Got tired of borrowing engine test stands, so I bought the only test stand I could find at the local hobby shops, and found it was poorly designed, and improperly advertised. I'm not going to mention any names here, but this particular mount has been around for years. It's constructed with sections of square aluminum tubing stacked two high, with sheet aluminum plates on top, and two steel pins to engage two of the engine beam mount holes.
The package says it will work for engines from .049 up to .60, but there is no way it could without serious mods! That's false advertising in my opinion.
1. The steel pins protrude so far, that the clamping pieces don't come close enough together to clamp half A beam mounts.
2. The pin diameter is too large to fit any half A beam mounts I've ever seen.
3. The clamp bolts are nearly in-accessable, because the head is inside the base aluminum tubing, with no clearance for a wrench.
4. The clamping bolts and nuts are so large on top, that no half A muffler, and most needle valves will not have enough room, even if the engine mount holes were drilled out to fit the oversize steel pins, and the pins filed down to slightly less than the thickness of small engine beam mounts.
I could go on, but needless to say I returned the mount to the shop for a refund. The shop has ordered another (newer?) model test stand made by the same vendor, but the base is a casting, and the clamping screws are flat head slotted screws, that apparently screw into captive nuts in the base. That at least gives you room to adjust needle valves, attach fuel lines, and run with a muffler if desired.
Unfortunately, the mount is on back order.
Does anyone here know of a commercially available small engine test stand, that actually works as advertised?
Several club members have custom made engine test stands, but those are expensive, and difficult to find.
Bill
Topic: Buying an engine test stand (Read 6973 times)
