Projects Don't try to manipulate Hemis by yourself

Today at the shop, I took my '56 Hemi off of my test stand so I could put the '51 Mercury on it. I had built a wheeled dolly for the Hemi so I could scoot it around the shop when it got in the way. Before I finished the dolly, I positioned the engine above it so I could see how the engine would fit and made the proper brackets and welded them on. I wanted to weld the bottoms of the brackets, so I had the bright idea of putting my cherry picker on the back of the engine and lifting it up so I could weld the bottom of the brackets. I picked it up to about where I wanted it, and thought, "Ya know, it would be better if it were a little higher", so I gave it a couple of more pumps, and the engine "over-centered" on the front of the dolly and ended up sitting on the crankshaft pulley! I had the arm on thecherry picker set to the length where it would handle a flathead no problem, but the weight of the Hemi pulled the back wheels of the picker off the ground and over she went.

I got everyrhing picked up and back on it's wheels with no harm done (if you don't count the 8 quarts of oil on the garage floor). I had moved 3 flatheads earlier this week with no problems and little effort, but when things get over 800 lbs (the engine has a truck bellhousing flywheel and clutch on it), things work out a little differently!

 

Denny,

I thought I was the only guy who #%£¥ things up! Takes a big man to tell on himself

Ray

 

Good your feet weren't under there!!

 

Ray,

I was really lucky; it could have gone over and dropped on its side, and broke something, but it sat perfectly square on the crank pulley. Probably 1 out of 100 times. I will be buying another 50 pounds of Floor-Dry, however. A cautionary tale that you should check and change the settings on equipment like this when moving from one series of engines to another.

Denny

 

Dammit Man!
You got the Carpet dirty.
Now what are, you going to use for a low profile creeper ?

 

I did something similar years a go when I tried to rotate a Chev 6 cyl on a engine stand.
Just missed my foot !
Whew.
We learn by our mistakes, and it takes a good man to admit it.

 

example of why some motors are called boat anchors. plus, may help some people that think they can just drop a hemi in a stock frame on stock like suspension where a flathead was once in and think that all of the geometry, suspension, brakes will not be affected by the extra weight.

 

what they said....takes a good man to tell his troubles...

 

I was taking the heads off a 396 Chevy, engine on a good stand. One of the heads was being stubborn (I had all the bolts out...) and I finally pried it off with some force.

It was heading directly south, towards my feet. I cringe waiting for the pain to set in... no pain. I open my eyes, look down and I was standing between 2 large cans of hardware on the floor. Both cans are crushed quite a bit, not a nick on me.

Sometimes it pays to work in a cluttered garage, but I did learn a lesson about gravity that day.

 

I guess this is why I posted this and "told on myself"; these things are big brutes, whole most of the equiment (stands, hoists, etc.) intended for general consumers these days is more targeted to the SBC/flathead/modern engine crowd, and not quite up to the job.

 

You should have been there when I tried to get my nailhead out of my pick up. At its worst, it looked like a little like a trebuchet, with the hoist on one leg, slinging the engine out at the end of the chain. Fun stuff

 

Tubman
Hemi's have been lifting wheels off the ground for.......a long time.

 

damn your lucky , my big toe nail and the one next to it are finally growing out after a year , walking around the mess I call a garage I thought ( biggest mistake ) I put a set of pontiac 4x heads on the ends , out of the way of one of the roller cabinets , nope moved the cabinet and the head flopped down combustion chamber side right on to the top of my foot, I later thought ( making another mistake ) I was lucky it didn't come down on the edge between the intake and head face as Pontiacs are straight across this side not like a chevy with the cut outs , and its a sharp lip .. I now store my heads flat on a pallet .

 

It is said that we learn from our mistakes and laugh at others. The worst accidents waiting to happen are the cheap three legged engine stands.

 

When I was a young guy, I was wheeling a 600lb 440 long block on a cheap 3 wheel engine stand, up the sidewalk, to go into the basement at my dads place. I wasn't even LIVING at home, had got my dads permission to use his basement shop to freshen the 440 in my duster. I had the screen door and basement door propped open, so I figured I could just wheel 'er straight in there without stopping. Right when I got beside the screen door, one of the back wheels dropped off the sidewalk on the screen door side.
So the whole shiterree tilts over towards the screen door at a 40 deg angle. I actually grab it mid tilt (I was pretty young and studly then, worked in a sawmill) and I am standing there hanging on to this thing, inches away from the glass screen door. I'm holding my own, but I aint winning, I can hang on to it, but I just cant quite tilt the bastard back up, and the one wheel is dug deep into the dirt and grass on the edge of the sidewalk.
I stood there for what seemed like an ETERNITY, trying to shift my feet and pull the bastard back up onto the sidewalk, beads of sweat and veins popping out all over the place. Finally, after about 2 minutes of this impass between my muscles and gravity, I accept the fact that theres only one way out of this predicament. I just gave up, and let 'er go. Crashed through the glass, and twisted the screen door frame all to hell. Then I had to go back and get the cherry picker, lay a piece of plywood on top of the garden, and hoist the motor out of the screen door.
MAN, WAS HE PISSED when he got home!

