a lot about was hoisting the body once the cradle is unbolted, and the best way/place to attach to the car for hoisting. I didn't get any answers I was really thrilled with so I came up with my own solution. I used 8" long sections of 4x4 with 1/2" x 6" eye bolts through them. I used washers and some 4" round metal discs I had on the bottom to spread the load across the section of 4x4. I installed these in the strut towers (actually had to put the bolt part down from the top and then thread the washer/wood/plate/washers/nut on from the bottom, because the eye was to big to pass through the hole in the strut tower) and used them as the attaching points for the chain, and hooked onto that with the cherry picker. Worked like a champ, and I felt very safe with this arrangement. Here are some pics of the bolt/block rigs I made up
Once I had the cradle out I spent a few hours starting to pull stuff off, and hitting a bunch of stuff with PB blaster, in anticipation of future removal. All in all a very successful & enjoyable day!!
Thanks for all the patience and advice in response to my previous cradle drop queries. My planning & pre work payed off. We started the actual drop at about 9:30 this morning, and by 11:45 we were done and breaking for lunch. I threw together a quick page with some photos, you can check it out here http://home.comcast.net/~rrisc21/drop.htm
Couple things to note, First I did this with the front wheels up on ramps .... definitely made things easier, gave more room underneath, etc. But one thing I'm really glad I did & would highly recommend is to secure the front wheels to the ramps. I did this with ratchet straps. One of the replies from my cradle drop question thread said when you start to raise the back, the front may want to move.... and it did. But since I had the wheels strapped to the ramps the ramps just slid along the floor a little.
The other thing I asked a lot about was hoisting the body once the cradle is unbolted, and the best way/place to attach to the car for hoisting. I didn't get any answers I was really thrilled with so I came up with my own solution. I used 8" long sections of 4x4 with 1/2" x 6" eye bolts through them. I used washers and some 4" round metal discs I had on the bottom to spread the load across the section of 4x4. I installed these in the strut towers (actually had to put the bolt part down from the top and then thread the washer/wood/plate/washers/nut on from the bottom, because the eye was to big to pass through the hole in the strut tower) and used them as the attaching points for the chain, and hooked onto that with the cherry picker. Worked like a champ, and I felt very safe with this arrangement. Here are some pics of the bolt/block rigs I made up
Once I had the cradle out I spent a few hours starting to pull stuff off, and hitting a bunch of stuff with PB blaster, in anticipation of future removal. All in all a very successful & enjoyable day!!
I've done this in the past when I took my V6 engine out. And yes, it works very well !! Good job on posting this, for future PFF member references.
------------------ fierogt28
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02:10 AM
ltlfrari Member
Posts: 5356 From: Wake Forest,NC,USA Registered: Jan 2002
My only comment about your block of wood 'hook' is that all the load is on that nut. It it strips you're a gonner. I use open ended hooks (same as your setup) and just slipped them into the holes on the top of the strut tower. Less parts = less to fail. With this setup I have taken the weight of the back end, complete with 3.4 DOHC engine installed (a heavy beast at best) without any problems or bending of hte metal around the strut tower holes. Just my 2 cents. anyway glad to see you managed it in the end. I was paranoid about safety when I did mine the first time, took forever, now I can pull it in in hour or so.
Sounds like everything went much smoother than my first time. I think I was about four hours just on the front cradle bolts before I finally gave up and cut them.
When it comes to lifting the rear.....If you pull the trunk carpet back you will see the frame crossmember that braces between the strut towers. It has two holes on the outside that are perfect to hook a chain into.
David
------------------ His Fiero: 1984 2M4 Coupe
Her Fiero: 1984 2M4 Convertible
[This message has been edited by DPWood (edited 03-05-2006).]
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10:20 AM
Richjk21 Member
Posts: 2228 From: Central Square NY, USA Registered: Feb 2006
Sounds like everything went much smoother than my first time. I think I was about four hours just on the front cradle bolts before I finally gave up and cut them.
When it comes to lifting the rear.....If you pull the trunk carpet back you will see the frame crossmember that braces between the strut towers. It has two holes on the outside that are perfect to hook a chain into.
David
I was apprehensive about that myself, after reading a lot of the horror stories on here. But with the car at the level it was in the first 2 pictures, once the rear cradle bolts were outI just used my little bottle jack on the front section of the cradle, just behind the front bolts and as I jacked I could actually see the angle of the bolt change. I jacked it till there was no tension on it either way and they literally just slipped right out. One of the lucky things about having a west coast car that's had a pretty pampered life I guess
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10:46 AM
DPWood Member
Posts: 540 From: Aylmer, Ont. Canada Registered: May 2002
My only comment about your block of wood 'hook' is that all the load is on that nut. It it strips you're a gonner. I use open ended hooks (same as your setup) and just slipped them into the holes on the top of the strut tower. Less parts = less to fail. With this setup I have taken the weight of the back end, complete with 3.4 DOHC engine installed (a heavy beast at best) without any problems or bending of hte metal around the strut tower holes. Just my 2 cents. anyway glad to see you managed it in the end. I was paranoid about safety when I did mine the first time, took forever, now I can pull it in in hour or so.
I did think about that ..... but one thing to consider is the chains are not pulling straight up and down on the bolts, they're at a pretty good angle, which means in addition to the verticle forces, theres also a horizontal component thats forcing the length of the bolt against the surface of the block where it passes through, which helps transmit & share some of that down force to the rest of the block. We actually let the car sit once we started hoisting it using the blocks with the jack stands/4x4's about a half inch below the point just forward of the cradle mountings (where we initially jacked from to get the space to put the blocks in the strut towers) just to be sure everything was stable.
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12:39 PM
helmet1978 Member
Posts: 743 From: Boise, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2001
Nice documentation & a + for your efforts! I probably would have double nutted the eye bolts, and perhaps welded the bent eye loops, as I have seen them straighten out under heavy loads. What kind of wire or hose ya have stashed on that big spool?
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05:47 PM
northeastfiero Member
Posts: 511 From: Norwich / Uk Registered: Mar 2005
Dropping the cradle is allways the fun part, because you get to thing about how cool its going to be to line up a 600lbs chunk of steel wit a 2000lb chunk of steel in a few weeks. I like your strut mount lift brackets better than the ones we used last week, we were lazy and just turned the rear cradle bolt "washers" into the wood you used.
When I am done with my 88 swap project, I hope to be able to drop the cradle from 100% running condition in less than 1hour and 30 minutes.
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01:58 AM
Richjk21 Member
Posts: 2228 From: Central Square NY, USA Registered: Feb 2006
Nice documentation & a + for your efforts! I probably would have double nutted the eye bolts, and perhaps welded the bent eye loops, as I have seen them straighten out under heavy loads. What kind of wire or hose ya have stashed on that big spool?
Actually that's not a big spool.. it's a piece of cardboard on top of my rolled up passive solar heating panels from my pool. I blow down the system and roll them up during the off season... They are 2 2 x 20 panels . When they're installed they sit up on top of our patio cover and soak up the sun .... nothing like free heat!
). 
