Im getting ready to pull the engine and trans from the 59 ... its all stripped out and ready to hook up to the cherry picker... so I figure Im gonna check out the engine hoist to make sure everything is good on it.. I notice that one of the wheels wont turn so I lay the hoist down and check it out... well i push on it with my hand to get it to turn and ... snap!!! .. the wheel breaks off and all the ball bearings fly everywhere.. the wheel snapped off!!! ... tha would have been really nice if I would have had the engine and trans mounted on it and went to move the engine out ... and had that wheel snap off then... either the car or a body might have been under it... so just a word of caution ... check out your hoist before you use it... Sammy
Not good, but I have had a wheel snap off while cherry picker was loaded down with probably 1000 lbs. of 52 Pontiac straight 8 w/trans. Think I broke the wheel off due to the weight. Didn't tip over or anything, just made it a bit harder to move. Big Man Upstairs was watchin out for me that day.
I'm going to sound like the pain in the****, like your old man or mine ,take the time maybe once a month or 6 mo depending on use and ck out equipt. accidents happen all the time because of worn out equipt. I know this sounds silly to some, but believe me if it can prevent an injury or even death its wotrh it. call me gay if you like , the bottom line is i'd rather be a pain in the**** than have to come to your funeral, enuff said PS in the 60's when I was in the Air force, we had it pounded in our heads that accidents KILL people i haven't forgotten it yet 38 yrs later
I'm curious about what snapped off? Did the bearing race disintigrate and the wheel come off the spindle? Did the spindle break off? Did/do you tighten the nut too tight when you packed the wheel bearings EVERY 1000 MILES like you're supposed to?
The part that broke ( I will post pics later) you cant even see .. its the rivit/post that holds both of the races that have the ball bearings in them.. it is pressed into place and just snapped apart ... so even if you lubed the bearings (which they had grease on them) you cant get to this part ... its the bearings that allow the wheel to turn... and that part is bolted onto the cherry picker frame... so you cant even tighten that part if you wanted to... just make sure to check this stuff out .. cuz you could end up with a major problem.. or worse yet an engine falling on your car or on someone... or dropping the block and then it would be useless ... so Im glad for a min of time I would have saved not checking .. I saved me a big headache...
i worry more about the hydraulic cylinder failing, i make a habit of walking around, or if i must, ducking WAAAY under the boom. broken casters are a way of life on cherry pickers! you gotta learn the one man counterbalancing the too-heavy engine hanging off the cherry picker while trying to move it just a bit with one bad caster while hanging over freshly painted sheetmetal dance!
Definately check your equipment before use. FWIW: Did anyone see that Lockheed just dropped a $239 million satelite? When they moved it, it fell off the cradle because the bolts that held it on had been removed to be used elsewhere. OOOOPS!
So,,,, The wheel that fell off was the cherry picker wheel and not the "'59"s wheel....?! Oh well. It is still Monday isn't it?
[ QUOTE ] Definately check your equipment before use. FWIW: Did anyone see that Lockheed just dropped a $239 million satelite? When they moved it, it fell off the cradle because the bolts that held it on had been removed to be used elsewhere. OOOOPS! [/ QUOTE ] There goes every penny of every dollar that everyone of us poor saps on this HAMB board ever pay in taxes, and then some. Well***** us...
DrJ, it didn't belong to the Government yet. Standard practice on a piece like this is that Lockheed would bid it, and the Government doesn't take possession of it until it's finished. So, in this case, Lockheed will have to eat it. Most likely, some smaller super-espensive parts may be refurbished, but the majority of it will be scrapped. The refurbishment costs and risks are more expensive than building a new one. Sucks for Lockheed. Additional discussion on this was on the Practical Machinst forum a few days ago.
My brother has road rash from hell because the bolt that was holding the wire wheel on his grinder motor backed out and the wheel did a burnout on his forearm on the way to the back wall of the garage.***** happens. Check anything that moves before you use it, and make sure you know where the***** that doesn't move is before you stumble over it... Anyone besides me think that there might possibly be a Hot Rod in someone's garage with bolts worth $239 million in the home fabricated****anium billit engine mounts?
[ QUOTE ] Don't feel sorry for them DrJ, They'll get it back, trust me. [/ QUOTE ] That's exactly what I was thinking. They will just add enough to cover it on their next contract "extension". I've worked on government contracts. I worked on one project that my company lost the bid for but we ended up actually making the product as a sublet from the company who did get the contract. Of course we charged them even more than our bid had been and they just turned around and told the government that there were "unforseen costs" and the government paid them. It's a big game, especially when the customer is the Pentagon, or Livermore Labs. I had a teacher in highschool who said he worked at a ship yard while he was going to college during WW II He couldn't get drafted becuse he had a "defense job" The ship yard was making Destroyers by the dozen and their contract was for 10% over cost! So the more it cost in labor and materials the more the shipyard owners made in profit off of...US! Well, This teacher said his job was the night shift "time keeper". What that entailed was blowing the shift start horn, the go to lunch horn, the back to work horn and the end of shift horn, then the next shift "time keeper" came on. That is all he was required to do. He just took his own alarm clock and slept between his "work duties" or studied for his exams.
It was the wheel on the Engine Hoist.. not the Rancherita! ... Im like totally checking out everything I got now to make sure its not gonna break on me.. I could just see me looking for body parts for the 59 now... I dont even want to think about it...
A buddy O mine had a cheap engine stand[not a cherry picker]with a four bolt 350 short block fresh from the hottank- overhaul project on it and stand was short length[cheap one] and when left that day it was all right -next morning it had tipped straight forwards from the weight and hit the floor-snapped off the frt main cap.......49.95 wasnt a savings in that case.
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