A guy at work has put the wind up me by saying I shouldn't have taken me gearbox out without using a hoist. His argument is that you run the risk of bending the crank due to it taking a lot of the gearbox's weight - I would have thought these things are pretty bloomin' strong and the engine mounts would have helped to remove some of the strain.

Am now paranoid I've damaged the crank, was wondering if anyone has ever heard of a crank being bent during gearbox removal.
I bloody hope not!!!

You cant bend the crankshaft but it is possible to damage the input shaft bearing on the gearbox if you allow it to take the weight of the gearbox as you remove it.

LOL

The crank will be supported by the main bearing caps and on most 4 pots there are 5 (one each side of each conrod) so you have bugger all chance of bending it. You could snap the end off but a **** load of force would be required to do that .

As Dazz said you would do damage to the box before you damaged the engine.

Great, cheers fellas the answer I wanted to hear - don't give a flying wotsit about the box as am replacing it