Technical Chain Falls

I've always felt pretty comfortable working with chain falls as opposed to using Come Along's to lift heavy items. I have two Harbor freight 1/2 ton units that look similar to the one in the video. I wish the guy in the video elaborated some on the make of chain fall he used.

Skip to the 2 minute mark in the video.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peo...S&cvid=65882708ee3d4c74b9c26b5c5a402b91&ei=69

 

Ouch!

This one is at least 50 years old




If you can’t read it, Budgit 1/2 ton

I also have an electric one (Budgit) that I need to take apart and fix.

 

I see an end of a chain, so not a continuous loop chain, and I'll bet he has the chain twisted or it would not behave like that. I use one thats an antique and works fine. There's a photo of Big Daddy Ed Roth using one exactly like mine.

I originally thought the C clamp was going to break. Bad idea

 

QUOTE="1946caddy, post: 15681474, member: 239020"]I wish the guy in the video elaborated some on the make of chain fall he used.[/QUOTE]
Looks like whatever brand it is, it lived up to the moniker of chain fall

 

I took another look at the video. The lifting chain on mine is #40 or #50 chain, kinda like a bike chain on steroids, the one in the video has “normal” chain as the lift chain.

 

Looks to me like the chain attached to the engine came loss on one end.

 

The catastrophic failure seemed to be the chain around the engine letting go. The hook is still in mid air. The lower chain probably broke or whatever was holding it together broke after the shock loading of the previous drops on the faulty chain hoist. Sketchy stuff. I have two chain hoists and they are both excellent quality made in England units at least 50 years old.

 

Well, that guys obviously an idiot.

 

I don't wanna visit him anymore.

 

Years ago I used a chain fall. We were dropping the motor in my dirt track car and the motor was about 6" above the motor mounts. This was an old reliable chain fall I'd used for several years, it really was in great shape, I thought...
I was lowering the motor very slowly as we aligned the motor into position, suddenly it just dropped the motor. We were fortunate no one was injured. The chain fall we were using only had a single lever that would switch between up and down. There was no "free" spool between the two, until it failed. Something inside failed completely, it went to "free spool" regardless of the position the lever was in. I couldn't get the chain to lock into either up or down position, no matter what I tried. I threw the chain fall into the scrap pile. We used a come a long until I bought the engine hoist. To this day, I don't trust chain falls, and come a longs are just a touch better.

The new shop rule was: Never lift or lower a motor if anyone's hands are in the danger zone, doesn't matter what you are lifting the motor with. That is what pry bars are for.

 

I'd say the bolt holding the chain to the engine broke or the bolt was to small headed and the bolt head pulled thru the chain link.

Seen guys do that with a bolt head just barely big enough not to go thru the link, I ALWAYS put washers on the bolt heads, don't trust some of the cheap bolts now days not dis-forming and doing exactly that....

..

 

That's why I prefer to install a engine by myself.

 

Chain Falls. Isn't that the state capital of Minnebraska?

 

Not much later in the video; you can see the loose end of the chain that was on the motor hanging on the ground with looks like bolt head and washer still in it.

Don't know what made the hoist drop; but maybe the two shocks did in a bolt that was weak, loaded at an angle, or not screwed in far enough.

The chain hoists, I've had were all the differential kind with one continuous length of chain. Think the kind in the video has some type of gearing, that can fail, between the lifting chain and the operating chain.

 

I hate chain hoists, when I was 15 we were putting a motor in a car but the chain had a twist in it so we were fighting the chain, end result I ran a gloved finger into the hoist and had to go to the hospital to get it stitched up.

 

Had that happen to a student. New to him 350. Seems a stock intake bolt didn't have enough thread engagement going through the chain to support the engine. Snapped off the front of the crank when it hit the floor. Took a crank the eye ball micrometer said was good, flipped the engine over and set it in his bearings. On the road again.

 

I have used them for many years near 50 , not one issue . Had a huge 6 ton , in the shop to remove parts from the 1750 HP Process Air Compressors . Nuts on the connecting rod bolts were hex 3 1/2 inch . Just an idea of the foot print these monsters had .

 

I had one of those differential chain falls back when that young pup over there to the left was farting around with dirt cars. No body parts had to be below the engine when it was going in or out of the car. I copied the engine mounting points from a friend’s car, and it worked great. I guess that confirms that I’m the great plaigerizer. I could remove and install an engine by myself with that system. Having said that, I still didn’t trust the chain fall to not drop the engine.

