What vehicle has ever defeated you mechanically?

[TR Custom Parts]

Ever have a vehicle that needed something fairly easy done to it that anyone with common knowledge of mechanics should be able to fix? In working on cars for over 30 years now I have only two that have defeated me, meaning I gave up on trying to do the task and let a garage/dealer take care of it.

First was serpentine belt on a 95 Pontiac Grand Am GT with a 3.1 V-6. 10 minute job right? Well, after an hour of struggling with trying to get the damn thing off I brought it to a GM dealer the next day. Was quoted 1 hour of labor for it, took them 5 hours to do it!! Didn't feel too bad about that one. Getting the belt off of the pulleys is a no brainer but you have to actually jack up the motor and remove a bunch of the brackets off the motor to do the job. Was actually quite amusing watching a trained GM mechanic struggling to get the job done.

Now for the latest GM engineered BS. Wife's 98 Jimmy with a 4.3 V-6 wasn't putting out any heat. Felt the heater core hoses at the firewall and one was hot, one was not. OK, clogged heater core, ended up back flushing just the heater core itself by disconnecting the hoses from the motor. Got a good flow thru the core and hooked everything back up. Plenty of heat, end of story, right?

Next day, checked under the hood just to make sure everything was OK and smelled antifreeze. WTF??? Well, the water pump decided to take a dump and was leaking from the bleed hole. No biggie, get a water pump and prepared to dive in to fix it.

Brought the Jimmy into my garage the night before as we were expecting a snowstorm and sure enough it hit but I was in the nice heated garage without a care. Or so I thought, how the hell was I supposed to get the clutch fan off? GM in all of their engineering expertise has it screwed on to the water pump shaft and you need a 1.5" wrench to get it off. So off in a snowstorm with my Blazer to Sears hardware to get a BFW and strap wrench for the pulley to hold it from moving. Got home and couldn't get the damn thing to budge. After 3 hours of teaching my son the fine art of creative swearing I said the hell with this a put the shroud back on and made an appointment with my friend's Goodyear Tire store to get it fixed tomorrow.

I have built motors, transmissions, rear ends, rebuilt entire cars from bare frames and gave up on this supposedly simple job. I hang my head in shame, oh the humility!

So what mechanical job that you undertook with confidence only to have your skills dashed with failure have you had happen to you?

 

[Little6pack]

At 16 when I pulled my GTO 389 out I never marked the wires to anything Big Mistake..

When I put the motor back in from being built & did not know what to hook up where for wires Lesson learned mark EVERYTHING!

Had to have the GTO towed to Pontiac dealer in 1977.
The mechanics all fought to work on it.. 3 hours of labor & some fluids the bill was whopping $72 including tow.

When they fired the motor up OPEN HEADER All the Mechanics Cheered & came over to make sure the breakin run was proper..

Drove it home with BIG GRIN Open header. Scarin Old ladies

Don't feel bad Mark.. this happened with my daily driver last winter.. Was changing the rear brake cylinders outside in winter.
The job kept snowballing. I had to keep buying newer tools to get at the bolts which had a weird GM star shape. $50- in tools later & 3 days I should have brought it to shop.

 

[boostin6]

I used to have a 93 Chevy Lumina Z34 with the 3.4L DOHC V-6 I needed to replace the timing belt...It had 90,000 miles on it and it needed to be replaced...After buying a Chilton repair manual and asking a friend of mine ( He works for a GM dealer) about how hard of a job it was I decided to try it myself...Now I'm very mechanically incline...Well I started removing the plastic covers etc.... and finally got a chance to see the timing belt...What a freakin mess....Pulleys everywhere oil filled belt tensioner....Well the manual said to make sure to lock the camshafts (4) with something , they recommend GM's tool...Well I used two vise grips....Took the belt off and I heard something fall down...I look and the one vise grip come off the cam sprockets and the valve spring press. must of caused the cams to move out of time....So I read on about how to fix this now And I tried to move the cams back but couldn't because of the valve spring press. I wasn't sure how far they moved, but the manual said you needed a special tool to reset the timing...At this point I was ready to give up and call the dealer to come get the damn thing...But then I called my buddy and asked him if he had the tool to reset the cams...He said yeah, I'll be right over....Tried to correct the timing turned the motor to #1 TDC comp. stroke. Put the timing belt back on and buttoned everything up and it would not start... Checked everything again and he couldn't find what was wrong with it....I said fine I called the garage they picked it up and I received a phone call about 2 days later.... The cars fixed..Alright I almost fell over for how much the bill was.....$850.00...They said they replaced some seals that were leaking and the timing of the rear camshafts were 180* off...So much for my buddy that thought he knew what he was doing at the GM garage....Turned out I sold the stupid car about 2 mos. later to a woman I work with...The car ran fine for about 1 year the developed a major oil leak...So every little thing that was going wrong with it I heard about..... I will never, never, ever buy one of those cars again.......

