Yeah about that last part.
I couldn’t tell ya how many times I have run across that one.
There could be fifteen bolts holding something together in a big circle and one of those sonofabitches would be different for no apparent reason.
I really like it when they use a completely different style of fastener too.
Like throw in a Torx bit bolt when all the rest are Allen head bolts and make sure the thing is where you can’t see it.
Hidden upside down in a recess so you have to do it by Braille.
It also never fails that the one odd ball is made out of butter so it strips out or rounds off.
This post was inspired by me remembering that I gotta take the Big Red Dodge back in Monday.
I ain’t even going to tell the Wife about it until it’s done because I don’t wanna hear her bitch about it.
There is something binding up and chattering in the ass end of it after I drive it and get it good and warmed up at highway speed and then pull into a parking lot and have to either back up or make very slow sharp turns,
I’m thinking it’s the chain in the transfer case but it could be in the rear differential.
I ain’t even going to mess with it.
I’m going to drop it off and tell them to call me when it’s fixed.
My days of wrenching on cars are pretty much over at this point.
Reminds me of the 4 screws holding the running lights on the front of the ’97 Ford p/u. Three of them are 1/4-20, the one on the far left is M6-1.0. Yeah, mix of imperial and metric. Everything under the hood was challenging that way.
“My days of wrenching on cars are pretty much over at this point.”
I’m coming to the same conclusion: unfortunately I’m too 4kin poor to pay somebody to do it. My age and decrepitude mean that I do a morning’s work on the Red Rocket and then take the rest of the week getting over it. I don’t like asking my son to do it as he’s working full time and has a life of his own to deal with. If we got a car on the mobility scheme it would take all of the memsahib’s disability allowance and we’d never own it so that’s a non-starter. So I’ll just carry on getting dirt under my fingernails and popping the painkillers . . .
A mechanical engineer explained the hidden bolt trick to me 20 years ago. I remember the guy and the location of the explanation. I don’t recall their excuse, so I obviously didn’t belive it!
You’re going to get that car back w/ a clean bill of health. The problem won’t be fixed. I look forward to the pics if you fixing it!
Certain things I will do. Brakes, Oil Changes. Plug a tire. A lot of stuff though I might be able to do, I can’t really diagnose. Case in point, onboard confuser starts flashing “CHECK FRONT COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM”. VERY annoying.
Under warranty, I take the car in… What the problem was? An ABS sensor on the rear wheel. Which they probably bonked or damages when I had new tires put on just a few weeks prior.
As to odd size fasteners, I once owned a 1950 AJS motorcycle. Anyone remember Whitworth at all? Yeah…. LOADS of fun!
As I remember whitworth had only a few sizes and pot metal bolts which was ok as the castings of British bikes were paper thin soft porous crap that stripped out every Brit bike I had I helicoiled to American.
I don’t remember how many times I used an inspection mirror to find where a bolt was and what it was.
The one odd fastener is an old trick to make sure and item only has one way it can be connected..i remember the prof explaining it when i was in engineering.
Putting it in the most difficult spot, thats just sadistic joy. The class that made the most impact on me was one were we had to design a part then actually build it in the machine shop. You learn quickly that some things are great on paper but nearly impossible to actually build. I’ve kept that class in mind the whole of my career.
More engineers need that kind of training. Learn how to build it, then learn how to work on it – then they get to design it.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Hey Phil, any chance its the limited slip rear differential chattering due to GL5 additive depletion? (If it has limited slip differential). Used to be common on older GM units. I know you don’t want to crawl under it anymore least you could suggest it to your service people. Allan
This was going to be my suggestion……
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Well, that sucks. But you’re still way ahead of the game, compared to having a newer truck. Yeah, I don’t do much wrenching these days, though by necessity, I would, if the damn repairs I need to do didn’t require – apparently – differently formed joints in my hands. I suppose good mechanics learn various tricks for dealing with the stupid shit such as inaccessible bolts. Helps to have the specialty tools too.
Hope the wife has some mercy on you. I’d say and the shop too, but IIRC, you got that sorted last time.
Several years ago, I had to have the water pump replaced on my Chevy Cruz. It took something like 6 hours because of where it was placed.
The guy at the shop told me they just replaced a water pump on another car (forget the make) but it was 14 hours……..
I love the old cars where there was enough space to walk around the engine with the hood up !!!
(fyi, had to turn the VPN off to post)
My 68 Oldsmobile wagon did that every time I turned a corner. Chattered and one wheel skipped/slid on the pavement. Cracked open the diff and found the posi traction disk plates were shot and binding. Went to a junkyard, found the same size GM diff on some car, yanked out the non posi diff, shoved it into my car (working on pavement in parking lot of course) and lucked out, it was a perfect fit within a thousandth or two, needed no shims or any other crap. No posi but no grind skip either. Good luck, maybe a simple fix. Oh yeah, drove that from NY to AZ then CA and back, no issues. Loved GM back in the 70’s, not so much any more.
Yesterday, I replaced my front right headlight bulb on my 2010 Cadillac STS. You are told to take the bumber off to do so, and I agree.
