[fsb1284]

Anyone (besides

) have experience with this? Going to do the motor mounts à la Fried Chicken and methinks this looks like a good improvement (if not supplement) vs the typical "block of wood under the tranny pan" method.

I have the M113 and the (rare but oh-so-lovely) ABC in my car.

 

[MikeKerr]

Goof video, Victor is quite interesting to listen to.

 

[4DGeorge]

I'm going to be doing this as well. While reading up and searching for the needed tools, I found this How-To write up:

http://www.mercedesmedic.com/d...-pictures-video-mercedes-benz/

Haven't read through it all yet, but there appears to be plenty of photos.

As I need to also replace the driver's side valve cover gasket, I'll likely postpone that job to coincide with the motor mount replacement.

By the way, what's the deal with so many people wanting to use floor ramps instead of jack stands? Especially when doing under the vehicle work on difficult to reach stuff? I'd rather pop the wheels off and get them out of my way. Floor ramps, while convenient, have always been a huge space-hog of a tool in my experiences. I pretty much quit using them back in the early '90s, unless I NEED to keep the wheels/suspension supported, like when doing an alignment.

I haven't used that particular Harbor Freight tool before. From the photo and previous experience with their tools, I'd be a little leery of the steel support foot (triangles at each end) cutting through the rubber/plastic foot and landing on the fender frame directly, messing up the paint and likely denting it.
I would also be hesitant to risk my hands/arms to being crushed/pinned under the engine should one of the welds break on the threaded lifting rods. I've already experienced a similar type item (thin welded support hook) breaking and damaging what I was working on. Fortunately I wasn't between two hard spots at the time and still have all of my fingers... for now.
Given the simplicity of the tool, I would be inclined to use a 4x4 piece of wood for a cross brace and create a similar jig to hold the engine up.
If you do buy their tool, I recommend swapping out the threaded hoisting rods for high quality, grade 8 or better, ones. And, if nothing else, put something additional under the engine/between the frame just in case! Better to destroy the whole vehicle than crush your hand or arm!
I have a friend who lost an index finger when we were doing the same thing back in our young 20's. It changes your life. Permanently.

 

[wallyp]

Had to do a similar job on a Jag XJ6 quite a few years ago, and built a similar tool from 2X8 timbers and heavy-duty turnbuckles. Worked perfectly, and the 2X8 triangles were cut for a custom fit on the fender flanges, including counterbores for bolt head clearance. That spread the load over a large area, with no resulting damage of any kind. Gave it to a friend afterwards.

 

[fsb1284]

Thanks all. RE the ramps vs. jackastands debate, I find that the ramps are safer than teeter-tottering the car to get it on four jack stands. I’ve done the latter, but unless maximum ground clearance is required, I typically just use ramps. Same thing with wheels on vs off...if car falls, it lands on tires instead of brake rotors. It’s all about risk mitigation.

Based on the comments herein, I think I will stick with the jack-under-the-pan method. It seems tried and true, and I have little/no experience rigging an engine for lift-by-bracket (I have a habit of avoiding cars that need engine-out work ? ).

 

[Shemademebuyitforme]

Never buy a parachute from Harbor Freight.


I have some of their stuff, some of it is OK, some of it is bad to the point of being dangerous. The question to ask yourself is this - "If this fails, will I get hurt?" If the answer is yes, buy somewhere else for a little more money because hospital bills are really, really expensive.

I have a 4 by 8 folding trailer from them, great value even though the hardware isn't metric, English or Whitworth. (Ever see a 16.5mm socket? Me neither.)

I have a cherry picker engine hoist from them, it works, but I am very careful not to put myself or anything I care about under it.

I have a motorcycle lift which almost guillotined my hand during assembly - they don't warn you about it. Be careful.

I also have a large box of now useless cordless drills with bad batteries. The batteries aren't warrantied even though the drill is, and after a year of so, you'll hear "that style is discontinued and unavailable".

Would I trust my life to a set of Harbor Freight ramps or jack stands? No, I don't think so.


Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[fsb1284]

Never buy a parachute from Harbor Freight.


I have some of their stuff, some of it is OK, some of it is bad to the point of being dangerous. The question to ask yourself is this - "If this fails, will I get hurt?" If the answer is yes, buy somewhere else for a little more money because hospital bills are really, really expensive.

I have a 4 by 8 folding trailer from them, great value even though the hardware isn't metric, English or Whitworth. (Ever see a 16.5mm socket? Me neither.)

