Clutch on either a C5 Corvette (Which pile is the car, and which pile is the parts?) or a Mazdaspeed6 (Everything must come out, through a gap 2mm larger than it is).
Clutch on either a C5 Corvette (Which pile is the car, and which pile is the parts?) or a Mazdaspeed6 (Everything must come out, through a gap 2mm larger than it is).
dannyzabolotny said:Eh, every single BMW I've owned has required a full dash-out job to replace the heater core and/or blower motor, so that doesn't surprise me at all.
I've got another one: clutch on a 944. The transmission is in the back of the car but the clutch is near the engine, so you basically have to pull apart most of the drivetrain to replace the clutch. I haven't personally done it yet, but I have an 87 944S so I'll have to face that reality sooner or later.
Nope.
Its not that bad if you slide the torque tube and transaxle back as a unit.
Read up on Clarks-garage.com
Toyman01 said:Heater core on a Jeep Cherokee. I can do a Ford E150 in 45 minutes. The Cherokee took 5 hours.
And this is exactly why I've been living with almost no heat this winter...
Keith Tanner said:And seriously, we just had two people complain about the thermostat on an NA/NB Miata? Two bolts. It's hanging out there in space at the front of the engine. The hardest part is opening the hood.
But it hinges at the back so you have to walk ALL THE WAY AROUND to the front... and there's a safety catch too...
chaparral said:Clutch on either a C5 Corvette (Which pile is the car, and which pile is the parts?) or a Mazdaspeed6 (Everything must come out, through a gap 2mm larger than it is).
(Four Yorkshiremen mode: ENGAGE!) Gap is larger than the part? Luxury....
Getting the trans out of a 6 speed CTS-V that still has the stock dual mass flywheel requires large prybars and forcing the bellhousing past a sizable interference fit. The nice thing is the exhaust system at least comes off as one giant assembly.
Hatch struts on an R class Merc. You have to drop the headliner because the struts run parallel with the roof so that they are hidden, Total pain in the butt for no good reason.
This doesn't really qualify because it's not something you'd expect to be doing, but two summers ago when lift pump crapped out on my '01 Dodge Cummins, I replaced allllll the fuel lines along with totally redoing the fuel system. There's a fuel return line that's on the back of the head. With the passenger side fender liner out and laying on the ground outside the truck, there's a narrow viewing window where you can see the fitting. Otherwise, it's impossible to see with the engine in. However, it can be removed and replaced blind. This involves standing on the pass side tire, making sure the pass side battery + terminal is covered, and then gradually sprawling yourself across the top of the engine. You are completely parallel to the ground at this point, with your knees at about the edge of the engine bay. Feet a good 4+ ft off the ground. I think you hold the wrench in the right hand and use your left to put it on the fitting.
Actually getting out of that position is much worse than getting into it.
Toyman01 said:Heater core on a Jeep Cherokee. I can do a Ford E150 in 45 minutes. The Cherokee took 5 hours.
The XJ heater/evaporator job is extra bad because you'd never expect it from a design that old.
Speaking of GM Atlas engines and GMT360 Trailblazers, not really a repair thing but the oil filter access is annoying on those. There's a door on the undertray, but you can hardly even see the filter through it, have to reach in there up to your elbow and do it more or less blind. I'd rather do the filter on those 2.2/auto Cavaliers.
In reply to BrokenYugo :
Go in through the wheelwell.
Thanks for the reminder on how awful those 2.2 J-bodies were. The manual trans versions were a piece of cake other than getting oil in the flex pipe. The automatics, though.. Ugh. Definitely a case of the engine design pre-existing, the transmission design pre-existing, and not enough attention paid when designing the subframe for the new chassis.
Most cars that have lived through winters in the rust belt are a pain to work on. It took a two of us, 10 hours, and only a moderate amount of destruction to change the front suspension on a crusty Miata. I have learned to stop worrying and love the angle grinder.
Spark plug change, 2007 Trailblazer w/ 5.3l V8. Driver's side OK, nice clearance for tools and hands.
Passenger side? Dante missed a level. You can see the plugs from the top if you get leveled *just* right, but you can't get a tool in there, unless you lose the front right wheel and go in from underneath. #8, all the way back, might be the easiest of the four.
Have you ever had to do something as simple as replace an oil filter on a Peugeot 505? No you say? What do you mean I have to move the alternator to get to the filter? This job wins this thread right here, right now.
PS... Any French based car is a nightmare at some point. Stupid two hour lunches drinking too much wine leads to some unorthodox engineering.
Adding oil to the motorhome.
The oil fill is a one-off tube that snakes forward and above the radiator. There's a 10 inch slot that is opened up when you rotate the "hood" down and there's about 5 inches of vertical clearance above the oil fill tube, so you can't really rotate a bottle of oil to get it in there. Forget a 5 quart jug, that's just unpossible. The tube is far enough in that a regular funnel does you no good and the tube is slightly higher than the top of the "hood" opening, so if you use a tube on the end of a funnel, you get a little droop there.
Basically, the engine takes 7 quarts of oil, but bring 8+ quarts because at least 32 ounces will wind up spilled.
I seem to have struck a vein of empathy. Thanks, guys. I don't feel so bad about the MINI now.
