Engine support

[Frank S]

I had loaned out my engine support to a guy a while back and he still needs it so I made a quickie replacement when I pulled the transmission out of the Mack I am working on.

[Dry Creek Smithing]

Frank,
Necessity may be the mother of invention but Doctor Skill is the guy who delivers. Nice work! Some times those quick jobs are the ones that make you money too!
Tha k you for sharing your work. Love it!
Doug. D.C. Smithing.

[DIYer]

Thanks Frank S! We've added your Engine Support to our Engine category,
as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Engine Support by Frank S

tags: engine, support

[mr mikey]

Nice job, a few of the shops I worked at if you pulled a trans and couldn't have it back in in one day you had to push the truck outside so someone can use the bay. With that I took a couple of old tie rod tubes and made a few different braces. On a Mack I drilled holes toward the ends and could bolt then direct to the shackle area then use a 4 x 6 oak block between the bar and the pan. Other trucks I had different lengths to fit on the leaf springs then use short chains to secure them in place. Of course someone would borrow them and not return them so you spend an hour looking. You always get the ( I don't know ). Thanks Frank.

[Frank S]

Nice job, a few of the shops I worked at if you pulled a trans and couldn't have it back in in one day you had to push the truck outside so someone can use the bay. With that I took a couple of old tie rod tubes and made a few different braces. On a Mack I drilled holes toward the ends and could bolt then direct to the shackle area then use a 4 x 6 oak block between the bar and the pan. Other trucks I had different lengths to fit on the leaf springs then use short chains to secure them in place. Of course someone would borrow them and not return them so you spend an hour looking. You always get the ( I don't know ). Thanks Frank.

When I was Contract welder at the Cat Equipment rebuild place, I was forever fabricating special tools for the employee mechanics as well as for the contract mechanics. The crazy thing was I did about as much mechanic work as I did body work or repairs on the equipment. any tools I made I kept in a cabinet to be used again, but everyone else seemed to think they would only need them 1 time I could understand this "MAYBE" from the contractors but not the employees.
One day I was talking with Rolland the owner about something when a mechanic walked up and asked if I could make such and such for him.
What happened to the 1 I had to spend 2 days making for you last month?
I don't Know was the wrong answer to give with his boss standing there. After that anyone who had me make them, special tools had to return them to me to be kept in my cabinet and had to sign them out from then on. most of the time I had 3 of the 8 bays in the welding shop occupied with things I was working on and sometimes as many as 10 welders subbing under me on the equipment.

[Dry Creek Smithing]

Frank,
I had a cabinet full of self made tool and mounts like that as well. I worked as a bus mechanic in a small shop by myself and the issue was the bay always needed to be cleared for other jobs that came in. Long term projects always needed to be pulled out and set in the yard while I waited for either parts or time to go back and finish the job. Whether frt or rear engine the unit needed to move on it's own wheels to roll. Forklift provided the power to move in and out in later years. Drug it with a small truck in the beginning of my 20 years there.
I would always spec. Cummin's for the fleet. (Parts availability) Cummins had the tendency to support their engines in the buses by mounts off the front cover and torque converter housings. Oil pan fully exposed. Great for access to pan for those type of issues. But, Working on cam or crank issues required supporting the engine by other means. Hence the need for alternative support tools/brackets. These had to be made in house too still allow the vehicle to be rolled around while work was in progress. I left all that there when I retired. Hope they go to good use!

Doug. D.C Smithing

[Frank S]

Doug I probably rebuilt a couple dozen scraper necks during my time there Usually I could tag one of the employee mechanics to do the tear down. they had always used a 20K forklift to separate the tractor from the neck and draft arms then block the front of it up on 12x12 blocks then after I had built up all of the bearing locations and line bored them; we rolled the unit back together again with the forklift. The problem was there was no real good control because the apron on the building sloped away at a pretty good angle. making it hard to keep the tractor part level as the forklift had to drive up the apron. So I made a 4 wheeled adjustable support stand to fit everything from the little baby 613 through the 657E, just roll it under the front adjust it up until it held the 2 wheeled tractor level chain and bolt in in place then use anything to pull or push the tractor back and forth. Roland gave me 25 crisp new Franklins for that tool. I told him hey, I built it on your dime you don't owe me anything extra for it.
You may have saved me a million-dollar lawsuit if someone got killed it the tractor slipped of the forks so take the money and be happy.

[Dry Creek Smithing]

Frank, Wow! Roland view was awesome! I believe the same thing. Reward that ingenuity and skill. Safer - faster - cleaner! Great job and thank you for the story. I blessed to start in the industry with two guys like minded as yourself.Took six months for them to realize 1. I had brains and 2. Skill. 3. I wanted to learn all I could from them. Before that they told me stay away from them. If you saw the other guys in the shop you'd understand why.
They then pulled me aside (where serviced and maintained 300 pieces of rolling stock. We transported Everything to anything to anywhere. Small / Large or Huge.) and asked if, "I I really wanted to learn how they really do things?" I said, 'Sign me up!". The next 2 years was amazing. Those guys pulled me into special projects and man we had fun. Crazy stuff. Those two minds worked together and could solve any problem. Physical or logistical.
Best job ever! I could not have learned from two better men!

[Frank S]

Doug; Roland was a good guy to say the least. I think he was only maybe 5 years older me, but never asked. I knew him when he and his brother started out at their dad's Horse ranch, by restoring an 8n ford tractor then worked up from there. I had lost contact with most everyone during my 6 years in the Army then a few years slumming in the oilfields and rig yards with my welding rig. One day I drove past this gate at a caterpillar yard with a sign that said welders wanted. drove in and talked with the lead welding contractor. Worked there a few weeks until that run of equipment was done, got called back a few weeks later for another short run, this went on a few times each time the hourly rate went up, still had no idea who owned the operation, there are more than 1 Rolands in the world. Each time I was called back I was first called last to leave the last time I was called it wasn't the welding foreman who called me it was Roland himself after talking over childhood times. we both figured out who we were I was asked if I knew 20 welders to call in, I stayed 5 years that time. Worked 50 to 60 hours a week there and still tried to take care of my regular customers I had built up through the years. It got to the point I would run some of them through the company. One day Rolland and his head salesman called me and the company employees in for a pow-wow as he called them.
His words exactly Guys I have been offered some insanely stupid money for this tax burdened property. I'm selling off everything to Greg and the property to K mart. You all have guaranteed jobs with him for as long as you want them, I decided to sell the special tools I had made on my own time to Greg, naturally the ones I made on company time went in with the equipment. One of my friends/ customers I had known nearly all my life and someone I had considered as much as a mentor as anything had been begging me to come work for him as his plant supper. for a year he and I had been coffee cupping the idea. I had always refused the work for me sentence, but when he said come work with me as a 10% owner, I drug up and left Greg.

[Frank S]

I don't know what's up, but I just completed my second clutch replacement on 2 nearly identical trucks. It has been nearly 8 years since I have had to do a clutch job on a Mack. My transmission jack I made years ago really got a workout this week.
Heavy duty transmission jack