Yep.. Just Another Day at my House

The piston on the lift bent 90*... my luck SUCKS

Sheesh......

Oh no !! Ron

Sorry to see that!

man never heard of that.not bein goolish here but I would like to see a pic.not sumthin you see every day.BUMMA!!

Yikes -----


Hate to see that and sure would get me pizzzzed off it that happened to me. Just open a bottle of Canadian Club and sit and cry until the bottle was empty

Was it fully extended to do that?

DAMN SHAME!!!

Aw no, sorry Mike. That sucks.

on a good note, the engine didn't hit the floor.

made in .....?

How bad did it hurt the car?

Yeah it was pretty close... this car is gonna get FRIED..
this thing just has BAD.. VERY BAD JUJU.. 3 engines.. 3
trans... it fell off the hoist... and now this... I want
to cry... but then again... I want to do something else...
if I drive this thing.. I'm thinking its gonna kill me

Ouch! That's something I've always hoped would never happen. My engine is ready to go in the roadrunner soon. Please don't tell me it's from harbor freight.

Here's the wasted cylinder on the cherry picker. It just bent right over.

No..its not... I forget where I bought it.. but I have had
the engine in and out of this car at least 15 times.. and I
have used it at least 45 times putting engines in

Will it buff out?

Of all the rotten luck! So sorry to hear Mike. That really sucks. I hope you don't have to thrash too much to get it ready for Drag Week.

Good grief.

Sheldon

Terrible luck.
I am probably more superstitious than most , but I get the bad ju ju vibe from her too , Mike.
Sorry to see this happen.

That is the first time I have ever heard of that happening. I had one car fight me like that the whole build. Once I finally got it to the track. All was well. It was de-bugged already. I'm thinking if you get it to Drag Week it will seem like a cake walk.

Sorry to see this Mike and know how it feels to fight every inch of the way but I too had similar luck w/my junk and almost put lead in it but as stated, after all the bs I was happy I didn`t for many reasons. Sit back,have a cold one or ten and get back after it.

Man that sucks!! That thing just won't quit fighting you.

A: I've NEVER seen or heard of that happening. B: I ALWAYS imagine if things are going to go bad...... that exactly where it will go bad at. That will be the new picture for "sucks" in the dictionary.....

Sorry to see the bad luck. I have been wondering what will happen to my D50. The last 3 hot rods I had before it did not end well. In 1992 my 67 GTX was stolen, In 2002 my really nice 1971 Demon was hit while parked in the staging lane and was totaled, and in 2007 my 1969 Valiant race car was stolen. It was a total loss on all of them.

Wow, I feel bad for you Mike. I've never seen this before either, but I have thought about it collapsing many times while working under mine. I'm glad you were out of the way. The car is easier to fix than you are.

Oh btw, if the radio only plays oldies music, you might want to get rid of the car.

Wow! Sorry to see this Mike, it's crazy when things happen at the worst possible times. That's like m luck, if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any.

Wow, things that make you want to swear.

Wow. Sorry to here that Mike. I always fear that happening to me when pulling or I stalling motors. I sometimes lay a board and a cofforter over the nose. Probably would help much anyway.

Wow, sorry to see that Mike. I thought I was the only one with luck like that.

I feel your pain. Never give up. You will beat it.
Doug

Tryin' to tell you something...


Time for an exorcism...

Wow mike that is a major bummer. Sorry to see that

I didn't know we live in the same house Mike? Sorry to see the damage.

Zoiks!

Hang in there.

Mine went BANG (engine) the day after labor day.

Pretty much ruined this summer after finally getting it on the road.

That's some tough luck, never seen a ram do that, doubt very many have, keep on plugging

That sucks Mike, hopefully not too much damage.

Truly an awe sh!t moment! Sorry to see that. Hows' the chest repair doing? Obviously must be good,,,,,,,,,hasn't been long since they sewed you up, right?

It still hurts plenty.. but I had a buddy over to
do anything that would take pressure.. I had a few
bolts I couldnt break free.. so he got them

Geez Mike ...sorry to see that, glad no one was hurt...I recently had an engine stand that just snapped at the base and sat a fresh 440 I just built for a guy on the floor ...good side,,, I delivered it to his house and it was his engine stand...it was bolted in and as we talked it just snapped ....no main damage tho ..Glad to hear you are doing well...stay healthy .. Larry

Wow, sorry to see that happen. Just crazy how the ram bent like that! The only saving grace is that the nose of the Rampage is made of rubber instead of metal.

That really sucks Mike! I hope you are feeling better!

Sorry to see, glad no one was hurt. Need much shorter rigging next time and be glad it wasn't a big block motor. I'm surprised it needed to be so far extended, the ram because the rampage it seems pretty low to the ground?

Wish I was closer you, do you have another engine crane to get the motor off your car?

Yeah I got the engine off.... the arm needs to be
that far extended... it has to go right to the
fire wall... that was about the 20th time I pulled
the engine/trans... I even do the race car the same
way.. but that trans is about 60# lighter

I bought two of those cranes with the fold up legs and the extendable boom. Its surprising how much the load rating goes down as the boom is extended and I'm glad its marked as a reminder.

Dang!! I've never seen anything like that before!

Hope the damage is not as bad as it looks.

Gosh darn it Mike,
Its almost time to pull the tent stakes and make the Shadow street legal for drag week. As always if you need anything or help I will extend a hand if and when I can.

I was just inquiring how you were doing the other day too.

