How to Build Motorcycle Air and Electric Assisted Stands
If you like to work on motorcycles as much as you like to ride them, you should consider a motorcycle stand that picks the bike's engine up to a convenient work level. If you work on motorcycles a lot, a hand jacked or even pneumatic jacked stand doesn't compare to to an automatic stand. Automatic stands use an electric motor to run an air pump which lifts the stand. You don't need to buy one. All you need to do is add the right components to a typical scissor-lift type motorcycle stand.
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Things You'll Need
- Air/hydraulic jack
- High torque electric air compressor
- Drill
- Grommets
- Coupling hardware
Instructions
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Mount an off the shelf, combination air/hydraulic jack to any motorcycle scissor lift, in place of a standard hydraulic jack. Most of the long jacks appropriate for for a lift have mounting flanges with mounting holes in one end and a hole drilled in the piston end for easy mounting. Otherwise, you may need to drill holes in the base of the air/hydraulic jack's base to mount to your scissor lift, and fabricate a steel receiver for to hold the end of the piston in place.
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Drill a hole in the end of your scissor lift's frame larger enough for the pneumatic hose to fit through -- about 1/2 inch. Attach rubber grommets to the inside edges of the hole, so they can't cause chaffing.
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Pass the hose through the hole. You may have to remove any couplings fastened to the tube first.
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Plug the hose into a small, low volume, high torque electric air pump using standard compressor couplings. This is the kind of pump you would use to inflate a tire which is relatively small but requires a lot of pressure, rather than a pump that would inflate a raft -- a lot of volume, but not a lot of pressure.
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Tips & Warnings
For compact, designated compressors, you can weld a small deck to the scissor lift frame near the the hose pass-through, then bolt the compressor to the deck. This is convenient for a designated compressor, but if you're going to use the compressor for other things, attaching it with a longer compressor hose can be more convenient.
References
- Photo Credit Thinkstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
