Engine Stand + Modification
I decided to get myself an engine stand now that two engines were in my garage.
I plan to build up the tinware, carbs etc on CornishSlivers old engine, and then work on the engine out of my bus on rainy days, just so I have a potential backup.
Worst case scenario is I have a crash course in Aircooled, but the engine is toast like I thought... least I would know the twinport engine inside and out... :idea:
Neways, after doing a bit of research, and asking for a cheap and cheerful engine stand, I brought this beauty off fleebay.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262610361394
Bargain £38 quid. I was advised against buying a three wheeled stand, although cheaper they aren't very stable :lol:
The engine stand came with no bolts to connect it to the engine, and I did some digging on here and TheSamba, and I could not find anyone with a definitive answer to which bolts, lengths or adapters I needed.
Some people were even saying that this type of stand is not able to be connected to an Earlybay engine at all!
Most sellers of the parts weren't even listing their threads or lengths!
Thinking cap on.
There are two bolts on the top of the engine to transmission, both M10, one 70mm, the other 110mm. The bottom two are studs, meaning they are threaded on both sides. they are M10 x 82mm.
All of the bolts to the engine would have been too short to bolt onto the stand, and I could not remove the bottom two studs.
I went to my local fastenings wholesaler, and purchased
M10 x 120mm X 4, a tonne of washers and appropriate nuts. These kinds of places normally serve the trades in large quantity orders, so over-the-counter small purchases like these are cheaper than you might think.
The top left bolt on the engine is not threaded into the engine body, wheras the bolt on the top right is captured with a welded nut onto the casing body.
For these two I used the following. M10 x 120mm Bolt, 11 Washers, and two Nuts each.
When attached to the stand bracket this meant they were both even. Any more washers would mean that there would'nt be enough thread on the right hand side.
The bottom two studs would not budge, and 2bh I didn't try very much to move them either. :lol:
I realized that the shape of the engine stand mount wouldn't let me use all four mounting points on the engine without some modification.
Instead I used an angle grinder to cut off two sections of thick steel from an offcut, and drilled two holes in each that would take the M10 thread
(this took absolutely forever and left me with tinnitus for the rest of the day :shock
For the bottom studs I used two Nuts, capturing the improvised adapter. Then a M10 x 120mm Bolt, 2 Nuts and 2 Washers
Hope this helps someone in the future when they are attempting something simmilar.
Thanks for reading,