Work smarter not harder....

Drop your distributor in and start your wires were the rotor’s pointing w #1 on TDC ….. Forget about the “1” on the cap (if there is one)
Note
Don’t mention this shortcut on the Jeep forum …… the old super anal know-it-all ignition ass hole there will call you lazy - ignorant - half assed - and I forget what else.

 

Those wheels are waaaay too big for that style of car.

 

A man of my own thinking. I never could understand what the big deal about just where #1 should be....

 

Just read this whole thread and checked out all the pics...some good things happening here!!!

 

I have heard that this is the way they used to install engine/trans at the Ford factory back a few years ago.

 

This is the way I used to do it back in the day. ( using a fork lift) Don't have access to a fork lift these days, so I did it the easy way, took the body off the frame! Ha!

 

Not that I would pay it any mind ,but there is a cute picture on the side of my lift shows a car jacked up in the back like that and it has a big red line thru it. i wonder why.

 

Instead of making small adjustments with blocks of wood at each corner of a frame to level on the floor, use some cheap scissor screw jacks from all these modern cars. Then you can make small adjustments easy at each corner. (These modern junk cars are good for something!)

 

When I started my 49 Chevy p/u build about ten years ago I purchased a 7000# car lift, the best money ever spent. I later added a 5000# forklift and again money well spent, I sometimes wonder how I ever got along for all those years without them. I guess being younger and more agile helped, I use the hell out of both of them and appreciate how easy they make my life while enjoying my passion.

 

That red line through it is why you use the ushaped flip up catches on the lift placed over the axel housing and not lift it by the tires. I'm not a big fan of pancakes...at least not the bloody human kind. Some of the tractor based hydraulic tricks I've seen posted would scare the pee outta me! Ok Zeb, I got 'er up now you crawl in there and tighten 'er down,...sure hold my beer.

 

I was using an old Allis WD45 tractor to set and mount a hay wagon on a frame and blew a hydraulic hose to a loader cylinder.

That thing came down with such a force it broke the wagon frame in half & would have smashed anyone underneath.

 

I ran a body shop for exotic cars back in the day. Every night we would pack the cars in with the single cylinder lifts loaded first. Each lift had a 4x4 wood post jammed in, incase the lift lost pressure in the middle of the night. The tradition started before I worked there. From what I heard, the boss's 930 Turbo got flattened.

 

I know that guy.

 

I built a spray booth out of pool covers and an exhaust system with a furnace blower. Worked out great and saved me a ton... TBJ

 

In my carnival days we put a rebuilt 366 Chevy in a truck on the shoulder of the Interstate up by Bemidji Mn. Three 4x4s made like a tripod and a come a long . It would really shake when the trucks came by. Good thing I was younger then.

 

International times on #8.

 

Then how do you think I feel, I have a 41 John Deere...

 

When I was having the concrete poured for my garage,I had two large u-bolts (with a couple pieces of scrape welded to them for more surface area) placed in the concrete in the the middle of the door way on the back side of the garage. Now the reason for this is that my garage is on a very slight incline, just enough to make it difficult for me to move a vehicle inside with out its own power. I use a snatch block with a cable, the cable hooks on the vehicle goes through the snatch block and straight out under the vehicle and then I use my dads suburban to pull the vehicle into the garage....I drive the truck forward,pulling the(dead) vehicle backwards.

 

Im sorry

 

Since I'm usually working alone, my tractor is used constantly to do my heavy lifting. I made a boom pole that mounts to the bucket of my loader for jobs like lifting cabs, beds, frames, etc..... Like many have said, safety should always be a consideration when working with hydraulics. Anyone that has worked with these tractors for any length of time knows that a hydraulic malfunction is always possible. Same goes for that hydraulic floor jack sitting in your garage. Can't count the number of times I've seen someone jack a car up and crawl under it without jack stands.



Drew

 

I've ground down a universal joint to fit into these stock Ford F150 "bottle jacks." Then I put an adapter bit into my cordless drill. With a long extension I can zip my car up and down quickly with the touch of a button. Also, there's no hydraulics to fail. They're cheap at the junk yard. I got 4 of them and use them at each corner of the car sometimes. They "telescope" so they go a lot higher than you'd expect.






I have to put the drill in low gear (it's a 2 speed). Sometimes it can't quite lift the heavier cars. In that case, I have to go get my corded drill.

Oh, I almost forgot - A short piece of heater hose (or heat shrink) slipped over the universal joint stiffens it up enough to keep from flopping all over the place while you're standing at the other end of the extension trying to get it in the jack under the car.

 

Slick idea - I really like it. Any particular years of F150s have these jacks?

Thanks again for the tip .....

 

Glad to see others that aren't happy under a car. I'll be honest even with all the jacks and stands in the world i still get jumpy about being under a car and bashing away on something. I managed to pick some railway sleepers up very cheap. If i want to get the car reasonably high i use the sleepers doubled/tripled, bolted together and under each wheel and chocked. Gets the car high enough to do smaller jobs and its very stable. Cheap too and you can use them for all sorts! A friend has a 4 post ramp at his garage if i really need it.

 

My gradfather made some jack stands out of 3" channel and 5/16 plate and I put those under a rear axle or a frame rail Im not scared at all... they weigh 60 lbs a piece... have to shoot some photos for yall... good ole home made jack stands so much better than this new crap they have these days.

 

No worries. There like armpits, 2 on every site.

 

I use moving dollies like crazy to move the big heavy stuff. Seems like I can lift every piece of the truck on at least one side/end, so I lift the frame on the front and put one under the crossmember, then I lift it in the back and walk it around like a wheel barrow. Same with cab, except one on each side. Bed, so on.

 

My 2 bits worth on the safety issue when using forklifts, backhoes & loaders: Attachments (extensions etc. that move the load away from the machine) can severely reduce the lifting capacity. The further the load is from the machine, the less the effective capacity. Get the load too far out and either the load is very unstable or the whole deals tips ass-over-teakettle). The weight of the machine behind the pivot point (the axle/wheels closest to the load) has to exceed the downward force of the load at the end of the extension. Think of a seesaw ... you always want the loader to be the fat kid and the skinny kid to be the load.

Based on 30+ years in the lifting equipment and forklift industries....

 

I definitely wouldn't advise anyone to mount a boom pole to the loader if it's a light weight tractor. My loader would be the fat kid. I've worked 1200-1500 lb. rolls of hay with this tractor for years. Totally agree with your assessment.

Drew

 

My brother in law and I were working on his OT daily. Could not get the old u-joints out. Never had one stuck like that before. Took it up to the local parts store to see if they had a u-joint/ball joint tool. They said, just hit it with a hammer and socket! We said you try it. We kept egging them on til they get their rental tools out and did it for us right there on the counter. Old timer customer in there said he'd never seen on locked in like that.

That day, convincing the parts counter guy to do it for us was working smarter, not harder.

 

At the risk of moving this thread radically sideways (no, that's not a pun), I'd like to offer a suggestion for the employers among you.

Pay your top guys 20% more than the competiton, let your junior guys know this so they have something to aim for. Pay the ordinary guys the going rate.

If the ordinary guy leaves, he can be replaced, and maybe you get to train his replacement to become a top worker.

If a top guy leaves, he is really hard to replace. You will spend a lot more than 20% to get a new guy up to the level of the guy who just left.

There is smart lifting, and then there is smart business. Smart business will make you a lot more money, then you can buy a lot of clever equipment.