Lost $200 on a bogus engine stand adapter

Bought one of those universal engine stand adapters for a PT6 last month and the bolt pattern was off by almost a quarter inch. Anyone else dealt with those cheap knockoff adapters from that online tool supply place?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantnelson14d ago

Did you check the bolt pattern against the PT6 manual before you mounted it? I learned the hard way that those universal adapters are rarely universal, especially for turbine engines. The CNC tolerances on the cheap ones are just too sloppy for anything precision. A quarter inch is a massive gap, that's practically a different engine bolt pattern altogether. I'd be worried about how the whole stand is built if they messed up something that basic. Better to spend the extra cash on a adapter made for the specific engine model.

ryan_hart3814d ago

Honestly, I used to just grab the cheapest universal adapter I could find and hope for the best. This post from @grantnelson really made me rethink that though. That quarter inch gap you mentioned is exactly the kind of thing I would have brushed off before. Now I get it, if the bolt pattern is that far off, the whole stand's design is probably suspect too. It's not worth saving a few bucks when you're dealing with something that spins that fast.

jesse_smith1014d ago

That quarter inch gap reminds me of a time I had to shim a tractor PTO shaft with beer can tabs.