What is the "Beat All, End All" worst repair you have ever taken on?

[Ron Ward]

The title says it all....


What is the "Beat All, End All" worst automotive repair you have ever taken on yourself?


For me (and this is my dozenteenth time...) it is replacing lower control arm bushings on a Mopar with longitudinal torsion bars.

There simply are NO words to describe how much this job sucks balls.... It's horrible. I don't wish it on anyone...


So, what are your worst experiences?

[JOES66FURY]

the rebuild of the front suspension on my 99 Ram. It was not so much a difficult task as it was tracking down all the damn parts and paying the exorbitant amount of money they cost, every tie rod, track bar, idler arm, upper and lower ball joints and wheel bearings...what a PITA.

[studemax]

My little brother would never maintain or repair his vehicles unless absolutely necessary... years ago the Dodge Dart he had been driving back and forth to college made an ungodly squeal every time he stopped. I finally told him I'd put brakes on the thing, and to bring it by on Saturday morning. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't get the front wheels off the axle. The rivets had sawn through the drums, and gone into the rims. I had to manually back off the self-adjusters on both sides until the wheels and drum pieces came off in my hands. Thank goodness there was a salvage yard down the road with fresh rims and drums, which they quickly machined for me. The back drums were gone, but hadn't annihilated the drums yet. I got 4 used tires while I was at it, as all 4 tires were as bald as cueballs.

Once I got it back together and found it stopped quietly, I checked the oil and found tar on the dipstick. Popped off the valve cover and it was like burnt frosting in there. Splashed a gallon of lacquer thinner in it, and ran it for a minute or two and drained it. Went and bought a case of cheap oil, and ran it around for 20 minutes with fresh oil, and drained that. Then spun on a new filter, and added a few fresh cans to the sad old six banger.

He NEVER paid me, which is why I haven't loaned him a cent in the last 30 intervening years.

[squirrel]

For me (and this is my dozenteenth time...) it is replacing lower control arm bushings on a Mopar with longitudinal torsion bars.

There simply are NO words to describe how much this job sucks balls.... It's horrible. I don't wish it on anyone...

It was a three day ordeal when I was a teenager, doing this on the family station wagon with no equipment at all.

Not quite as bad when I did my wife's Dart several years later. I haven't done it since then. I think that was around 1985 or so.

[Ron Ward]

Stude, man, I would have completely lost my composure if someone pulled that on me. Damn... that sucks.

[studemax]

Stude, man, I would have completely lost my composure if someone pulled that on me. Damn... that sucks.

Well, my little brother is "in the ministry".... so he's always dead broke.

[Thumpin455]

Other than the 65 GTO, which was cut and paste welding enjoyment, the worst job for me was an Aerostar minivan. I accepted the challenge of rebuilding the A4LD transmission and learned that I should simply avoid those things entirely. Absolutely the most stressful thing indid. The one that pissed me off the most was a mid 80s Honda Civic carb. Someone turned it over and I spent a month trying to make it work again.

[RockJustRock]

Most visually imposing would be all those extreme disc brake neglect cases, but those are relatively easy fixes. The nasty ones were the wheel bearing failures driven until they could no longer be driven. Get out the torch and what does it take to change the spindle after it is all cut apart? The first generation of taper seat spark plugs (no gaskets) had a bad habit of cracking between the hex and the threads. One idiot would over torque then and the next innocent victim would snap it off on the next plug change.

[Beagle]

suspension is a big hitter here and I'll agree. Ford I beam radius arm bushing "by the book" suck it. Except there was this1986 C10 heater core that left me bloody and hating chevrolet. I later learned "things" about that repair I wish I had known when I did it. I still hate it almost 30 years later.

Radio installations in the old days... mid 70's GM midsizes with A/C were not fun and nothing was "standard"

OH - forgot one candidate. Fox Mustang engine change. 15 years and counting. Pffft. They're stupid easy too. Go figure.

[Aircooled]

Control arm bushings
Rusted on drum brakes
and any clutch job in front of a 125lb+ manual transmission. T56 comes to mind.

[Runner1972]

My dad's SS after the 20 year mark started to act up and in a few months these had to be replaced:

-3 Opti Units.{1 Accel Unit,1 MSD and a Summit Brand cause they all had the DTC 14 or 16 Code} Bought a Delphi Unit after that.
-8 New Injectors
-EGR Valve
-EGR Valve Switch
-IAC Valve
-New Inner and Outer Tie Rod Ends.
-Rear Calipers/Rotors/Pads
-Tune Up

It's still in the garage now cause of a bad centerlink and it's been too cold to be on the floor banging on it

[BBR]

Worst repair is always is the one that did not fix the problem or ultimately made it worse. lol

[Dan Barlow]

Fuel pump in a third gen Camaro or firebird . Drop the exhaust from the converter back. Take the lower shock bolts loose. Let the axle swing down. Take the pan and bar out . Take the brace out. Take the heat shield out. Loose the hoses to the tank. Drop the straps. Then try to get that odd shape tank out. Open the tank , swap pumps. Reverse the order. First time took me 14 hours. Last couple times I got it down to 8.

[DanStokes]

The worst that I personally did was the heater core in the 'Stang. I literally couldn't hire anyone in Ann Arbor, MI to do it. It took a whole weekend and after work the following week but I did prevail. Dash comes out and that's just the start.

Worst I ever heard of - when I worked at the Buick dealer we had a nearly-new '67 Riv come in for a bad fuel gage. It turned out to be the tank sensor. To drop the tank:

1) Pull the exhaust system
2) Pull rear axle (remember, this means opening the brake system)
3) Drop the tank
4) Get the PN off the sender and order it (there were several possibilities)
5) Once the part arrives, reverse the process.

Fortunately, it wasn't my project. The car belonged to an exec at the GMPG and he hit the roof. The next year there was as an access plug in the trunk floor. I suspect that in most shops the techs just cut their own access holes but we were by the book.

Dan

[STINEY]

FOX body front control arm bushings. You know, the ones where the arms are made of a rubber/metal alloy? What a goat rodeo....