Argh! No wonder I love working on old cars!!!!!

Esshhh.. spent all night trying to get a stinkin' water pump off a little Dodge Shadow..! They hide the last bolt behind a piece on the front of the motor that supports the engine! Can't access the flippin' thing. This is yet ONE MORE REASON I spend my time working on '50's rides... I'd rather be in there working on my car then trying to figure out why the stinkin' engineers of this latest stuff INTENTIONALLY make it difficult to work on.

Taking a break on it tonight.. I'm working on the '49 Chevy.. have a few beers and let the stress just melt away.

So thankful I have a shop and someplace to go to relax.

I think the BOY will be getting something older and AMERICAN.. very soon! Sorry.. I don't consider this little Dodge American.. feels more like a rice grinder to me.

 

I know where you are coming from,Ford made their trucks so good you have to pull the cab to get the heads off the engine,& I would like to know who the a** wipe is who designed the fuel pump inside the gas tank.I will never pull another truck bed to replace one,I will just cut a hole & build an access door next time.I bet they even gave the young college grad engineer a raise for designing that ****.

 

LMAO, I did cut an access panel in the bed to change the fuel pump!
CHUCK

 

I remember in the 60's when A.I.R pumps and E.G.R valves were first being put on engines how we thought it made the engine harder to work on........Little did we know.

 

Ya, I think i'm gonna replace my 2006 ford E250 service van with a old panel truck with a crate motor. It's been in and out of the shop for two weeks. They can't figure out if it's the ECM, a coil pack on #1 cylinder or the injector...i won't let them just start throwing new parts at it like they want to. Give me a carb & a distributor and i'll be just fine.

 

I hear you. My daily started suddenly running like ****, wheezed and died, and every idiot light went off. My code reader lit up like a Christmas tree and I spent three days chasing electrical demons trying to correctly diagnose the problem. I finally figured it must be the ECM. Just to get a second opinion I tucked my tail between my legs, took the truck to a local mechanic with a glowing reputation and he told me I needed a new engine! I got a third opinion, in an online forum, and sure enough, it was a broken valve spring. (Luckily Dodge still hasn't made their engine totally inaccessible like Ford)
$7.87 later plus a new set of plugs and my truck runs great. But come on! If a mechanic who makes his living on new stuff can't diagnose a problem correctly with all his expensive diagnostic gadgets and gizmos, how is a home mechanic supposed to do it?
Over engineering ****s.

 

..........They design these cars to make money in the shop .....most people don't repair their cars......they sure don't 59 Caddy's no more and they never will come back......

 

haha i love the word INTENTIONAL in there!!! i say that all the time at the shop, like those little yellow devils intentionally designed it like this just to **** me!! lol
and yes i cut the floor on both my chevy pickups to change the ***inine full pump buried in the gas tank, and i was pissed i couldnt blame the lil yellow devils coz there made in america!! i cant win!

 

I'm 62 I don't have time for that ****. I just take it in and say "Call me when it's done" Just think of all the adult beverages you could have had while you were messing with this, Or Ice cream, Or hamburgers.
Fuzzy

 

I wouldn't mind so much, but they ream you so stinkin' much on labor. That's what really kills me.. I can't justify paying somebody $200 - $300 to replace a $28 part. Ugh.

 

That's why I have a '63 C10 as my daily driver - I can fix it.

 

Front wheel bearing/hub on a Grand Prix last night. Guess which one?, I don't know. Luckily I guessed correct, so I don't have to do the other one tonight. But of course, noticed the front tires need replaced.

 

I have noticed this before (hidden bolt that cannot be accessed until you take off the part that is in the way, which is actually a major component of the engine mounting system or suspension). This is from ***embling engines in country Z...***embling the car in country R...and putting them together in country J - they don't give a tinker's dam about how difficult they make it for the guy at home. These cars were designed to be either disposed of after three years (traded in on a later iteration), or dutifully driven to the dealer so their mechanics (with all the time in the world, apparently) could make the necessary (or not) repairs, thereby adjusting your wallet thickness in a declining manner. I buy my wife a new car every five/six years. I buy myself a new truck about every three years. I service them regularly, and only open the hood during refueling to ***ure there is sufficient lubricant etc. Everything else I drive/own is totally and completely smog-****-free (I think there's a PCV valve in a couple of them) by design. Anyone with any auto interest at all can point to and identify everything seen under these hoods (on those which still HAVE a hood). I still have a drawer full of "old" diagnostic tools - you know - vacuum tester, dwell meter, plug firing probe, compression tester, feeler gauges, etc. These tools are NOT collectibles, they are items used on a regular basis.

Perhaps I have rambled on too long here, but it is truly pitiful how few things these days (house or garage) are designed to be worked on ("No User Serviceable Parts Inside"), irrespective of what you pay originally. I would suppose that the same intellectual drive is what makes municipal officials think that YOU are creating a nuisance with that 'old junk' in your yard. You should throw out that 1937 Cord 810 you're working on, and get a new belly****on zoomercar at your local dealership.

I'm tired as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore....well, not MUCH more anyway.

dj

 

I changed the plugs in my '02 Suburban last year. It was a 3 hour tour and when it was over I had ****** knuckles and was exhausted. They have the plugs already installed in the engine when they drop it in at the factory. They must be ***uming no one will ever have to change them.

