Clutch / Torque Converter: Don't you love it when you do somethng clever? Here's mine. Anything you're proud of?

[Dougie]

Finishing up my SBC Lark conversion and I needed to fabricate a piece of steel to add to the clutch pedal to bolt the M/C pushrod to get the ratio correct. Car was originally an automatic now using a hydraulic clutch set up. I needed to bend a 1/4" thick piece of steel but don't have a press. So I looked around the garage and got an idea. I have a 4 post lift with a 3500 lb. car on it. So I got two jackstands, placed them on the floor, put the piece of steel across them and lowered the lift with car on it to about 24" off the ground. Then put my hydraulic bottle jack on top of the steel and jacked it up against the cross beam on the lift. Instant bend!
I don't need no stinkin press!
Got any clever solutions to problems you'd want to share?

[wittsend]

I needed to compress strut springs and like you lacked a form of press. I wound up placing the bottom of the strut on the end of one concrete parking bumper and a scissors jack on the end of the ajacent parking bumper. I then stood on the spring (to stabilize movement), cranked the jack to compress the spring, removed the nut, loosened the jack and removed the spring. I guess you could call it a "suburban, redneck, horizontal press."

Tom

[doug]

I have used a scissors jack under the bumper hitch on the pickup to break the beads on tires.

[christophe]

I already used the 4 post lift trick to bend metal sheet. That's a good one. A scissors jack is also a good help when you want to stretch that bloody clutch pedal return spring in order to be able to insert washers between the coils.

[nvonada]

Most of my clever ideas lead to a trip to the emergency room.

[Michidan]

Once straightened a bent motorcycle frame using the hydraulic stabilzers on a backhoe. A press is where you can find one.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Most of my clever ideas lead to a trip to the emergency room.

I can identify with this....

(True story)
My wife worked at the records department at the local hospital.
One day I called her up and asked her if she had eaten lunch yet.
She said no, that she'd like to have lunch with me.
I said "Great, as soon as I get out of the ER, I'll meet you in the cafeteria"...
I don't know how she does it, but I got 'The Look' right through the phone...
Jeff

[dickeedee]

isn't that the truth! happens so fast!

[Pat Dilling]

Most of my clever ideas lead to a trip to the emergency room.

"Hold my beer and watch this!"

[Dougie]

I can identify with this....

(True story)
My wife worked at the records department at the local hospital.
One day I called her up and asked her if she had eaten lunch yet.
She said no, that she'd like to have lunch with me.
I said "Great, as soon as I get out of the ER, I'll meet you in the cafeteria"...
I don't know how she does it, but I got 'The Look' right through the phone...
Jeff

Another of my clever ideas was taking the pinion nut off the differential from a Triumph TR6. I had the diff on my workbench. I made a long lever out of 1/8" angle and put two bolts thru it to bolt and hold the flange. Then I stood on a long wrench to break the nut loose. Unfortunately when it did my hand slammed into the corner of the cut angle and literally puched a 1/8" wide by about 1/2 long slot in my finger nail. It was like a punch press, I remember the doctor describing it as "an intriguing injury".

[wittsend]

Continuing with my theme of "non-hydraulic, horizontal presses" I built this Dana 44 case spreader (for my Sunbeam Tiger, not my Studebaker). It's just three pieces of scrape steel, four bolts (grade 8) and the coil spring compressor I didn't yet own in post #2. The compressor was used in reverse fashion, with the centers joined by a piece of conduit. I put notched cuts in the steel to keep it from "walking." The two bolts that went in the case holes had the heads ground round and ever so slightly angled towards the threads to decrease the likelihood of slipping.
Frankly it is a scarey thing to use. Not the device itself, but the concept of spreading cast steel. I kept waiting to hear C-R-A-C-K!

[Jeff_H]

I've made a few home-made tools over the years as well as other improvisations... We did some interesting stuff on the farm for repairs:

1. seized bearing messed up the shaft on the hammer mill? Too much work to disassemble to get shaft out? No problem. Weld up the bad area with stick welder then use angle grinder to grind it down whilst someone turns the shaft via the pulley on the other end. Once it gets close to the right diameter, slide new bearing on and off numerous times and hand file wherever it sticks. Takes all afternoon but it probably still was faster than taking the machine apart and cheaper than a new shaft (if even available).

2. Chain bottle jack onto large pulley with chains wrapped around the spokes as improvised big gear puller to get pulley off.

3. Last fall I wanted to lift the corner of the house porch to insert a shim under the sill (foundation is settling and the door was sticking). I made a triangular wooden "bracket" from scrap 2x4s and screwed to the wall and used my garage floor jack to do the honors.

This last one I don't recommend at all....

About 20yrs ago I wanted to change the timing belt on my 4cyl mustang. The crank pulley needed to come off. I couldn't budge the bolt with a breaker bar w/o the engine turning. Tried hitting the bar w/rubber mallet but no help. Had car in gear and it just would move the whole car. No air impact wrench available.

I gave up on the job and was going to take the car to a mechanic. Somehow while putting stuff away I forgot to take the socket and breaker bar off and so I hit the key and when the engine started up the bar swung around and caught on the frame and unscrewed that bolt in no time at all! Heard a bang and found the bolt and socket wrench laying on the ground. Fortunately the fan belt was on and kept the pulley from coming off the end of the crank and flying someplace. Could have easily caused some damage to the car or me but I got lucky.