I have a cherry picker engine hoist from them, it works, but I am very careful not to put myself or anything I care about under it.

I have a motorcycle lift which almost guillotined my hand during assembly - they don't warn you about it. Be careful.

I also have a large box of now useless cordless drills with bad batteries. The batteries aren't warrantied even though the drill is, and after a year of so, you'll hear "that style is discontinued and unavailable".

Would I trust my life to a set of Harbor Freight ramps or jack stands? No, I don't think so.


Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

The drill and batteries ?...got at least one of those and batteries clogging my cabinet. Then I actually had to do work and got a DeWalt.

 

[wallyp]

It has been interesting over the last three or four years to watch various items at HF go from total crap, to pretty good, to (in a few cases) very good. As an example, their top line of tool cabinets have been getting really good (and really surprised) rating from the car forums online, as has their new line of welding equipment.

Apparently, if you do your homework, you can actually find Chinese manufacturers who will make you good products.

Sill have to be careful what you buy there, though...

 

[4DGeorge]

It has been interesting over the last three or four years to watch various items at HF go from total crap, to pretty good, to (in a few cases) very good. As an example, their top line of tool cabinets have been getting really good (and really surprised) rating from the car forums online, as has their new line of welding equipment.

Apparently, if you do your homework, you can actually find Chinese manufacturers who will make you good products.

Sill have to be careful what you buy there, though...

HF gets their stock from the same places that provide for ACE Hardware and numerous other stores. HF just gets the 'grade B' items that didn't pass Q/A to go to the higher tier sellers.
So that 8" bench top drill press at ACE Hardware is the exact same thing at HF.

 

[wallyp]

I doubt that the manufacturers have that formal level of QA!

Back in the 1980's, I taught a basic auto tune-up course for several years.

I still remember having numerous of my students telling me that they only bought their spark plugs from the auto parts stores, because everyone knew that K-Mart could only sell them more cheaply by selling all of Champion's rejects...

 

[Dave2302]

Champion Plugs beejaysus .................. There's a blast from the past

As a young man I used to do a lot of work on Jaguars, including a lot of V12 Jaguars, because all the "lesser" Garages didn't have a clue around a V12 :wink

Yeah yeah that was a long time ago, (when I was a young man) , right around the time Wally was holding his course :laugh

When Servicing them I'd order 16 Spark Plugs, because the likelihood was I'd get 2 or more duff ones in a set of 12 Plugs ..........................

I sh!t you not !!

I always used to know the Firing Order off by heart .........................

1 Right, 6 Left, 5 R, 2 L, 3 R, 4 L, 6 R, 1 L, 2 R, 5 L, 4 R, 3 L !! :wink ..........................

Yeah yeah, I did have to go and double check it :big laugh:

In those days NGK were not readily available, but once they came along, I'd be unlucky to get a dud one, have used NGK ever since :wink

Cheers Dave

 

[cowboyt]

Drove a Jaguar once. Attorney friend had one. Silky smooth...but eventually he sold it 'cause the maintenance on it was getting crazy.

Ironically, I now have a V12! :laugh

For an engine support, I've never used one, but I'd want to use the same type that my local auto repair shop uses. They did the upper oil pan on my S600 last year (it had cracked), and they used one of those engine supports. Same, I believe, for when they did the motor mounts on the same car.

 

[Dave2302]

Hi T,

I had lot's of Jaguars back in the 80's / 90's they were just nicer than the same period MB's back then, but yeah, they were all "enthusiasts cars", I was always fixing something on 'em
The newer ones, especially the V8 Supercharged 4.0 litre are money pits :wink

I bought a Blue Point support bar years ago off snap on, still have it today, very good bit of kit

Cheers Dave

 

[wallyp]

I had an XJ-S (and a couple of XJ-6s - not all at the same time!). The Factory Workshop Manual basically warned that the S was a small car with a lot of mechanisms, so access would be challenging - they were right. In over sixty years of working on vehicles, I have never had another that had so many fasteners that you could see, and you could touch, but that you could not get a tool on to remove them.

 

[fsb1284]

Well, I used the Mercedes motor mount tool and Fried Chicken’s Harbor Freight t-handled extended socket wrench, but passed on the Harbor Freight engine support. A block of melamine/fiberboard and my hydraulic jack lifted the engine just fine via the oil pan.