things you would rather do or not do...

[Jim Rosenthal]

It's been fairly serious out here lately, not that that's bad, but I recall some pretty interesting posts about things like "what will your license plates read, etc"...so in that spirit:
Things you would rather do than drive/own a GT40...if there are any....and things you feel are definitely not as enjoyable as driving a GT40...
...like having to change that little coolant hose at the end of the Mini-Cooper cylinder head...
Your replies eagerly awaited....Happy Holidays to all!!!!!!

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Replacing the spark plugs on my 67 GT500 was in that league. I would do the 6 easy ones, take a break and then decide "it really runs OK as is and declare it O-Beer:thirty.

There are several other things auto related but they involve newer cars that I now just pay someone to do.

Rick

 

[Ron Earp]

Replacing the heater core in Fox bodied Mustangs and other Fords. Entire R&R of dash, everything! Just to get at a lousy heater core. Done this four times now on various Fords, ain't doing it again.

R

 

Hmmm...replacing the points on a old 2CV, rear brake pipes on a 2 CV, front brake shoes on a...infact, anything on an old 2CV!

IIRC the points were situated behind the fan that requires a special tool to get the starter dog off. To get to the starter dog the front of the car has to be removed etc!

John S.

 

[Alain Vanhollebeke]

Ahhh yes,,, the 'ol 2CV.
I don't see many of these in the states, but they bring back memories from home.
I am originally from Belgium.

Having been a pro tech for over 20 years now, some of my LEAST favorite jobs were:

replacing a broken exhaust manifold on an old 12cyl E-type Jag. The owner didn't want to pay to remove the head or the engine,,,, I was young & stupid, and managed to do it without removing the engine. Of course, one of the long manifold studs broke in the head, which was a real bugger to deal with.


replacing the brake master cylinder on a fiat bertone X/19 (if I remember correctly)..
the unit was mounted under the dash right above the steering column. You had to hang like a bat in order to see anything at all.
To top it all off, I ended up having to do the job again, as the replacement part was a "bad rebuild".

doing anything on a maserati merak or citroen SM with the same engine,,,especially once the timing chain failed.

adjusting the carbs on a lambo jalpa:
the webers on this car were surrounded by a very close fitting aluminum box which made acess to the mixture screws exciting. actually acess to about anything other than the rear bank spark plugs on this car will give you a lesson in using swivel/universal joints.


heater blower motors on old mercedes 108 chassis sel's: (you remember these, the ones from the late 60's early 70's) MBZ pays something like 24 hours of labor to do this job. It seems when they built this model, they started by suspending the heater blower from the ceiling -with a piece of string,,,then they decided to build a car around it!

 

[Pete K.]

Collector pipe on a 1.9L Opel GT. Sounds very easy, only problem is that you cannot see or touch the bolts. Long extensions, U-joints, and language that would make a sailor blush. Took me nearly 3 hours.

The next time the pipe broke I took it to Midas for replacement (thinking they could get it done in under an hour). Took them FOUR hours!

 

I have many bad memorys of alot of jobs but by far the worst was doing the hub seals on my unimog, no real brains required but alot of brute force, the hub nut torque is 1000 ftlbs, tire/rim assembly weighs about 100 lbs and the gear reduction hub unit is no lightweight either, I swore i would never do it again,,,,except they are leaking again.. I will just have to keep topping it up i guess.

 

The one that comes to mind first is a number of years ago I took my wife and 8 kids from Oregon to Illinois to visit family. I had a Dodge Van. I went about 35 miles and the transmission lines, at the radiator, started leaking on the freeway. I cut the ends and rigged them together with a rubber hose. It worked since I didn't have any overheating problems afterward.

We went (at best) another 100 miles and water started shooting from the engine. We were stranded in the middle of nowhere so I put JB WELD onto it and found that it stopped the big leak. It worked for about 500-600 miles before I repeated the repair again (and again).

Then, we were about 50 miles from Ontario, Oregon (eastern border) and the alternator light came on. I tried to make it to town but it soon died. I was so upset as I went out to find that the alternator bracket had broken. I was in the middle of nowhere again!

I stepped back from the van, looked at my wife and kids inside, and yelled (very loud and very angered), "What's a Ford guy doing with a Dodge anyway!" My wife broke my tension by laughing at me. Fortunately, I had a bracket that was able to work long enough to get to Ontario.

I guess I won't ever forget having my wife hold up jumper cables and 4 of the kids each holding up a sheet of paper. One sheet had the letter "J"...the next sheet had the letter "U"...the next sheet had the letter "M" and the last one said "P". I hoped that the passing cars could read that as they came by at 65 MPH. It finally worked!

At any rate, we made the rest of the trip to Illinois and back with no more troubles.

I wonder if my GT40 will create memories like that one?

Have fun!