I was telling a co-worker about it and he said I was lucky he didn't have the volkswagen that he had a few years back. Apparently you have to actually remove the engine from the car to access them all. AND....they are specifically made plugs that run something outrageous like $50 each. Plug change at a dealer = $800.

We should revolt. But I'd rather just tell them what I really think by not buying new cars anymore.

Edit: This also reminds me of a little mitsubishi POS I worked on once. Some lady my wife worked with bought it for her daughter and the alternator went out. It was mounted low in the engine bay and the bolt for the lower pivot was inaccessible. I actually drilled a big hole in the driver side innershield to access the bolt. These things go bad....why would you design them in such a way that you cannot access them??????

 

That's why I cut off at EARLY 70's and older American cars only at my shop
If I wanted headaches, I'da kept my ex girlfriend

 

I never had anything newer until I leased a new car a couple yrs ago with bumper to bumper coverage throughout the 3 yr lease. By the time it needs ANYTHING, it's THEIR problem.

 

Why would you cut a hole in the bed ?

Why not just cut the bottom of the gas tank out to remove the , oh ya your right , never mind.

 

I got my 64 for 3 reasons. It looks good, I can work on every part while sittingnon the engine compartment, and all the parts to build it are cheap,easy to find, and plentiful.
I love older cars, built before 1980.

 

Yeah you're right a plasma cutter would work great for that......

 

I just talked to my buddy last night. The alternator on his '04 Volkswagen needs replaced. Apparently it is going to cost him $1,100 because they have to remove the front clip to access it.
Tell me how this is progress.

 

My daily is an '05 GMC Canyon and I could hear a slight wheel bearing noise so I decided to change the bearing and freshen up the brakes. I found out the hubs are a one piece sealed unit and you have to replace the complete hub and not just the wheel bearing. Since I have ABS brakes the hubs are even more expensive. Bottom line the brake job was about $1500 with new rotors , rear shoes and pads.

Way back when, I was trying to remove a water pump on a Flathead and had all of the visable bolts off and broke a few screwdrivers trying to pry the pump loose. An older guy told me there was a bolt hidden that was accessed with a socket straight into the outlet with the hose still attached. It isn't just the new stuff that has gotchas.

 

About 10 -11 years ago I sold my '87 El Camino and bought a '70 El Camino for a daily driver because I didn't have the diagnostic tools to work on that computerized ****! Now I'm married with two small boys, my wife made me get rid of the 'El' (told me it was a redneck car) and buy an '05 Ford Escape family freindly car! Needless to say if and when it needs work, it will go back to the dealer for service. Thank God for my hotrod!

 

Audi 4 cylinder timing belt or water pump repair requires removal of everything forward of the engine. Inner & outer bumpers, radiator, A/C, you name it.

I believe that some of this is the result of stuffing components into tight spaces, but I also believe that some of it comes from intentionally creating extra work for repairs or by the engineers being oblivious to the challenges of future repairs.

I like to see a brand come around that focused a bit on easy repairs, but I also know that defeats planned obsolescence. Cars usually get replaced when the repair bills start to rise. If cars were easy to fix then people would keep them longer. When GM's Saturn brand was launched one of their selling points was accessible and easier repairs. We see where that got them.

 

Hmmm... I've got a 2002 DD pickup that I've done all the repairs and maintainence on and it's been straight-forward with very little complications, other than my self-imposed ones.

My only gripe is that it's not as powerful as I'd like. It's simple, no power anything, no frills, just the necessities. I may have to rethink buying a new truck now...

 

The thing that ticks me off about all this is that this is my son's first car. I want him to learn to work on cars as I did, but this thing is just ridiculous. I could see where he'd get easily discouraged trying to work on this piece of ****. I was going to buy him something from the 60's, 70's time period, but the wife had a friend with a car for sale.. you know the routine.

What a piece...

 

Germans don't build cars with the notion that they're going to break, so I think all these Audi/VW examples are really a different discussion.

As for American cars that are new, we don't build stuff the way we used to. We don't build cars that the everyday handyman can repair. The cars aren't built to be repaired by the consumers. That's why we have automotive technicians these days. Because they're not the grease monkeys of old. They know a bunch about computers.

But yeah, I'm cool with technology. New cars are fine with me. Yeah, they're not as simple, and they're harder to work on, but you can't argue that the technology is vastly superior.

 

I don't know.... I spent yesterday replacing an oil pan gasket on my 56 Catalina. While everything IS easy to access, there are other issues with old cars that are not so much fun....(see my other thread on removing broken exhaust flange studs).....

 

LOL that was great!

 

Try replacing the crank position sensor on a 200 Jeep Grand Cherokee! Back of the block, on top of the bell housing. I finally gave up, peeled the carpet, and cut a hole thru the driver floorboard.
Problem solved !

 

Love the storys and FEEL the pain.My 94 Dodge Ram has been good to me ,i bought it new.BUT when that nasty day comes ive got a rebuilt 1966 413 and truck trany to go in.Then if the rear end farts out,in goes a Dana 60 with locker.I just hope all the gauges work after this action.0h fuel pump will be on engine where it was ment to be.IF/WHEN this day comes i might start drinking again.............................YG