The dreaded dilivar head studs?

[Lapkritis]

Originally Posted by ducatist

Harbor Freight motorcycle lift? I'm preparing to do the exact same job on my 2.7... potentially a bit more involved if my case lost threads. The lift looks awfully handy especially for the $99 price they have them for.

[Packet82]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

Harbor Freight motorcycle lift? I'm preparing to do the exact same job on my 2.7... potentially a bit more involved if my case lost threads. The lift looks awfully handy especially for the $99 price they have them for.

I used the HF ATV lift on mine. It worked well, although it's a lot easier if you take the muffler off before you remove or install the engine. The stop bar tends to get hung up on the muffler otherwise.

[ducatist]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

Harbor Freight motorcycle lift? I'm preparing to do the exact same job on my 2.7... potentially a bit more involved if my case lost threads. The lift looks awfully handy especially for the $99 price they have them for.

Good eye...it's the motorcycle/ATV lift from Harbor Freight, but I bought it online a few weeks ago for $69.00 - maybe that deal will come around again for you soon. It worked very well...provided a nice stable platform with the addition of a board laid across it's twin lift beams. Its range is between 4.5 and 16 inches, so I basically just raised the car really high with my floor jack, then nearly fully extended the ATV lift and lowered the car back down until the engine studs were a couple of inches past the transmission bolt holes - then I used the lift to fine tune the alignment until they paired (no one told me about that damn throwout bearing fork - kind of a pain).

I don't really like the way the lift descends...has two speeds: faster and fast and they come in that order. I worked around it by quickly tapping the lowering lever - kinda slapping it...made the lift lower in brief jerks...the only way to make it descend smoothly is to slap the lowering lever all the way down quickly and then the motor falls slightly slower than a falling stone. I worked around it by lowering the car a few inches past where the engine mounting studs lined up with the transmission and then a raised the lift gently until the engine and transmission were aligned.

I'd highly recommend the lift if not for the strangely designed lowering function (and the slightly misaligned safety catch on mine). But, it's really cheap (Chinese, of course) and it's constructed well enough that I didn't worry too much about it dropping my engine...and it was stable enough for me to mate my engine with the transmission while working alone. So, $69.00 well spent.

[Ronnie's.930]

Any updates? I sent you a PM a while back and didn't hear back from you (regarding my move) . . .

[ducatist]

I hit a road block on the project and felt the best way to cope with it was to go kiteboarding in Costa Rica for a few weeks. This is the first time I've checked in on here in two months. I responded to your PM today...sorry for the delay.