But I dont want to. I did the left side a few months ago, from the inside the engine compartment I took out the air filter housing and there was just enough room to work. But the passnger side has the fuse block in the way. Being a teenage caddi, I wasnt going to tempt fate by removing it. Taking the cover off helped a bit, putting a soft towel on top so not to damage anything. The two inboard screws came out somewhat easy, but the remaining two outboard screws were just not visible or reachable.
I had recently bought at Harbor Frieght a set of hex drivers with magnets. They were English size, and the screw was 7 mm, but there was a 9/32 that would work. Last year at Ace Hardware I spyed a new flexible driver with hexes on both ends, pricy, $12, but I just felt it would come in handy sometime. So everything was 1/4 hex, how to drive it?
I had buried in one of my tool boxes a Chapman driver, this is a handy light duty rachet set, dont know if they are even still in biz, the set went missing decades ago but I still had the driver. It is about 3 inches long and has a 1/4 hex hole thru the rachet end. To reverse you just turn the tool over. It takes 20 clicks to make one revolution on it and with both hands jambed in under the top fender edge, I was able to get one click only because of the cramped space. This screw had about 8-10 threads on it. It took the better part of an hour to get it out, having to take time out to swear and rest. I left the remaining screw in place, the cover was flexible enough to bend back to remove the bulb holder.
Being a machinist, I design so I dont have to remove things to get at other things.
I have the same set. Indispensable when you need them.They are still available in McMaster Carr for $52.
https://www.mcmaster.com/products/hex-bits/precise-control-bit-assortments-8/
I’m sure you could find them elsewhere as well.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
They also did not show you could only get an open end wrench in there to undo it, but they did not tell you that you cannot back it off far enough before it hits the other side, and that you have to dismantle the whole combobulation from the other side, to slide it out to get the nut off
I had a torx security bolt head that stripped out. It now sports a 10mm nut welded to it.
Great comment thread, and thanks for the tips guys. I don’t do much in the way of twisting wrenches anymore, but it’s like I taught my son when he was in high school: “I don’t expect you to be a mechanic. I expect you to know how to talk to your mechanic.”
As for design engineers, I remember hearing many years ago (and it may have been just an urban legend) that Honda used to make their engineers do some actual wrenching on their creations. That would solve a lot of those problems before they ever hit production.
I don’t know about that. the only new car in my life was a 91 Honda accord. EX model. the after the divorce, got the bills paid off and have some cash gift to myself. it was a great car for about 5 years.
after that it was nickel and diming me to death.
and you needed baby size hands to do anything.
if I was thinking right, I would have spent the money rebuilding a
1970 chevy pickup instead. no big v8, a good old 292 /6 with a good
4 speed box would be nice to have. don’t even have to have a/c either.
All the above replies remind me of WHY I chose to rebuild my wife’s Jeep.
First, it’s waaaaaay cheaper to replace parts than it is to buy a new or used Jeep, and second, I don’t want a DA***D “Infotainment System. I want a car that goes forwards and backwards, rides comfortably, and I don’t owe the bank any money on.
It seems these newer cars have every gadget imaginable shoehorned into the engine compartment and every other available space! The battery’s in the wheel well?? The Climate Control Module is under the driver’s seat??
You get the idea. KISS is dead, let’s foist off junk to the Unwashed Masses and watch ’em pay through the nose when it needs to be fixed.
No thanks.
Those are features, not defects, these days.
You description of the Dodge problem sounded exactly like a problem I had with one of my trucks.
It was awhile ago so some of the “facts” are fuzzy but it was a (real) 4WD Silverado and it was acting the way you described your trucks issue.
As I said, can’t remember all of the particulars but I do remember the rear differential wound up being the culprit. I had a bit of trouble finding the right rear end but when I did, that and about a grand fixed it all.
Shit I’ve tried to forget-
High beam switch on top of the steering column of a 78 Olds Delta 88 was held on with a allen head screw.
To replace the headlight on a 91 Mitsubishi Mighty Max (or Dodge D50), 1st remove the grill. To replace the drivers side valve cover gasket, remove the entire injector/intake assembly.
On a 67 chevy biscayne w/a straight 6, you could pop the hood & lean over the passenger side fender to remove the oil filter.
I bought a ’94 Deville from one of my friends. For reasons I don’t recall, I replaced the water pump. I think there were like 37 different bolts, nuts, and screws. Some metric, some SAE. Dumbest thing I’ve ever been through. It had a nozzle that fed a hose that fed a pipe what went behind the exhaust manifold.
All the connectors were dried and messed up. Move a wire bundle and the connector snaps.
I swore to god at that point that if I ran into a GM engineer, I’d kick him in the nuts.
I just got it back together and was running it, checking for leaks when mexican dude pulled up and asked if I wanted to sell it. Gone in 60 seconds for a small pile of Benjamins.
Once I took a 1.5″ hole saw and cut a hole in the back of a glove box of a Camry to get at a bolt that held the ECU in place under the dash because it had blown a capacitor in the ignition voltage control circuit. I figured that out on my own thanks to my multi meter and my Physics Prof in Engineering school who loved lecturing about capacitors and Farads Law. Sure enough when I got the cover off the ECU you could see the ruptured cap. I labeled the hole in the glove box “ECU Mount Bolt Access Hole”. By the way some of thse Toyota surge problems a few years back might have been due to bad capacitors causing voltage spikes in the engine control circuits.