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I just need to know what to do with the steering linkage and what the tricks are to getting it done without trouble. For example, I've seen guys do it with the rear axle on jack stands. Others do it on tires. is my 10' ceiling high enough?

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I choose to leave my tie rods and control off but many assemble everything and have the rotors/drums support on roll carts of sorts and the upper just hanging or turned out until it is time to install them. Both ways work fine. I have my gear box, idler and draglink in place and hang they rest later. If you are asking about the steering column it goes in after everything is bolted up. I prefer mine on tires, it makes the pivot easier as the body moves up and down. 10 ft ceiling should be plenty as long as you are running a low profile dolly, mine don't generally exceed 7 or 8 ft at most. It really isn't difficult, best to have a friend with you and I will use long screw drivers to align the holes although I have though of using 2 or 3 inch bolts with the heads cut off. Take the car to a 45* angle or so and roll it under, lower a bit and recenter, lower it some more, recenter, lower it into place recentering and aligning the holes, install and tighten the bolts, lift off dolly and place on jack stands, swing upper control arms in place if they are attached and install tortion bars and whatever else I for got.

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Remember this. The car is made to withstand a lot of force from the shocks and upper control arms at that location so it is a pretty strong part of the car.

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Kevin, really great info. Question. Does the steering column have to come out? I was just going to drive out the roll pin and slide back the coupling to drop the K member.

I really think unloading the torsion bars, disconnecting the steering column, pulling upper ball joints, removing the brake lines and dropping the K is way easier than pulling everything back off my engine at this point. I'm actually really looking forward to it.

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Kevin, really great info. Question. Does the steering column have to come out? I was just going to drive out the roll pin and slide back the coupling to drop the K member.

I really think unloading the torsion bars, disconnecting the steering column, pulling upper ball joints, removing the brake lines and dropping the K is way easier than pulling everything back off my engine at this point. I'm actually really looking forward to it.

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I would pull the steering column back , it's just going to add a degree of difficulty to the task , same with the suspension, just because the factory installed it as one piece doesn't mean it's required .... unless you are in a race or paying yourself by the hour to do the job , and again adding another degree of difficulty unless there is going to be 10 people involved in the install ...

Or your some narcissistic blowhard that conned your way into a TV show gig

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Yup no reason to have all the heavy junk hanging from the lower control arms. I installed my lower control arms after the K was bolted up and then the spindle, rotor ETC. My garage has 8' high ceilings and it was no problem. I did the motor and trans install from the bottom by myself.

I used a spare set of bumper brackets to lift the car, I figured they would bend but they didn't and the second time I did it the car was almost complete with all glass and interior and much heavier than the trial run. I also used my engine lifter spreader bar, it was built to lift a brad anderson hemi with a PSI blower and injector on top(really heavy). It worked perfect for this job.

Should always use a spreader bar so the chains is in up and down tension and not in a V shape. In V shape put's pressure where it don't need to be(I'm not talking about lifting a engine which is fine when with the chain setup pictured above that locks in the links so it can't slide to the side is used) and v shaped chains try's to squeeze your frame rails together, imo.

The lifting hook on the crane should be secured to the chain so the chain can't slide to the side. Never just slide the chain through the hook and lift. I own 2 crane trucks and have 20 years experience with them. This picture is a trial run, I took it back out this day.


Here it is sitting on plain wood dolly right before the final install, no lower control arms needed and they are easy to bolt up afterwards.

Lastly I would have the rear end installed and the tires bolted on, just in case. The first time I left the rear tires on the ground, the second time I put the rear end on jack stands under the rear axle and which lifted the tires off the ground about 4" with the tires bolted on for just in case.
First and trial run, I used a homemade creeper to set the motor and trans on! The creeper was a little too low to do it comfortably. So I used this flat wood furniture dolly which is about 2" higher than a creeper. Today I have 2 short blocks being stored on top of it.



Once the K is bolted tight, then your done with the crane, don't try to lift the whole thing with a crane. Got to use a floor jack under the K from that point on.

I forgot to mention, only the engine oil pan and the trans was supported by my wood dolly.
The K hung out in front by the rubber engine mounts and wiggled easily to start my K bolts. Then nothing was under my K so I could put my floor jack there, since I don't have a lift to lift the whole car when I was done.

Note also where my lifting hook is verses where my front wheels are. My crane is very stable because the load is spread between the front and back wheels better and the boom is low because of the rigging.

Look at the other cranes and the lifting hook is way out there by the front wheels and the boom is high in some cases. Makes them very unstable and be careful. Low is where you want your boom as much as possible and pull your boom in one notch if possible for lifting such a big and heavy load.

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I really think unloading the torsion bars, disconnecting the steering column, pulling upper ball joints, removing the brake lines and dropping the K is way easier than pulling everything back off my engine at this point. I'm actually really looking forward to it.

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