Jacob,
Go to Ebay. There are usually several of the light duty engine hoists on there at any given time. Don't worry about the "light duty" part of it, it's rated at 2 tons - more than plenty strong to pull for a small 283. I bought one from a guy locally for $99 bucks - and used it to pull my old 230 and drop in my new 292. That was 16 months ago.
I gave it to my uncle, who did most of the real work with my engine swap. He didn't have one and really needed it.
He's done several dozen engine and tranny pulls since mine with that same picker. Every time I've talked with him he's said that it's still as good as new, albeit a little less clean
.
Here's
one just like the one I bought. With shipping it'll cost you only 190 bucks.
-ftyler
