Shade tree mechanic has been tossed around as being a bad thing. In the south, at leaat, it was a reality. This chain for a come-a-long has been hanging there for 50 years that I can remember, and I don’t know how long before that.
I can make one recommendation..... when using a tree limb to pull an engine.... add a support chain outward of your hoist back to the trunk. Ask me why I know that’s important! Bones
My shop was bordered , behind, on two sides with alleys in a T shape and between them and the next business was one of the biggest Elm trees I ever saw. It’s limbs covered both alleys and a most of the parking behind my shop and the back parking lot of the neighbors business. I can tell you there were hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles repaired under that tree. It was the most popular place for the firefighters and friends to bring their cars and trucks to work on! Borrowed my tools, if they didn’t have enough , used my advice( sometimes! Lol), close to parts stores, shady and cool in the Summer. Was quite the place in the day! Bones
yes indeed My shop for many years was a spreading white oak on the creek bank. a spring flowed from below that tree. kept the beverage cold! It had plenty of stout limbs. I ran a chain from where my hoist was back up at a angle about 6 ft above to the main tree trunk. I even would hang a snatch block and use a cable and a M Farmall to lift a vehicle high enuf to be able to back a bob truck under it and haul it to the scrapper. Many of a solid running 4 door was stripped of the desired parts and the remains went to the scrap yard. And the proceeds used to buy another victim. I personally sent over a 1000 vehicles to their demise. Also I would flip them up on their side or top to make it easier to unfasten parts. and it was always necessary to remove the gas tank.
In my old neighborhood, it would have been stolen by now! They would steal the slack out of a clothesline! Bones
I did a motor R&R once next to a tree... on a cement slab and used a cherry picker. had a tiny garage at the time, it was about a foot wider than the car, and two feet longer.
Sounds like the neighborhood that I work in. Our factory is across the street from the recyclers and we've had batteries and cats from cars stolen, we had to put razor wire around the metal hoppers.
I was extra work you had to pull the engine then push the vehicle back enough to lower the engine and get it out of the way. and then bring the replacement back raise it and then push the vehicle foreward. I was lucky I had a M farmall and used the tricycle front tires against the bumper to move vehicles. Lower the engines on a hood and drag them out of the way or back to install them. finally got a three point on the M and used a boom pole to shift engines. Im still using the same three point and boom pole on a different M over 5 decades later. still have the chain hoist it hanging on a swing set (gantry crane). And Im still killing a four door ever so often.
I used moms garage, I reinforced one rafter and wrapped a chain around it hooked to a kumalong. I looked it over years later all I could think is what was I thinking? So lucky I didn't pull the roof down.
I started building my first car ('65 Fairlane Sports Coupe) in the back yard at the edge of the woods when I was 15 with the help of some friends, wouldn't trade those memories for anything , BigO, North Carolina proud.
Abused a big old cherry tree like that. Didn't have a comealong, used a chain in a "Spanish Windlass" arrangement. Lucky not to have lost any teeth doing that.... first house had a 2 car shed and one of the doors had a big iron beam across the top... borrowed a chainfall to pull engines then. Finally bought a real hoist.... but I miss the cherry tree and the chestnuts from my old house.
I used a heavy home made swing set that had a large tree growing up next to it to do engine swaps for many years,during the rainy springs I hung tarps in the tree to work in the rain but a few years ago the tree had to com down but still take apart parts cars with that swing set.
Those days are over for me...... I kinda have a “ thing” for chain hoists ... and have about six more , laying around!
First engine I ever pulled was with a chain fall, attached to a doubled 2"x6" that was attached to a pine tree on one end and a 4"x4" post on the other. I had a transmission go out in the first semi truck I owned, a 74 Peterbilt cabover. I swung a chain around two pine trees on either side of the truck and used a come along to pull the transmission out from the top with the cab laid forward. At the time, I had a BF Avery garden tractor, about the same size as a IH Cub, and I used that to pull the truck forward so I could put the transmission in the back of my pickup. Used it to pull it back under the transmission when I put it back in. Pulled several engines in my driveway with a homemade A frame built out of 3" galvanised water pipe. Finally bent it in the middle, so I borrowed a hydraulic cherry picker, liked that so much I bought my own, best thing I ever bought. I've pulled engines with it, picked up my riding mower by one end to sharpen the blades, even used it to pick up my sagging carport when I replaced the posts under it.