 

[blackbuick87]

I bought some headers and a JC Whitney exhaust for my 88K5 Blazer, figured I could just throw an exhaust system on it in an hour after work. Well I had no vehicle and the mechanic at work had to bail my azz out.

Same Blazer, I thought over New Years weekend I could get it sanded, fix the rust and painted. Three weeks later the same mechanic bailed my azz out again and helped me get it finished.

A nice bottle of 101 wild turkey was his reward every time

 

[myclone]

Back in college a roomate had a ~73 charger with a hacked up 360 engine swap finally ate the timing chain after who knows how many miles. Since I was the hot rodder/mechanic of the apartment I got volunteered to swap the chain. Keep in mind Im a GM guy and never laid hands on a mopar but I figured how hard could it be... Big mistake...

Not only did I not know what I was doing being unfamiliar with mopars but once I was done the car wouldnt start. We had VERY weak spark so much so it wouldnt even hit on ether. We didnt have any money either (hadda save that for beer) so we tried all kinda cheapy fixes including stealing the coil off of the land lords ford tractor/mower.

I/we never did get it to run and just before graduation ~2yrs later the land lord told him to move it or he'd have it towed.

I admit defeat on that one but to this day at times I wonder why we couldnt get it to run as we really didnt do anything drastically wrong or that we didnt fix back then.

 

[Otto J]

Originally posted by BuickGn Boosted
Ever have a vehicle that needed something fairly easy done to it that anyone with common knowledge of mechanics should be able to fix? In working on cars for over 30 years now I have only two that have defeated me, meaning I gave up on trying to do the task and let a garage/dealer take care of it.

First was serpentine belt on a 95 Pontiac Grand Am GT with a 3.1 V-6. 10 minute job right? Well, after an hour of struggling with trying to get the damn thing off I brought it to a GM dealer the next day. Was quoted 1 hour of labor for it, took them 5 hours to do it!! Didn't feel too bad about that one. Getting the belt off of the pulleys is a no brainer but you have to actually jack up the motor and remove a bunch of the brackets off the motor to do the job. Was actually quite amusing watching a trained GM mechanic struggling to get the job done.

Now for the latest GM engineered BS. Wife's 98 Jimmy with a 4.3 V-6 wasn't putting out any heat. Felt the heater core hoses at the firewall and one was hot, one was not. OK, clogged heater core, ended up back flushing just the heater core itself by disconnecting the hoses from the motor. Got a good flow thru the core and hooked everything back up. Plenty of heat, end of story, right?

Next day, checked under the hood just to make sure everything was OK and smelled antifreeze. WTF??? Well, the water pump decided to take a dump and was leaking from the bleed hole. No biggie, get a water pump and prepared to dive in to fix it.

Brought the Jimmy into my garage the night before as we were expecting a snowstorm and sure enough it hit but I was in the nice heated garage without a care. Or so I thought, how the hell was I supposed to get the clutch fan off? GM in all of their engineering expertise has it screwed on to the water pump shaft and you need a 1.5" wrench to get it off. So off in a snowstorm with my Blazer to Sears hardware to get a BFW and strap wrench for the pulley to hold it from moving. Got home and couldn't get the damn thing to budge. After 3 hours of teaching my son the fine art of creative swearing I said the hell with this a put the shroud back on and made an appointment with my friend's Goodyear Tire store to get it fixed tomorrow.

I have built motors, transmissions, rear ends, rebuilt entire cars from bare frames and gave up on this supposedly simple job. I hang my head in shame, oh the humility!

So what mechanical job that you undertook with confidence only to have your skills dashed with failure have you had happen to you?

