The 993TT project gave me the excuse to finally modify the lift for droping engines. I was really nervous about cutting out part of the lift, but it worked out beautifully. The rear most bar blocks the transaxle from dropping down (engine and transaxle are lowered as as unit for certain repairs such as a clutch job), so I needed to remove that. Many 911 owners who have the bendpak have said that this bar is not necessary anyway for lifting and supporting the 911. The forward bars are much larger and handle the weight. Since I lift more than just 911′s, I wanted to make sure the lift was still safe and up to capacity, so I designed a removable bar.
Rear bar that needs to come out.
I measured the O.D. of the existing bar, and it came out about 1.62″ This would need to be my I.D. for the replacement piece. Looked online, and I found a place called Speedy Metals, that had a 2″ OD x 1.624″ ID x 3/16 wall which would do the trick. $20.00 later it was on the doorstep. And fast. I went with 3/16″ wall as a guess, as I wanted something heafty, and once I cut the existing bar out, I found that piece was also 3/16″, so a good guess.
First I cut it to length with the sawzall. (I had ordered a 24″ piece)
Then I did some measuring, leaving about 3″ on each side, and lopped out the center piece with the sawzall
I wanted to make the replacement bar so it would slide over the pieces I left attached to the lift, so again with the handy sawzall, I opened the face to the proper length.
I put it in place (it slides on from the rear of the lift), and started drilling holes for the mounting hardware. I decided to use 12mm bolts. I made it so it would slide on from the rear, as I figured there would be more up/down flexing of those points, and wanted good solid metal to help stop that.
It took a lot of step drilling as those are some thick pieces of metal.
Then I painted the rear bar with Rustoleum Deep blue which is a perfect match for the lift.
And mounted it in place. 4 bolts secure the bar in place.
And as you can see with a 993TT on the lift, there is zero flex without the bar.
And dropping the engine and tranny assembly is a breeze with a plenty of clearance.
Well done! A very creative solution that I fully intend to copy when I finally get a scissor lift.
Seriously, you should work up a submission for Bend-Pak and sell them your idea for the mod.
Very nice, Dr. Evil!
I’ve often asked how that cross bar on lifts of this type would affect a vertical engine/transmission drop on our 911s. A local who owns a Hemi Roadrunner scissors lift cut his cross bar out as well (these are all of the same design, just painted a different color).
Although I don’t think that cross bar is necessary as there is very little weight bias from one side to the other on a vehicle, which might cause twisting, I will implement your mod when I get my scissors lift in the near future.
Thanks for the clear and detailed write-up and pics.
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Sorry if I missed this… The lift looks like it doesn’t have a bar on the front side. If you parked with the engine on that side, would the geometry of the lift prevent you from fitting a lift for the engine/tranny underneath because the hydraulic pistons would get in the way?
If there’s enough clearance (lowering the engine/tranny out of the car) on that side, I figured it might be easier to rig a setup to clear the hydraulic pistons instead of modifying the lift.
Hi Chang,
You are correct about the geometry issue. Unfortunately due to the design of the hydraulics and the legs at the front end of the lift, there is no clearance to drop an engine out that side. That would have been too easy