We didn't have a good tree anyplace I could work on cars, so I got 3 long lengths of double wall 1 1/2" well pipe, torched a hole in one end of all 3 pieces, and ran a long 3/4" diameter bolt through the holes. We would set that up Teepee style with the outside pipes along the car fenders, and the center leg ahead of the car. Then we hung a come-a-long on the bolt between the center pipe and one of the outer pipes to pull motors. After a few motor pulls, I welded a plate over the bottom ends of the pipes, and added a chain to the bottom plates on all 3 pipes. The plates keep the pipe from sinking into the ground, and the chains kept the pipes from sliding away from each other on hard surfaces. The tripod was portable, we could use it pretty much anywhere, on nearly any surface. About every year or two I replaced the bolt at the top (it would start bending and caused concern.) I'm betting that tripod pulled over a 1,000 motors between me and all my buddies that used it. After a few years of use, we discovered we could rent an engine hoist from a local rent it center. But that was short lived, the hoist was $10 a day, and it always cost you for 2 days (the place closed at noon on Sat and wasn't open Sundays). But after a few years the rent it place wasn't keeping up the maintenance on the hoist and it became pretty unreliable. We went back to the tripod until we could afford to buy a cherry picker. The tripod still got some use after that because it could be set up pretty much anywhere, but the cherry picker had to be on a hard surface. Over all, I probably used that old tripod for 10 or more years before I was working in a real garage with cement floors. I think I sold it to someone for $10. Yea, it was a pain because you had to lift the motor, pull the car out from under the motor, back in the truck hauling the new motor and swap them in the pickup box, then lift the "new" motor and move the pickup. Then you had to push the car back into place. At least after we added the plates and the chains on the bottom, we didn't have to figure out how high the car would raise with the motor out of it, so you could push the car in and out from under it without scrapping the tops of the fenders. You just spread the legs out as far as the chain allowed, and you were good to go. We did what we had to do to get by, we had old cars, and couldn't afford to pay anyone else to fix them. We also discovered others would pay us to fix their stuff. What a deal! Gene
When I lived in Texas and worked in Waco there was a story about a guy who went to work in another shop in town that one of the other mechanics in the shop walked in with a big double hand full of leaves and dumped them in the top of his tool box and said " here I want to make you feel at home". I think I followed behind that guy on the first job I did in the first shop I worked in straightening out the mess he made. Back about 38 years ago I had a two story house in Zillah wa with a big maple tree in the backyard. My buddy gave me a Chevy pickup with a 350R Olds in it that "had a knock in it" My son and I fired it up an sure enough at an idle it knocked. Put it in Gear and power brake it and no knock. Shut it off, went in the garage and got a 9/16 wrench and slid under the truck and tightened up the torque converter bolts and slid back out and fired it up and no knock. A quick test drive to see how it ran and how the trans worked and it was back under the maple tree and an hour later the engine and trans were hanging from the big branch on the tree and we were pushing my 51 Merc under it to set engine and trans in it. I drove the Merc a lot of miles with that 350R and the same trans including a road trip to Texas and Bonneville in 1988.
First engine I ever pulled was a chain hoist over a large branch of a poplar tree. Pretty big old tree, no need for a support chain. Pulled out an ailing 272 and swapped in a nearly new 289.
My family home, we had this giant oak with a convenient branch for pulling engines. Even the neighbors came by to use it. The tree was 60' tall when I was a kid, it has got to be well over 100 years old by now. I bought a length of chain at a boat supply shop in 1974 and took it down when the house was sold in 1991, last recall using it in 1985 for the stock cars. Dirt driveway, I once dug a hole in it for header clearance during an install. The house, I pass it a few times a year since I still live in the same town. The limb... gone, for no reason that I can think of. It was sure stout enough for anything we hung off it.
I didn’t have a cherry picker when I was installing the 200 cubic inch six in my 1960 Ford van, back in 1978. I removed the old 144 six by letting it fall out on the ground and lift ing the van with a jack and dragging it out, that method wouldn’t work putting the 200 back in! So I got the 200 in the back of the van, removed the engine housing, moved the engine as close as possible to the big hole in the middle of the van, put a folded towel on the dash, reached back under my legs, grabbed that six cylinder engine and picked it up and set it in its engine mounts! It was good to be young! Bones
I still have a BF Avery tractor. I once had the13 speed trans go out in a 66 Pete Cabover. cost two much to fix the 13 speed . so I took apart a 10 speed & swapped the first set of gears on the countershaft's with the third set and made a overdrive out of it. Cold and no shop. I built the trans in the living room floor. worked all nite. Up against the dash in high gear. Used a chain hoist on the gantry crane. In the winter on a parking lot in the bitter cold wind blowing from the north. Made a tent over the whole works and fired up a torpedo heater wasn't too bad. All done in two days with only a couple hours sleep. Then I got in the truck and delivered the load to Boston.
Nothing wrong with improvising. I hung a complete Chevelle shell with frame still under it on a swing set once so I could back trailer under it.
The expression is "safety first" and I see he did block the tire prior to jacking...so check that one off.
Man, Bones , I wish I lived near you . I would come over to your place just to hang out and offer a helping hand that is one nice work space you have .
Thanks! That’s the shop on our ranch. My Dad built it about 25 years ago, after working years in a smaller shop. He always said he waited too long to build a big shop. I built that hoist frame real long so that I could change clutches in tractors with it. That one of the reasons for so many chain hoists on it two are on rollers and two are fixed in the corners. And it’s on wheels so I can move it around. Comes in handy. That red tool box , my Dad built it to hold his big tools. Real neat box, doors fit perfectly and it has hand made metal drawers.....that don’t bend! I got three lathes, two presses, two milling machines, welders,torches, grinders , two drill presses, belt sander, frame drill, cherry picker, plus several sets of hand tools. And a big fan to keep me kool! That’s important in the Summer! I proud of it.....wish my Dad was still here to share it with me. Bones
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