In hindsight, I'm almost surprised that you can remove the MINI blower motor without step one being "remove the dash". It's just that the engineers *almost* made it a job that won't remove too much skin and leave you swearing off the marque. But instead, I'm pretty sure the neighbor's kids learned some new words. I'd better get over it, because the lower control arm bushings are worn out and need replacing.
Starter on an 80's FWD Dodge Charger 2.2... funny how quickly I went from eager maintenance planning to chucking a Chilton manual across a room after reading I had to partially drop the K member.
Had a relative was given the car of his dreams when he graduated highschool... A new '88 Chevy Beretta GT. Promised to kiss it and love it and squeeze it and hug it and call it "George". OCD maintenance schedule... until he decided to change the plugs. IIRC he would have had to undo motor mounts and rock the motor forward. To his credit he still had the car 10 years later with over 200,000 miles on it and the same three original plugs.
Oil filter in an Opel Manta: There is a hole in the metal skid plate in exactly the right spot below the filter and you can reach through it and grab the end of the filter to turn it, but the hole is so close to exactly the same diameter as the filter that a filter socket won't fit through the hole. Similarly you can't hold the end of the filter while pulling it through the hole and no strap wrench or channel locks will fit if the filter is more than hand tight.
The best part is that there is a K&N filter that will work and that has the nut welded to the end for easy access, except that particular filter won't fit through the skid plate at all.
Spark plugs in my ex-wife's Cirrus required the top half of the intake manifold to be removed, and at the time the only place to get the gasket was the dealership.
In reply to phaze1todd :
I never had to drop a k-member to get to the starter on those. Just two bolts on the K-member for the debris shield.
getting to the upper bolt before they changed it to a stud was a huge PITA, especially on the older style ones that were huge in diameter and were so large they needed a bracket to the block to keep them from breaking off near the flywheel.
That said, enough long extensions and a wobbly was the secret, followed by drilling out the hole and replacing the starter with a later turbo model with the stud that went through the transaxle case below the air filter housing. Smaller, lighter, more heat resistant and easier to change.
In reply to Stefan :
WHERE WERE YOU 30 YEARS AGO!!!
phaze1todd said:
Had a relative was given the car of his dreams when he graduated highschool... A new '88 Chevy Beretta GT. Promised to kiss it and love it and squeeze it and hug it and call it "George". OCD maintenance schedule... until he decided to change the plugs. IIRC he would have had to undo motor mounts and rock the motor forward. To his credit he still had the car 10 years later with over 200,000 miles on it and the same three original plugs.
Not on that chassis you didn't. Not even with the 3.0/3.3l V6.
On the chassis were you DID have to rock the engine forward, GM provided an extra hole in the torque mounts. You unbolted the mounts at the radiator end, pried the engine forward (it will move very easily), and shove a bolt in through one of the mounts' extra holes. Simple.
Knurled. said:pried the engine forward (it will move very easily), and shove a bolt in through one of the mounts' extra holes. Simple.
Pry it? I thought you just had someone brake-torque it?
Knurled. said:phaze1todd said:
Had a relative was given the car of his dreams when he graduated highschool... A new '88 Chevy Beretta GT. Promised to kiss it and love it and squeeze it and hug it and call it "George". OCD maintenance schedule... until he decided to change the plugs. IIRC he would have had to undo motor mounts and rock the motor forward. To his credit he still had the car 10 years later with over 200,000 miles on it and the same three original plugs.
Not on that chassis you didn't. Not even with the 3.0/3.3l V6.
On the chassis were you DID have to rock the engine forward, GM provided an extra hole in the torque mounts. You unbolted the mounts at the radiator end, pried the engine forward (it will move very easily), and shove a bolt in through one of the mounts' extra holes. Simple.
Was it a Cavalier, then? Man, my memory is shot! Must've been being around all that depleted uranium...
A buddy of mine described replacing the starter on his 2003 (I think) Tacoma as being nightmareish. He did it then Toyota demanded to buy the truck back from him a month later because the frame rust issue on those trucks.
Rear shocks on an E39 start with "remove the rear courtesy lights". Basically, everything aft of the B pillars inside the car comes off, and you still have to snake the thing out through a bunch of suspension arms. The Koni Sport shocks for that chassis are the sort you have to compress and twist to adjust. Nope, they get set once and they will never be adjusted again.
Ooooohhhhh.....
Dodge BR body Cummins equipped power steering pump can suck it.
Passenger side manifold to pipe v band clamp on Libertys. If someone has berkeleyed with it, just cut it off. Inevitably, the bolt isn’t accessible after it got berkeleyed with. Morons.
Anything on my old 7.3 stuffed in that 97 body. No room to do E36 M3 unless you have all day to do simple stuff.
Engine removal from a 300/Charger with the 5.7. It can come out the top, but that harness on the pass side strut just wants and begs to be damaged. Better off dropping it out the bottom, every time.
In vehicle oil pan replacement on a 6.7 Cummins... Not pretty.
I’m sure I have others... 5yrs of dealerships and independents on top of working on my own and friend’s garbage vehicles....
I think the most stupid hard job for something simple I have heard of.. removing the front bumper on one of the cloud cars to replace the battery
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