Alfa engine stand adapter

[alfacybersite <acs@domain.elided>]

Several issues ago, Joe Elliott asked about mounting an Alfa 4-cylinder
engine from the rear using the bellhousing studs. Tony Sims verifies it
can certainly be done. I'm sure many others have also done so.

Yeah, I can be pretty tenacious at times. One of the reasons is that in
a few weeks I'm seriously going to need an engine stand adapter. I'd
somewhat permanently borrowed a very home-made side mounted (to motor
mount) from a friend. Unfortunately he needed it back. Over a year ago I
asked if someone had made or could make a bracket which would fit the
(pretty universal) Harbor Freight 2000# stand.

Jim  Steck sent me a drawing and we had several emails since I had a
Harbor Freight stand and he didn't.

When offered to the Digest, there was almost zilch interest.

Jim decided to go ahead and build one for himself and a complete engine
AND transmission are shown on his adapter / stand. Personally I wouldn't
add in the transmission. I do that on the floor, but nice to know it can
be done.

As I've mentioned before, it can be seen at:
http://www.alfacybersite.com/ACSEngineStand.html

I never had indications of any distortion in the block since the crank
always spun freely (before adding rods and pistons). Jim verifies this
to be the case.

He likes to mount on the inlet side, whereas I prefer to mount on the
exhaust side since most of the engines I'm involved with have Spicas. It
sure is nice to stand there with nothing in the way and assemble all the
Spica bits, especially all those fiddley support pieces for the steel
lines.

Jim is going to angle his mount slightly to make the center of gravity
more centered. Even with the rather crude one I used, it was pretty easy
to flip the engine over (and I'm not all that strong) which is also
handy when installing the pistons and rods. And of course you can
install the flywheel and clutch assembly on the stand, rather than on
the floor after its been removed.

Jim mentioned a fairly low cost for the adapter when we first talked.
Perhaps after building one, it might have turned out to be more
difficult. Still, should you plan on rebuilding at least a few
4-cylinder engines in your lifetime, the cost should be well worth the
aggravation of rear mounting or rebuilding on a bench or the floor.

Biba
Irwindale, CA USA
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