 

from the two minutes I watched, all I saw was a guy who was rough with his gear, when it initially jammed, all he did was get rougher.
To lift a 1/4 tonne motor and box on 2 bolts seems optimistic to me………

 

Improvising, taking shortcuts to save time and not following the most elementary safety principles. He's an OSHA incident waiting to happen. He'll eventually hurt himself and/or others around him.

• That looks like a 1/2 ton or 1 ton rated fall, for probably a 700lb. engine/trans. Pushing the limits. He has a big beautiful new shop and he's cheaping out on one of the most dangerous shop actions.
• He uses a C clamp for an anchor shackle. A miracle that C clamp didn't snap.
• He completely ignores the warning signs of an impending equipment failure; the chain jamming multiple times as well as it dropping the load multiple links shortly before the load being dropped. Sling chain not properly fastened to the engine.

My back hurts watching him lift and carry around the trailer. Why not back the trailer in, lift the load off the deck, then drive out?

I have a 3 ton Yale chain hoist and gantry. Yesterday, I unloaded a 52" stomp shear I bought which is about 1000 lbs. Even with the hoist overrating, I used huge chains, grade 8 bolts with washers, etc and had things planned out to minimize the time that sucker was hanging above terra firma once I pulled my truck out from under it.

 

The galvanized chain that he was using on the engine broke or the bolt pulled out.
Still I don't want any clown who uses a 6 inch C clamp to hang a chain fall / chain hoist from anywhere around my shop I figured it was that cast C clamp that would break.
I've had this one hanging from this gantry for over 25 years and it will hang up like the one he used did when you try to go too fast but I figured it was rust on the chain to some degree. the chain just binds up when you get carried away with going faster than it wants to.
2 screen shots that show that that dog chain he was using on the engine it's self or the bolt he was using is what gave out.

 

Had to go back and see the C-clamp holding the hoist on the flange of the beam; wow for stupid.

 

It looks as though he has a defective hoist as most that size are rated for at least 1/2 ton (1100 lbs) and usually they are a 1 ton or 2 ton ratings. Possibly the clutch is defective. Also if you look back a little before the 2 minute mark it appears that the chain he was using was very lightweight chain......

The jerk from dropping a foot or so either allowed: 1. The chain to break 2. The bolt to break 3. The bolt to spread the chain and slip thru.

In any case the hoist did not appear to completely fail but the jerking drop caused the chain/bolt to fail.

I have a bunch of "cheap" hoists in my shop from Harbor Freight and lately from Amazon. You can see a few differences between them but so far they have all worked pretty well. I have about a dozen of them. The chain "sling" where you simply bolt a chain to a motor with two bolts will work ok if you use a sufficiently sized chain and bolt.....AND a washer. I go a step farther usually and weld a tab (with a bolt hole) on each end of the chain. This works great and only takes a short time to make them. (I use 5/16 chain)

Never one to leave "good enough" alone, I bought some engine tilters. They work really good for installing engines..........but the chains seem to sometimes damage valve covers and other engine stuff when they pull tight. So I modified my engine tilters. This works really well for getting engines in and out. It also is a big help when removing a truck cab or bed by adding a few straps. You can get the things just right when reinstalling them. I just finished making another one the other day and added a piece of box tubing to it. Now I can take the tractor fork and stick it thru the tube and shuttle it around easy too. I'll add the picture later. Meanwhile here is what one looks like without the box tube.









Also saw this on line the other day...........

 

I'm another who didn't watch from the very beginning. Just now did, that guy is dangerous.

 

The problem is that people who know less than him watch him and think they'll do the same and they end up doing even more dangerous stuff.
I don't like the way he fixes his twisted frame either. To me cutting is the very last resort.

 

I used to tell my students that if they were going to learn from You Tube, to watch several videos. That way they would have an idea of who knows what they are doing and who is blowing smoke. Of course if all you find are dumb, dumber, dumbest you're still in trouble.

 

I have a monster one an uncle gave to me 50 years ago. It has to be at least one-ton. Super easy to use with great reduction.

BUT... it takes 2 people to hang it up. I used it once to pull an engine. Now it sits under a work bench.

 

i had a chain hoist/fall that slipped like that once, pulled the chain out of it and threw the rest away.

 

Yes, there's something wrong in that hoist to jerk down like that.
He's lucky he wasn't near the engine when it fell

At about 8 years old, I was fascinated by the differential chain hoist Dad had bought. Such a simple concept but it worked great for pulling engines.

 

Chain FALL sounds so negative. Destined to fail?
I call them Chain HOIST. Sounds so much more positive.

Who ya kiddin’? FAFO if you misuse one. It’s a tool and like many others can hurt or kill you!