Hey guys, I'm going to be dropping the cradle on my daughter's 85 Fiero in a week or so, and I'd like to figure out what the best way to do this is. I've seen people use jacks and stacks of lumber, but I don't really want to do it that way.
I have a really nice engine hoist, and what I'm thinking is unbolting the subframe, and then lifting the car up using the engine hoist. The Subframe would then be jacked up a little so I could remove the wheels, and I'd then lower it (cradle) back down onto a dolly that I build... and then I can roll it out from underneath the Fiero.
I would then lower the Fiero back down onto a set of large jack stands.
The question I have is... has anyone done it this way? I seem to recall there was some large "T" bracket that sits over the engine bay, but I thought I remembered that was just for holding the engine in place if you do something else. What's the best way to attach an engine hoist to the back of the car (safely) where I won't damage the Fiero? The hoist can lift 2,500 pounds... so since it won't be lifting the engine, and the car would be cantilevered, I'd imagine it wouldn't be more than 1,000 pounds it would need to lift.
I usually run a chain through the rail at the front wall of the trunk compartment, but I use a chain hoist on an A-frame. Alternatively, you can remove the bumper cover and plastic absorber, and fasten the chain around the bumper bar, or remove the bumper bar and bolt the chain to the ends of the frame rails. I would be inclined to not extend the hoist arm all the way out. I can picture the hoist "flipping" out from under the rear of the car. But you may not have enough reach. Some people remove the struts, and set hooks in the holes where the struts mount. But that will extend your hoist even farther.
Don't use the trunk hook. Lots of people will tell you it's safe, but they would be wrong. I did that once, and it bent all to h3ll.
I usually run a chain through the rail at the front wall of the trunk compartment, but I use a chain hoist on an A-frame. Alternatively, you can remove the bumper cover and plastic absorber, and fasten the chain around the bumper bar, or remove the bumper bar and bolt the chain to the ends of the frame rails. I would be inclined to not extend the hoist arm all the way out. I can picture the hoist "flipping" out from under the rear of the car. But you may not have enough reach. Some people remove the struts, and set hooks in the holes where the struts mount. But that will extend your hoist even farther.
Don't use the trunk hook. Lots of people will tell you it's safe, but they would be wrong. I did that once, and it bent all to h3ll.
Damn, that's a great idea Raydar, thank you... I didn't even consider that. I have to remove the rear-bumper anyway because I want to remove that trailer hitch, and bolting it to the bumper "brackets" is perfect. Plus... it will give me more room because then I can move back the engine hoist further away from the car anyway. I'd totally forgotten that the legs extend out, and that'll make it difficult for me to remove the subframe anyway. Yeah, totally agree on not extending out the lift. It's a really nice lift with a lot of extra bracing / support, and I intend to keep it fully retracted (shortest length).
Thanks! This directly answers my question.
Any idea on a dolly? Anyone have anything similar?
the quickest way ive found is to jack up the car with a 4x4 spanning the width of the car with a big floor jack, near the middle of the car as recommended in the manual. dont forget to chock the front wheels. then once its high enough i slide 2 big jackstands under the 4x4. i also have an engine hoist lightly holding the trunk hook (not shown in attached photo) in case something goes bad/extra backup for the moments im under the car.
i removed the strut assemblies so i wouldnt have to jack the car as high to install the cradle/trans/engine assembly.
i did remove the rear bumper but that was for a different reason... to access the rear cradle nuts...
[This message has been edited by gregr75 (edited 09-19-2023).]
If you have the bumper off, that's the easiest way to lift the car, from the frame rails. Go ahead and extend the boom. The lifts are designed to be stable with the boom extended. If you don't have the boom extended, you will have to support the car on jacks and move the boom out of the way to get the cradle out. I bought a cheap Harbor Freight motocycle lift and added wood rails to match the cradle. That way you can support the cradle, unbolt the cradle and lift the car off the cradle. Then lower the cradle lift and roll it out. If I ever have to remove the cradle with the bumper in place, I think I will fabricate a lifting bar to go across the shock towers.
