Who finds this scary??

Check out what's holding the engine on the lift....

Is that clothes line running to the rocker stud bolts! Holy guacamole! Sure makes me want to put my hand under there!

Jack

I used to pull TD engines with a rope for years.. I did use a big rope as instructed in most repair manuals.. Never had a problem...
Gary

Peter should be along in a moment. His version is my favorite!!

OK, I have even saved it to my desktop so i could zoom in and I still cant make out what it was. Clothes line? Metal brake lines? what?

New England rope is extremely strong. That would be my guess. Here's a sample of some of their industrial rope. Marine or climbing rope would be equally as strong.

Size Weight Tensile
lbs/100' g/m lbs kg
3/8" 4.4 65.5 3,200 1,453
7/16" 5.1 75.9 4,100 1,861
1/2" 6.8 101.2 5,800 2,633
5/8" 9.8 145.8 8,200 3,723
3/4" 14.5 215.8 10,500 4,767
7/8" 18.0 267.8 15,500 7,037
1" 21.8 324.4 18,700 8,490

I'm really not sure. I found it hanging on the wall of the garage when we moved in. I will say it is about 3/8" nylon braided rope and it was doubled up. As Gary said, I read in magazine where the BeeHive used rope when they pulled an MGB GT engine.

Oh, and just for clarification, the rope in the front goes from the lift under the waterpump, behind the alternator bracket loops through and around the lift slot and back again. The rear rope goes through the opening where the rear plate bolts to the block, also doubled.

yup.. something i would do.

I mean who says a link in the chain wont break or bend open.. same probability!

Doesn't worry me. I use rope for more pressing matters all the time.

i use a 30 foot 45,000lb truck tow rope and a length of chain

I usually use chain, but motorcycle tie downs work well too.

My horse pulls back sometimes. She has towed a 2 horse extra tall trailer 10ft before the brass clasp gave way. the rope never snapped.
What you picture is akin to crab rope. Stout stuff.

That looks like polypropaline line to me (the type used for watersking). I'm not sure what the tensile strength is for that material, but I would personally be hesitent to use any unknown rope to lift the engine and transmission.
Cheers,

Forget the rope - I've had the rocker studs fail when lifting and engine and tranny together. They'll hold the engine alone but add the tranny and they're not a good place to latch on.

Has anyone ever weighed to see what a trans and engine weigh? I would like to know.

I have a roll of heavy nylon strapping I use - works fine!

lhess Wrote:

I see no problem with using a good quality rope provided it is not frayed.

Yep. Like Brad said earlier, sailors and climbers use rope for everything.

Lifting an engine and transmission can't begin to stress a rope as much as "Hard alee!" or "Ah, crap!"

R.

Depends entirely on the tensile strength of the rope used. The rope shown was obviously OK, but as general principle, when I have used rope like this for engine lifting, I run about about three loops through each lifting eye. Just spreads the load through more rope, increasing the finished multiple loop's lifting capacity.

When we were kids, we used nothing more than a rope hoist to lift out Chevy, Ford, and other Detroit iron mills, and they did just fine, and those old lumps were heavier than this B engine. The key there was the material used for the rope and using multiple loops and good rope hoist to do it. None of this cheap made in Taiwnesse crap for $19.95 in the bargain pile at the local hardware or auto parts joint. My old man, a navy machinist, wouldn't have let us near a rope hoist unless he made sure the rope and pulleys were of good quality, but found ours OK and let us have at it.

Quality ropes are plenty strong. I've spent half my life hanging and falling on them.

You do need to be VERY careful with nylon or poly ropes around chemicals though.

Ropes that just see a little use around the garage every now and then, or are used for towing vehicles, should never be used or stored near car batteries, solvents, or any chemical giving off fumes. You might get lucky, you might not.

Rope is strong and usually cheap(unless it requires some sort of institutional certification then that takes $$$). Replace old rope or webbing if you don't know the history of it.

I've seen rope and webbing that rates at thousands of pounds in breaking strength break at much lower weights after exposure to chemicals or UV light.

Usually things are fine. However, introduce a dynamic force into the system(slippage, shock load, etc), and you don't know what you'll get with an old rope.