I’ve been spinning wrenches on the Rough Start Mustang for exactly three days now. Rather, I’ve been blasting every spot of interior plastic with cleaner and I’ve been busy gutting out the seats and center console so the carpet could get gutted, sliced up with a razor knife, and stuffed into heavy-duty yard trash bags while the neighbor kid keeps working on his drifty Nissan 240SX. That along has probably given him something to think about the next time he starts revving that pile like he’s about to dump the clutch and get rubber for days when he’s parked in front of the house, but what I’ve been considering next might give him all the convincing he needs to not piss me off. Since the seats are out, the console is out, and there is a strong likelihood that I need to replace it anyways just due to age, I’m considering putting in a new heater core into the Fox body. For years I’ve been told that it’s a bitch of a job, that I’d rather go without a heater than do this job. I have no intention of going without heat for anyone. But that doesn’t stop well-wishers from warning anger-management specialists in the area about what might go down.
Honestly, from the videos I’ve seen, it’s not that bad. It’s involved, no doubt. But if the worst thing I have to endure is a dash removal, why not do it while I’ve got the interior gutted out for cleaning, right? It’s just like everybody who warned me about my 2001 Ram’s front ball joints, or everybody who nodded in agreement when I was ranting and raving about trying to make my grizzly bear paws fit into where the heater hoses are at on my wife’s Silverado and what the person who designed those “quick disconnects” can do with a chunk of Saguaro cactus in their spare time…there are some jobs that just flat suck. The end barely justifies the means. You’re willing to pay some other sucker to take this bullet instead of gritting your teeth together and getting things done yourself. I’m considering diving into one of the worst ones I know of…what’s your ultimate “aw, hell naw” repair job?
Deciding to completely rebuild the front end of a 2004 F150 4×4. Nothing came off easy, lots of big hammer work. Had to get the gas axe out. Air compressor died. Felt good when done, but Damn! 4 to 6 hour job took 3 days
I had a heater core go bad in an old Ford Fairmont. I glanced at the shop manual and instructions are short, there are only four steps, so I think I can do this, it will be a piece of cake. So come Saturday I am ready to undertake this project and I take another look at the instructions. The first step is \”remove the dashboard\”.
Heater core in a 99 Durango. Take the dash almost completely out. Steering collum down. And a valve cover had to come off, to access a couple bolts on the fire wall. At least this is what I was told. I farmed this one out. Dodged that bleeding knuckle .
my mother had a 74 camaro 350 with air, the heater core had to be replaced,laying upside down under the dash for hours that drove my nuts even to this day i hate working under dash boards, i think i had some parts left over when i finished,as they say i made it better put it back together with less parts an it still worked fine
C3 vette rear end control arm pivot bushing.
or rear wheel bearings in same. its bad.
Heater core on Lexus GS 300. 260k before it failed, but the entire interior and dash had to come out
The one you have to do to get your car running for work tomorrow that should only take an hour.
Got to be a water pump on a Ford 3.5. Total abortion.
I’ll follow the trend; heater core replacement on my 97 Wrangler. Column out, dash out. Like KCR, I let someone else do it.
I was asked to change a friend’s alternator on his 1st Gen Hyundai Santa Fe. I priced out an aftermarket alternator and “guessed” a couple hours labor. Turns out you had to lower the engine cradle to remove the alternator as it was too big to slide out any openings. I fought that sucker for 3 days and had to find a 5 foot pry bar to align the bolts back up in order to reattach the K member. I insisted the guy buy an OEM alternator once I realized how difficult it was as I was NEVER going to do that job again. 2 hours my a$%!
Heater core in 2008 Jeep Liberty. Took a whole weekend and required removing the dash of course. Horrible design and doesn\’t even work well.
Water pump on 1977 Volkswagen Beetle. 3 years later it is still in pieces at my shop…..
Water pump for an air cooled engine?
Clutch job on a ’95 Hardbody. Drain plug was seized, pumped what I could with a tube thru the shifter hole, which wasn’t much. Truck was rusty and trans didn’t drop easily– somehow in a fit of frustration that I can’t really explain, my face was under the tail end of the trans when it shifted back and started to tilt down. Clearly I survived this particular fit of stupidity, but not before I got a mouthful of horribly pungent 23 year old 250k mile gear oil. That was just one of the many factors that took a 4hr job and turned it into a 2-day clusterf#@&
Hooking up the wiper arms and the little clip washer onto the back side of the wiper motor on any 68-74 Mopar. Especially once the dash is already in. You need to push, pull and hold all those things at the same time in an area you can’t get a human hand in much less any light to see what you’re doing. Plus it’s conveniently straight above the tranny tunnel hump and I don’t contort that way anymore. The whole thing’s just a lesson in frustration. Makes me cringe every time I think about it.
Replacing the starter on an A-body with headers has to be a close second and/or putting the headers on in the first place. Any of those jobs will make you come up with brand new curse words.
I had the opportunity to replace the differential on an 89 Ford Taurus SHO. Step 1, remove the Yamaha 3.0L engine and transmission. Step 2, remove the transmission from the engine. Step 3, disassemble the transmission to remove the differential.