If you have an air hammer, just hit the nut on the fan clutch with it a few times and it will loosen right up, Obviously use the air hammer bit to send the nut in a twisting motion.
Otto
Mark if you ever need a hand i dont live far away, just give me a shout

 

[87 we4 gray t]

replace complete main harness on a 58 vw bug. horrible. bad. evil. etc.

 

[victa1]

.....

 

[Tony sy2356]

They said they replaced some seals that were leaking and the timing of the rear camshafts were 180* off...So much for my buddy that thought he knew what he was doing at the GM garage....

In defense of your buddy the service manuals have been wrong on that procedure for years. They still haven't fixed it.

Ask me how I know. The funny thing is when the cams are 180 out they will still run just fine, till ya get into it. Imagine a 3.4 liter 3 cylinder. Thats what they become. Try tracking that down the first time.

I love those engines now. No one else wants to touch em and I have them down to a science.

Tony

 

[slow87]

changing plugs wires on a early 90's v6 blazer,

Having worked on a few f body's I figured this would be a no brainer 20 min. tops kinda thing.........nope on the drivers side the steering shaft is in the way of getting to one of the plugs. Spend over an hour trying everything I had(I couldn't even get an open end wrench on it!). Give up call my buddy the next day who had one......one little bolt and the steering shaft comes apart and slides out of the way took 2 minutes

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Originally posted by slow87
changing plugs wires on a early 90's v6 blazer,

Having worked on a few f body's I figured this would be a no brainer 20 min. tops kinda thing.........nope on the drivers side the steering shaft is in the way of getting to one of the plugs.

Been there done that, I figured that one out!

On my fan clutch deal I was ready to just cut the damn thing off with a sawzall until I found out how much a new one cost.

Otto, thanks for the offer! You should try to make it up my way for the Walmart cruises in 04.

Air hammer was probably going to be my next step but I just so pissed at it that I decided to let someone else deal with it. One more thing on the 95- up Blazer/Jimmys, why don't they put the damn drain petcock where you can easily get to it?

 

[myclone]

Originally posted by slow87
changing plugs wires on a early 90's v6 blazer,

Having worked on a few f body's I figured this would be a no brainer 20 min. tops kinda thing.........nope on the drivers side the steering shaft is in the way of getting to one of the plugs. Spend over an hour trying everything I had(I couldn't even get an open end wrench on it!). Give up call my buddy the next day who had one......one little bolt and the steering shaft comes apart and slides out of the way took 2 minutes

FWIW... Place a regular plug socket on the plug then insert the square drive of the ratchet but dont try to seat it all the way just enough so you can turn the socket. Basically insert the square drive of the ratchet until the locking ball is against the top of the socket not inside it. This gives you enough room to get the ratchet head past the steering shaft but keeps the ratchet from bottoming out on the exh manifold/plug wire heat shield.

I can do plugs on my sy in ~10 minutes as they are the same PIA as far as plugs are concerned as the truck you worked on.

 

[Otto J]

Plugs on S10 s are easier if you do them from the wheel well,Just left the truick a bit and you can see right at the m with a long extension
Otto

 

[turbosam6]

When I was in high school I had an 88 ford T bird turbo coup. It was pretty fast, for being a tank. One day it would not start. My buddy was a diesel mechanic in training, so I called him over. Of course, this required skipping school, since it was a weekday. So we ditched school and started messing with it. It was maybe 30 degrees outside, so first order of business was cleaning out the garage enough to fit it in there. After an hour of cleaning, it still would not fit, so we decided to bundle up and work outside. All I could tell was it was not getting fuel. We decided the fuel lines must be frozen. So we get all my moms space heaters and a hair drier and proceed to heat the lines. Still no start. We were at a loss, so I called my somewhat mechanically inclined grand father. he stops by and verifies we have spark. No der. No help there, so we give up and go get parts for my buddies small engine project. By then its noon, and we decide to get nachos and watch beavis and butthead for an hour. My buddies mom calls and reams him a new one for cutting class. He leaves, I go back to work on the car. I try everything I can with what few tools I have and give up that night and call a tow truck. We tow it to my stepdads mechanic, where it sits for 2 days waiting to be looked at. Then the mechanic called: It started right up when he got in and tried to start it. Now my parents think I made the whole thing up to cut school. Stupid ford. I sold it and bought a firebird formula. Chicks dug it.

