working clearance

Not to many other options...

I just use 4 jackstands and a good  cermercial floor jack. Up in 5 minutes plan all your work carefully  for the under car work.

I was looking at the motor cycle drive on lift at harbenger of fright, possiably using 2 of them.

Carl, have you considered digging a deep hole?

There was a guy, not in my car club....but I heard this from a club member, on one of the barrier islands near us in South Carolina.  He got an old commercial floor lift from a garage that went under after decades.  This is the kind of lift with a single, central piston that goes up about six feet, car and all.  That also means that you have to dig down about eight feet to install the piston and plumbing.

OK, so the guys knows that on the island everything is sand, so the digging should be easy.  He borrows a back-hoe from a neighbor, backs into his garage and starts digging (it had a dirt floor, anyway).  He's diggin and diggin and gets down about the eight feet he needs and starts cleaning up the hole when all of a sudden, water starts  appearing in the hole.......first a little, and then more and more and then it's coming up over an inch a minute.  He gets the backhoe out of the garage and the water is still rising but the rate is slowing until, after a couple of hours it seems to stop.

By that time it was getting late at night and the water wasn't getting higher so he calls his friend from the town DPW to come over in the morning to give his idea of what to do about the water in the hole.  

Next morning, the guy arrives and they both go into the garage to see how bad things are and they see.........nothing.....no water, no landslides, nothing.  The hole is damp but not a sign of heavy water anywhere.  The guy tells his friend how much water there was last night and really doesn't know what's going on.

"How long you be livin here?"  His friend asks.  

"Dunno.....ten years or so?" He replies.  

"You dumb ass......don't you know when de tide be comin in?   Didn't you neber wonder why, on an island, ever-body runs 4-post lifts above de ground?   You done dug down under de hide tide!"

I just use a set of plastic ramps and lift just the side I need to work on; straightforward.

I don't get under my car much, the plastic ramps work for me too when I must.

But Carl complains plenty about his creaky old bones to me. I can feel his pain 

and just where do you feal his pain?? at times we can all be a real pain in the...

Mark, probably in all the same places Carl does...I get all the senior discounts now too.

it's nice to get the discounts,but it sucks to be getting the discounts.........how does it creep up so fast???

Creep? Seems like full throttle to me! Damn!

marksbug, I bought a Harbor Freight motorcycle jack to pull my engine. I have been unhappy with. The cylinder leaks. So, it is hard to keep the engine raised up.

What's the attraction of balancing an engine on a motorcycle jack ? Seems like you'd never get the engine directly onto the floor and therefore have to get the car way up higher to slide the engine out of the way. I've been using a foldable two ton engine hoist and I know you can get them down your way for under $200. Lift the engine with this guy, wiggle it away from the tranny, lower it to the floor and slide the engine across the floor out from under the car. Maybe I'm missing something. 

The big thing with a motorcycle jack is that it has a pair of parallel, horizontal arms that cradle the engine and keep it flat.  That way, the tranny input shaft is at least horizontally lined up and all you have to do is push on the header pipes and jiggle left and right to get it to push in (once the splines line up).  Pulling an engine away from the transmission literally takes less than 30 seconds.

Once I get the engine back and lower it down, I raise the rear of the car another foot or so, tilt the engine back on the jack to clear the lower body valence and roll the engine right out.  Takes about five minutes or less.

I got a Craftsman one on sale for $90 USD.  They run about $107 right now.

Do the horizontal arms go under the flat oil pan then ? Just wondering because the Soob oil pan is round, not flat. When the mc jack is in it's lowest position, how far off the ground are the arms ? I guess someone still has to lift the engine up onto the motorcycle jack.

"

Do the horizontal arms go under the flat oil pan then ? Just wondering because the Soob oil pan is round, not flat. When the mc jack is in it's lowest position, how far off the ground are the arms ? I guess someone still has to lift the engine up onto the motorcycle jack."

well I ment the big drive on motor cycle hoist. but I have the small one too and have added better biger wheels to it so I can roll it right up to an engine stand jack it up & unbolt the engine lower it down & stick it in the car. I also have a nice long bord that supports the motor&trans if Im doing both.

 as for the suby just make an adaptor out of wood that fits the suby pan.and afix it to the jack. remember when wod was used for cars??wheels??frames??sides?? dashes?? well this wood stuff is pretty good for almost any thing you can find....even the wife !!oops who said that??I must be hearing voices again....

I hear ya, Gord. I'll stick with my engine hoist. No lifting the engine up onto the motorcycle jack needed. Even if the motorcycle jack brings the engine up horizontal to the earth's surface, the tranny will not be so anyway unless you jacked up the front end of the car. On the hoist, you can jockey the engine left, right, nose up or nose down. Just different strokes for different folks I'm thinking. EMMV. 

You don't have to lift the rear as high if you slide the engine out through the wheel opening.

Pulling my engine was a piece of cake with this.  Disconnecting all the EFI wires was a real PITA!

Ron..that's a real nice lift. You've probably covered it earlier, but could you please say a little about it, what makes it work and what's with the wood framework around it on the floor. thanks...

Ron, is that an Atlas scissors lift from Greg Smith Equip. Sales?

If so, is it the MR-6 or the TD6 MR model?

My scissor lift is also from Greg Smith Equip.  It's a Atlas Kwik Bay 7,000 LB. Mid Rise Lift   http://www.gregsmithequipment....000-LB-Mid-Rise-Lift

I really like that lift and the way that you recessed it into the floor.  If I ever build new, I will certainly consider going this route.

Thanks for the compliment.   The piece of plywood in the upper right corner of the top  photo allows me to cover the center section of the lift when it's not in use allowing me to drive over the plywood and not fall into the hole.

I feel honored to have been uplifted by Larry...and I miss that warm sunshine as well.

Morning Larry

Larry Jowdy is one of the finest, most helpful and smartest guys helping us mechanically challenged Speedster owners!  Had Rich not made that stop at Larry's he might still be in New Mexico with multiple issues.

You are appreciated here big-time, Larry!

The pseudo-mechanics on this site (myself included) are fortunate to have access to the collective VW/Porsche braintrust of SOC!

I'm at work and the minions on the other side of the glass wall of my office are foolishly thinking I'm slaving away on reviewing municipal contracts and bid proposals !

HA! Little do they know....

Or stopped for no brake lights two blocks away from Larry's house. He is the greatest!

Larry, very nice scissor lift.  As you can see in my photo I have to lay down 2x12s so my IM's underpinnings will clear the lift.  If I had the needed headroom I would have gone with a post lift, which is around the same money.

I too wanted a 2 post lift but height limitations wouldn't allow it.     I have a couple of Samoan concrete guys who work dirt cheap..   They cut the hole in the floor of my garage then dug down about 24 inches.  They put the broken concrete back in the hole then dirt on top of that and used one of those giant gasoline engine compactor machines to compact the fill.   Once they had the level of dirt about 12 inches below the level of the garage they poured 6 inches of concrete.  That allowed the lift to be relatively level with the garage floor.   Their price was $500.00 to do all that work...  I've used for concrete work for the past 20 years and so far, I'm happy with all their work.  (can't beat that price)