Good to see you up and about but not in this way!!

Scot

Wow, I know every system has a weakest link, but I would not have guessed that the hyd ram was it. I assume the hyd cyl wasn't jammed preventing pivoting or restrained inadvertently in any way, when moving under this load? I guess an Alum SB is out of the question?

I meant the rigging on top of the motor(chains/tilter), I know the boom has to be all the way out in most cases.

Holy Smokes Mike! You just can't catch a break lately. Hopefully the damage is an easy fix.

Randy

Unreal, and your a much more patient man then me, the car would be in the back field full of holes by now and I wouldn't feel bad a bit about the time and money in it.

Just glad you had a buddy there and are aware of your recovery stage. Take it easy or a deserved day off.

I bought a new engine leveler/tilter today... I have
all my parts ordered for the car... they should be
here in 7 days... now to strip off the old junk and
put the engine/trans in to test it
EDIT
I just need to see what I want to do for a cherry picker

The load on that cylinder is supposed to always be in compression, that's why it pivots on both ends. Something happened to put a shear load on the shaft, maybe the upper bushing seized. Glad the motor wasn't damaged.

Both pivots were free... it came down.. fairly slowly
thats why things didnt get all busted up
EDIT
The only thing I can think of now is that the cyl was
extended farther than I normally go... when it gets to
a certain point I start to level the engine out so it
will clear the front end.. my buddy wanted to keep going
up... but when the cyl is a long way out it is weaker(greater
area to bend in).. so MAYBE all along I was right at the max
lifting point... just a guess

Sorry to see this,hope your luck turns around soon!

Awwww crap Mike, thats just a shame that this has happened, looks to be a car guy's worse nightmare, but at least nobody got hurt or worse, things are fixable, but if you are like me you have a full plate of things to get done and somthing like this is never figured into lifes gotta do list.

I've seen it happen before. If you look at the pics, you see a couple things.....One, there is a LOT of ram run out there. Two, the base of the cylinder is mounted WAY behind the push point on the boom and appears to be even with boom pivot point. Fully extended that thing has some SERIOUS side load on it. Not sure I have ever seen a hoist with the bottom of the ram not a good bit ahead of the boom pivot.

Sucks for sure, but I believe I would look at moving the cylinder forward at the base.

My lift is homemade but has lots of adjustments on it and with the boom really high, the cylinder is pushing nearly straight up

sorry to see that, it really sucks. that must have been a chinese import pump?

i would like to see the whole pic of the picker

Can't you just get a new cylinder for your crane?
I have wore out 2 of them over the years and on my 3rd cylinder, but same crane.

Damn the luck Mike....so sorry to hear this.

Rickster

Wow! I've never seen or heard of that either, so you are exploring new territory here.
Glad to hear you are okay. Have you thought of Dzuz clips for the nose? It would have still bent stuff, but it wouldn't have to come up so high to clear.
With 15 trips in and out already, I'd try to make it as quick and painless as possible.

First thing Mr. P glad to hear that you're feeling good enough to work out in the shop! But sorry to hear about the damage to your Rampage. I know one thing next time I pull a motor, I'll be thinking about your cherry picker. Good luck getting the damage repaired!!

I've pulled that engine/trans out of it at least
10 times.. with the same set up... I have no plans
on using dzus fasteners... it normally clears the
front end and the hood.... it was just my piss poor
luck

Keep the cherry picker you have. Get a new ram and reengineer the mounting points a little.

The current set up looks like the lift beam Starts out waay to low. By the time the beam gets to a decent height the rams arm is already extended pretty far. Shorten that aspect of it, and add a closer ram push mount point on the lift beam. Your more then capable and enjoy that type stuff.

My god, that sucks!!!

Most equipment designs have anywhere from a 3:1 safety factor and up designed into them when new. I can't see age in your usage degrading your lift that much over the years. I also don't see many of the suggestions mentioned so far and I'm not offering any, that would easily improve the design up into the 3:1 safety factor area You obviously exceeded the lifts capacity and whatever safety factor your lift had, in this case. You may want to step back and rethink the situation to prevent a re occurrence, with a much worse result

the design of the lift looks flawed to me. thats why i wanted to see the whole thing. look at Monte's his pushes straight up. Mike's base is set further back and pushes out and up, not a good thing imo.

I'm thinking about picking up another lift.. on mine
the front wheels are splayed out like a V and its the
width of the front tires so I have to pull the fronts
to clear.. I'd like to get one that the frame is a H
type so the front wheels would clear

Mine appears to have the same size ram as Mr Ps.....but I have picked up things WAY heavier than a small block/tranny combo. I think his ram is simply in the wrong place.......easy fix. Mine is 30 years old and we have split tractors with mine.

I would imagine the ram is set back on his to help get closer to stuff without hitting the ram on the front.......but again, easy fix. Extendable boom. When I have to do that, I just put a few 100lb tractor weights on the rear of mine

MrP........I also have a lift like you say with splayed legs. I simply cut notches in the legs, pulled them together with a ratchet strap, welded them back up. From what I see, your lift looks really heavy duty, just bad ram placement

Sorry to see Murphy came to visit. His law sucks

But thanks for the reminder that things we have done many times can go wrong

I know lots of people use those and they are handy but I never trusted them much. When I built my shop I installed an I beam with two trolleys, one with a small electric (500lb) hoist and the other has my 2 ton chain fall on it. The little hoist is handier than pockets on bibbed overalls, especially in deer season.