 

[AZ Vic]

When I was 16, I offered to give my boss's pickup a tune up so he would not have to take it to the shop.

Now, at 16, I had rebuilt 5 chevy motors, a ton of tune-ups, owned (and sold) 7 vehicles. I was also lead tech at my high school auomotive shop...

Basic tune up... no problem.

Plugs, cap, rotor, wires, all the filters, pcv, etc.

Now I used to mark number one, pull off all of the wires and then check which way the rotor turned. Then, I just would install them with the proper firing order...

The Truck was a Ford with I believe it was a 390 (maybe a 460)... Now I was most familiar with the small block chevy (this will come into play later).

I really liked how the distributor was in front on the Ford. Everything went smooth as silk, I had it all finished in under an hour. Which was good because we needed the truck to go pick up a trailer and move materials.

My boss got in turned the key as I watched for any leaks (habit from a bad fuel filter experience at 14). It cranked... and cranked... and then backfired... really f'n loud too...

oh oh...

So I double checked my firing order... perfect... number 1-good, checked which way the rotor turned... that was right too...

had good spark... good fuel...

WTF?

After checking things for the fourth time with my boss looking over my shoulder... we went and got a book on it...

He wanted to take it to the mechanic... but I insisted that I knew what I was doing and that with a book I could verify I had the right firing order.

Read the book, I was spot on... still would backfire. Boss was getting REALLY pissed by now.

Wait..., what's this? Duh... the cylinders are numbered different... oh yeah... had that problem before (last time I was smart enough to catch it before I tried to start it, though) whoops.

Fixed it, and it ran great - better than ever! Kind of helped save face... I ended up doing all of his work for years.

The first SBC I rebuilt, took me three days to figure out how all of the accessory brackets went back together. I was only 15... lots to learn...

 

[gn1220]

Originally posted by BuickGn Boosted
Ever have a vehicle that needed something fairly easy done to it that anyone with common knowledge of mechanics should be able to fix? In working on cars for over 30 years now I have only two that have defeated me, meaning I gave up on trying to do the task and let a garage/dealer take care of it.

First was serpentine belt on a 95 Pontiac Grand Am GT with a 3.1 V-6. 10 minute job right? Well, after an hour of struggling with trying to get the damn thing off I brought it to a GM dealer the next day. Was quoted 1 hour of labor for it, took them 5 hours to do it!! Didn't feel too bad about that one. Getting the belt off of the pulleys is a no brainer but you have to actually jack up the motor and remove a bunch of the brackets off the motor to do the job. Was actually quite amusing watching a trained GM mechanic struggling to get the job done.

Now for the latest GM engineered BS. Wife's 98 Jimmy with a 4.3 V-6 wasn't putting out any heat. Felt the heater core hoses at the firewall and one was hot, one was not. OK, clogged heater core, ended up back flushing just the heater core itself by disconnecting the hoses from the motor. Got a good flow thru the core and hooked everything back up. Plenty of heat, end of story, right?

Next day, checked under the hood just to make sure everything was OK and smelled antifreeze. WTF??? Well, the water pump decided to take a dump and was leaking from the bleed hole. No biggie, get a water pump and prepared to dive in to fix it.

Brought the Jimmy into my garage the night before as we were expecting a snowstorm and sure enough it hit but I was in the nice heated garage without a care. Or so I thought, how the hell was I supposed to get the clutch fan off? GM in all of their engineering expertise has it screwed on to the water pump shaft and you need a 1.5" wrench to get it off. So off in a snowstorm with my Blazer to Sears hardware to get a BFW and strap wrench for the pulley to hold it from moving. Got home and couldn't get the damn thing to budge. After 3 hours of teaching my son the fine art of creative swearing I said the hell with this a put the shroud back on and made an appointment with my friend's Goodyear Tire store to get it fixed tomorrow.

I have built motors, transmissions, rear ends, rebuilt entire cars from bare frames and gave up on this supposedly simple job. I hang my head in shame, oh the humility!

So what mechanical job that you undertook with confidence only to have your skills dashed with failure have you had happen to you?

Mark, try putting a motor in one of those S-10's. You have to raise the body, yes, the body, 2-3 inches to get the bell-housing bolts out. Thought the book was crazy so I checked with a GM mechanic who confirmed this. Talk about a bunch of cussing I did win, though.