Lift the car and get it high enough so you can go underneath and un-bolt everything...Take the deck lid off, and use your engine hoist to lower the engine/trans/cradle onto the dolly.....Then what I did was use a cargo-strap wrapped around the trunk and the engine hoist to lift the car high enough to clear the engine/trans and roll out from under the car- some have used the legs of the engine hoist to lower the cradle onto- but that creates a problem with holding the chassis up high enough to clear. NOTE; Make sure that any jack stands are A) rated for the weight, B) They are positioned on actual (Steel) Frames, and check everything at least twice.
And I have no idea why I keep thinking about baby Dolly in the cradle....
I took off the bumper and used an engine hoist. I also had the front tires up on some 2x10 x 4.5” blocks….no issues. I bolted some wheels right to the cradle.
I'll post some pictures later tomorrow or Tuesday. We got the subframe out from under the car... it was a chore. The engine hoist lifting the car worked like a charm. I also totally forgot to remove stuff from the car until I remembered that maybe Raydar had told me to check... and I was like, oh crap...
Everything went smoothly except for a SINGLE.... a SINGLE subframe bolt which was rusted to the sleeve and would not budge... no matter what I did. I hit it with an impact wrench for like 20 minutes, wouldn't budge. I cut one end off, stripped the other, and eventually it broke free and I could muscle it out with a pair of vice grips and a dead-blow hammer. I was so frustrated... I went through like 4 metal-cutting saws ... all just for one bolt.
But we were able to get the car lifted and pushed it out from underneath (we had the two wheels on wheel dollies from Harbor Freight), and then put the car carefully back down on two 6-Ton floor jacks.
So now the fun begins.
I broke some stuff though... so I'm going to have to get a new rocker panel
I pulled my front fascia off and rear fascia and lifted the rear of the car up high enough to roll the cradle out on a furniture dolly. Similar to the post above, works fine for me thus far.
Next time I'll be doing it on my new 2-post lift though, I wasn't comfortable with the method.
If you take off the rear struts and wheel well, you can pull the cradle from the side. I didn't even have to raise it that high to do that. Installed the cradle with the new EV motor the same way. Just slide it from the side, jacked up the cradle a bit and lowered the Fiero and it went in place.
I'm helping her put together a video for this part... but this is a screen grab that I took where she's rolling it out from under the car, and moving it off to the side. Her boyfriend came over to help in the last hour or so.
EDIT: Also... my garage is totally trashed now. It's usually spotless, so I had to drink heavily to fall asleep knowing my garage is in complete disarray... haha... I can normally get three cars into my garage, and now I have one and two-halves. :/
[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 09-25-2023).]
Good luck to your daughter on this project. I hope to she see's it thru to completion. It will be a great car for her. There was another teenage girl on here years ago doing a Fiero project, but it never got completed.
Good luck to your daughter on this project. I hope to she see's it thru to completion. It will be a great car for her. There was another teenage girl on here years ago doing a Fiero project, but it never got completed.
Well, I won't know until it's done, but she loves this car, and gets mad at me whenever I try to do something because she believes she should be doing it. She seems committed. She's only a Freshman in high school, but hopes to have it running and insured by the time she starts her Junior year in H.S., so we'll see...
The good thing for her is that I'm funding all of it for her, she just has to do the work... so she doesn't have a funding probblem.
Little late to the party here, but before I got a lift, I did the lifting from the bumper support. This way it gave me the room to roll the cradle/motor out. Any other way the legs of the cherry picker would always be a hurdle.
It's good to see a young lady getting involved with some mechanics. None of my kids wanted to do anything at that age. Now that they are a little older it is all starting to come back full circle.
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: We got the subframe out from under the car... it was a chore. The engine hoist lifting the car worked like a charm. I also totally forgot to remove stuff from the car ... and I was like, oh crap...
Yeah. Once, I was lifting my car off of the cradle, and from behind the car it just didn't... look right. Then I realized that the front of the cradle was being lifted into the air by the still connected parking brake cable. DOH!!
Yeah. Once, I was lifting my car off of the cradle, and from behind the car it just didn't... look right. Then I realized that the front of the cradle was being lifted into the air by the still connected parking brake cable. DOH!!
We did EVERYTHING... and then... we noticed that we'd forgotten to remove the brake hoses. Hahah...
Since I knew I would be replacing them, I said... here, take these metal cutting sheers and cut the brake lines...