John

 

[Mark Worthington]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pete K:
Collector pipe on a 1.9L Opel GT. Sounds very easy, only problem is that you cannot see or touch the bolts. Long extensions, U-joints, and language that would make a sailor blush. Took me nearly 3 hours.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey Pete, I had an Opel GT as my first car! Now that I think about it, it's a logical precursor to a GT40.

My worst experience was helping my brother time the cams in his '74 Porsche 911 and torque the flywheel bolts. Amazingly, they weren't bolts but cap screws. The only socket we found that could do the job was a Snap-On unit, and we went through two of those on each go-round on the flywheel. We got to know the guy on a first-name basis! More recently, it was replacing the rear struts on my Toyota Camry - you have to remove the entire rear seat and parcel shelf to get to the upper mount bolts, and you have to deal with corroded sway-bar end-links. I finally took my cut-off wheel to the end links only to find out the next day that new links were $95 each from Toyota!

 

[Hershal Byrd]

As far as enjoying something more than driving my GT, well there IS one thing

But other than that I have en equal pleasure in flying my microlite airplane as I do driving the GT.
I sold the plane almost a year ago and I really miss it. I have been looking hard at other plane kits to replace it.
As far as difficult repairs go on cars, I have to agree with Rick. I owned a '69
Mustang SCJ and it was no picnic changing plugs. If I remember correctly I had to remove one motor mount and jack up that side of the engine and replace the plugs. Then you had to do the same for the other side. In those days you ran leaded fuel and your plugs didn't last long in a 428ci.

Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all !

Hersh

 

[Johan]

replacing most all of the 24 volt waterproof starters on a large lot of USMC Humvees got to me pretty good. They are so heavy, and high up, that as you lift it up, then let go with one hand to grab a bolt, it falls back down. There were 1500 trucks and I still have nightmares.

 

[Ian K]

Well, getting at the rear freeze plugs
in my 240Z was no fun either. Can you say
"drop the transmission"! The best part was,
I was going through starters on a regular
basis until my Z mechanic/racer friend
told me about those damn plugs. Had coolant
dropping into the bellhousing, which then
drained right onto the starter.

Oh, and syncing the carbs witout the aid of
a flowmeter - I got pretty close with a
sheet of paper

Ian

 

[Jim B]

The one job I wish I never had to do was chaging a starter on my Bronco in Sioux city Iowa. We were moving from Texas to South Dakota in January 95. I did it laying on a sheet of ice 6" thick with a standing temp of -50F with a -70F wind chill. I ended up working outside for 5-10 minutes running inside for 15-30 minutes or untill my fingers were nolonger still. It took almost 5 hours to change that starter. normally its a 15 minute R&R
The other fun on was changing a Distributer cap on a transverse 4cyl Buick.
Take off the passenger tire, reach in and pray your arm was long enough.

Jim

 

I agree with a lot of them already mentioned. I replaced the heater core in my 1984 Mustang GT with A/C once. I recommend you pay someone if you ever have to do have this done, (whatever the cost). The spark plugs in a 390 or 428 Mustang are difficult but if you find the right combination of wrench extensions it isn't to bad. Try replacing a cast iron intake manifold or putting on headers on one of those cars. Anything under a car, or in the winter or just lying on your back is difficult. I hate rusty exhaust systems. You wear eye protection but stuff still seems to find your eyes. I had an oil filter from hell once. I had a local shop do an oil and filter change once while my 1992 F150 Ford pick-up truck was in for some setvice. The next time I went to change the off brand oil filter the outer shell of the filter colasped on my band wrench. The filter did not budge. OK, I'll try the trick of driving a screw driver through the filter so that it will turn. That created a oily mess and did nothing to loosen the filter. I finally ended up with next to nothing left of the oil filter can and used a chisel and hammer at the base of the oil filter to get the filter to turn and come off the engine. What is it now a days on cars? It seems like the oil filters get burried in behind stuff and when you have to change them the old oil drips all over the place. Once helped a friend fix a 2.3 L Ford engine in a Mustang II that broke the timing gears. Great idea by Ford. Plastic timing gear teeth. But I say the worse repair I made was to change the oil pan on my 1992 F150. It was a great truck. 302, Automatic, A/C, two wheel drive. It served both as a daily driver, parts hauler, two vehicle. The oil pan got rusty and got pin hole rust in the side and started to leak. Four options, sell the truck, do nothing and let it leak more and more, coat the side of the oil pan with hole with JB Weld compound or replace the oil pan. I chose to replace the oil pan and had four days off to do it. It took five! The y-pipe exhaust system went under rear of the oil pan and the oil pan would not drop clear of the pipe even if the oil pump was unbolted. Had to drop the exhaust system and broke a emmissions fitting to the exhaust system which had to be fixed at a muffler shop. Let's see. What will I do next time? A 10 minuet JB Weld coat it on repair or $200 five day repair?