quote:Originally posted by 4V & Proud:
FYI on that < $40 blue POS on ebay... keep your $40
no way the holes lined up from one side to the other, construction is so poor I'm not sure what i'll be able to salvage to make something that'll work. the tubing is very thin & welds are, well they just kinda came apart by bending / folding / breaking them
like I said, the two sides are so far off I'm not sure there's enough material there to weld it back together as it was intended? under $40 free shipping... if it sounds too good to be true it usually is
I think that's pretty much all true and depends on what you are expecting which in my case wasn't much. The casters are the best part of the cheepos being all the cast wheels and the swivel bearings seem to be up to the task of engine weights. They're probably worth $20-25 bucks, $40 if buying from Stumpys. I've bought 3 of these imports and one was as you off with the holes and alignment as you mention, the other two weren't. The other thing is the hardware provided for mounting the engine is urmhhumm...., metric equivalents so throw them away.
I have a couple of sets of the Stumpy style cradles but they were Stefs.
On the one piece, the alignment issue was weld warpage on the arms and needed to be bent back, which I did in a couple minutes without incident. And on that same piece, the holes that picked up the bell housing pin and mounting bolts didn't line up......couple minutes with a die grinder required there. The other two I had previously bought didn't have those problems but I wouldn’t know how to tell them apart when buying. Even so they do work fine rolling engines around. I took the casters from the one that needed rework and used it to ship a short block on a pallet.
If it's really just storage the cheepo style seems to be ok with the exception that some appear to be mis-made which certainly is annoying. The style like that at Stumpy’s site does provide full access to the rear of the engine so you can easily mount the bell and ZF....and if you just make a tail swivel to support the ZF, they serve either way.
One thing I would advise, you might expect to use some spacers if you have an aftermarket block. Both Dart and Fontana blocks will have webbing that interferes with the mounts. It requires more than just a couple washers, and IIRC more like ½”- ¾”, which may require different mounting hardware due to the blind holes on the block and also change the height of ZF support if you go that route.
I can’t tell for sure on the website but the picture of the wide version of the Stumpy unit looks like it may have a cut out to accommodate this……always the details fellas.
It's almost worth another post on the utility and quality of the import stuff. I say import because on another forum I had a fella claim I was racist simply because I said I had reservations about some of the Chinese imports, especially when it came to load ratings and lifting safety, which was really quite amusing because he had already previously stated in his post that there were both crap and good quality Chinese stuff before proceeding to bash all American made brands and pledging his allegiance to China......so apparently he didn't see his comments as as cause for pause nor racist in his ensuing melt down when I pointed this out....sighhh it's just the internet?
This happened to be an item that was sold in the discount tool places like Northern and Harbor Freight and I can confidently say the "crap" versions are well represented there. The one thing I would say about the products in those discount stores is they are just about all made in China, and IMO all are low quality, but even so, some can still be decent value depending upon what they are and how often you will use them. I've never regretted buying more capacity or quality in a tool but have regretted buying less.
But I digress -A morning coffee ramble.
Best,
K