It was designed by a man named Howard Dyer, an employee of Kelly Volkswagen. Kelly VW was located at 3325 Genesee St. in Buffalo, NY; the same address for the Motor Porter. VW approved the use of this device but never sold it, the Motor Porter company was a private venture. A full set of optional cradles was made to handle all type 1 & 4 engines, some Porsche and several transaxles. The cost of the Motor Porter was $299 in 1973 and they were all painted bright yellow with a black crank handle.
i bought an engine off of a guy when i was in high school that had one and i always thought it was a great tool…i just never realized how hard it is to find them until i started looking. since they were originally designed and built in buffalo i thought someone on here may have seen one stashed away in the back of a dealership or mechanics shop around the area.
if anyone has seen one, please let me know. i’m going to reach out to the guy i bought the engine from. at the time he was getting out of the aircooled vw world…which was about 10 years ago…so i’m not confident he still has it.
My father owned a vw repair shop for 30 years so yes. He sold his shop 10 years ago but may still know where to get one. What are you looking to spend?
I’ll pay pretty much what they ask within reason, depending on condition and if they have additional motor adapters. If they dont have a 1600cc mount it is worth a bit less for me. A type iv motor mount would be a bonus as that is where in heading but not a deal breaker
The guy I bought the engine off of let me use it to assemble and install the engine…it was so easy… I’m going to start taking the beetle and ghia apart this winter and having 1…or 2…would be great if I could just find one someone was willing to sell
I don’t see why you couldn’t make a jig on a 1x1 steel plate, then weld it to a floor jack. Sounds like that could work too…besides the downfall of being low to the ground.
there is a whole world of vw people who have come up with ways to rig something to a regular floor jack or atv lift but after working with one of these it is just so easy and precise. the first few times i took engines out i just used a floor jack and a piece of plywood…worked fine, but not nearly as easy as with this thing
the hand crank winds it up and down using a threaded rod, so it is smooth and precise and it also does a nice little tilt front to back which helps slip it in and out of the engine compartment.
it also has spring loaded pins that hold the engine to the lift so it works for an engine mount as well. just a lot easier than taking it out with a floor jack…lifting it up onto a bench or separate engine mount.