Always a snag.

I have the tangerine lift plate but just discovered the post that sits in the "Tuna Can" is too wide for either of my jacks. It's about 1" diameter.

What Jack do others use or am I just not doing something right (very possible).

Thx.

Mike

Screw a block of wood to the top of your jack with the correct diameter hole for the pin on the lift plate.

Trying to picture that. Seems like entire weight of engine / trans would be dependent on a relatively small block of wood (2x4?) and some screws?

As noted, post hole in my jacks saddle was too small. I could not really envision how to use a wood block in a way that I would feel it was fully secure. Sooo ...

Dragged out my Harbor Freight tranny Jack. The 800lb version.

Drilled a 1" hole in the plate (that was fun, used step drill bit, should have used plasma cutter). Cut a 9" X 9x piece of 3/4 plywood to match the plate. Drilled a hole in that to match the post and another one to match oil sump hole in the tangerine plate (giant hole saw for that one). Drilled more holes through Jack plate, plywood and tangerine plate so I could put bolts through the whole thing. Probably overkill, would have been easier just to by another Jack with removable saddle but, being laid off call for field expedient approaches.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Nicely done...and industrious!

How did it work? Did the bolt heads prevent the engine case from sitting flat?

That jack plate is amazing. A bit expensive, but so worth it.

BTW the hole in my plain old autozone jack was the right size.

Hey Chris, if you remember, I recently purchased one of these plates from you (long overdue on my part, I must say). I haven't had a chance to even look at it yet, but reading this thread, makes me want to ask if it will work OK on motors fitted with the Jonesy Tuna Cans?

Also, curious if you've by chance tried it with a 912 motor/trans arrangement?

I was concerned about that. Modified as follows.

Click to view attachment

I expect a Jonesy tuna can will fit.
The 912E might require slight modification at the tail of the lift plate.


When mounting the lift plate on a jack that doesn't have a large hole for the pin, a 1 1/2" thick piece of hardwood or aluminum with a correct center hole can be screwed onto the jack plate as an adapter. It only needs to be 4" or so in diameter (or square).

Just used the Tangerine plate and my tranny jack to put the engine back in.

It was amazingly easy to do. As they say, it is all about having the right tools. Chris' lift plate gets 5 stars. Being attached to the tranny jack made it easy to fine tune adjustments.