 

i call bullshit, no such thing as a hemi in the way.

 

BTW, use grade 8 bolts to hold your chain to the engine..........only dented the 400 Poncho oil pan and left valve cover...
BTW, used welded chain.........smashed a chrome SBC pan and pickup
BTW, use the engine stand to move the engine, they like to tip over when moving the engine, dented a Y-block oil pan and smashed a "bone" bucket (plastic bucket to hold parts)

 

I think I can safely say that my wife will take issue with that. When we bought our house, we made a deal. The shop in the back was mine, and the attached basement garage in front was HERS. This is a current photo of "her" garage... Oh, and see that door behind the freezer? That leads to the laundry room. Theres a chevy t-10 on the floor in front of the washing machine...

 

not sure how the second person being there would help,
unless he is the smarter of the two

when I was young, working alone, tearing down my first 394,
I mounted it to my brand new engine stand,
must have cost all of $30 at Tool Town, the economy three wheeled version..
things were moving right along smoothly until I lifted the first head,
the stand being on a dirt floor tipped over and the 600 plus pound engine fell against the car,
rolled off and came to rest on my open toolbox..

I could have used someone smarter that day

 

Enough about her knitting supplies George!

 

That probably would have kept the 440 out of my dads screen door But when I was twenty, I didn't KNOW anyone smarter than me...

 

you know, she yells and shouts at me sometimes, but she sure does put up with a lot of BS!

 

You could have offered him a jelly doughnut when he got home

 

I tried that once. As you know, it didn't really work out as planned...

 

Sure is up far enough now now to weld those brackets on huh?

 

About 25 or 30 years ago I was putting a 331 in the back of my pickup. Inside the garage alone and night. Somehow I was trying to move it in the truck and something popped in my knee. I fell off the truck and twisted my ankle. Hurt like hell. Went to the Dr. next day and got crutches and ace bandages. Really swollen. After several weeks my boss sent me home and said find a new Dr. New Dr. looked at old Dr,s. X rays and inquired about my broken ankle. News to me. More X rays. Says ankle is crooked but healing and should be left alone. Knee however needs more looking at. Later he says I have bone cancer and need the top of my knee removed. Go to hospital in surgery. Discover I do not have cancer but my knee is fractured. This is 6 or 7 weeks after the engine loading incident. So that's my Hemi moving story. I hope nobody has a worse one.

 

1

hell if that was my wifes garage it would be packed to the ceiling with stuff ( like hers was when she had her house ) . we have or I should say had a spare room downstairs , she filled it with stuff , ( I hate dollar stores ) nothing gets thrown out ,she tried to start to move into the garage , made a nice table with some parts in the living room , that ended that ..

and put the t-10 to use and hop up the washer !

oh and one thing after my uncle bought a 4 wheel engine stand is when you buy one check the welds , he put his 289 ford on a stand ( bought it at Napa ) and the welds in the head stock were not to be and 2-3 seconds after he took the pressure off the lift it went to the floor .snapped the head mount of it clean off the upright . bent the nose of the crank and damaged the block at the first cap . he made weld the headstock back on and gussets and braces to that thing ,afterwords . and the napa store wouldn't help him on the damages . before the stand got fixed it almost learned how to fly thru a window .

 

And to think, earlier yesterday I was thinking it would be fun to have a 320 ci Roadmaster engine to fool around with, even though I don't have anything to put it into. Things have changed; what do you use for an engine stand for one of those? And yeah, the welding was really easy in that position.

 

Theres a Direct Connection "Mini Express" mushroom tappet cam pkg and a pair of chromed Desoto plug wire covers not 10' from me right now, in the living room. In my experience, you have to condition them slowly, just chip away at their resistance a little at a time...

 

I've found that constantly walking on the line they've drew in the sand tends to move it. Don't cross it just walk on it and it wiggles a bunch. Before you know it she will be polishing and dusting the motorcycle you have in the living room.