Vehicle repair rant

Don't understand why only a few car companies put a hatch in the trunk/floor to swap out the fuel pumps. I had a suburban, that had the fuel pump go out. After dropping the pump, found out the ring that holds the pump assembly was rusted out. Had to buy a new tank, and pump. When assembling it, I saw a previous owner had made a hatch in the floor. Then the pump would still not work. so I pulled the rug, and opened the hatch, and started checking more. Also turns out the PO had punctured the wires to test them, and the hole caused the wires to corrode out inside the covering. Turned out the old pump was fine after all. Damm Pa and all their salt and calcium chloride on the winter roads.
 
While the new cars are worse, some of the older stuff wasn't much better. I put a clutch in an XKE once. I had to pretty
much dismantle the car to get the transmission off the engine.
 
middle.road said:
(whine, whimper, rant.)
Someone mentioned in another thread that:
"The designer's need to work 'repair' on the vehicles they design..." -Ain't it the truth?!!
I helped out a friend this week and replaced the steering gear box and the high pressure PS line on his GMC 2500 Duramax.
He's on the road more than he's home and he's still recovering from knee surgery.
Went pretty smoothly, weather has been good, thankfully the truck is not a rusted mess. Pitman arm fought removal but finally got that off. PS hose was simple.

But then, I made a parts run with Honey's old Caddy and that headed South real quick.
The alternator is water cooled, and the two short hoses down under there gave out. At least it waited until I was back in the driveway.
However the PS Pressure hose was not so thoughtful. After my last stop it started squealing and by the time I pull in the driveway it was very stiff.
I replaced the radiator back during the summer and replaced a number of the smaller hoses up on the topside - didn't do the alternator. :bang head:
So yesterday I decided I'd get to repairing the beast. I want to use it as a winter vehicle to keep the Buick away from the salt.
First off you can't get to two of the hose clamps leading down to the alternator. I figure all that is put on the engine before it's dropped in during assembly.
(Now if you happen to have the radiator out. . . Hindsight is so wonderful.)

Then the PS hose. (3) hours later after a whole lot of cussing and head scratching we had it out. On the truck it took me 20 mins for R&R.
The way this hose assy is routed is unbelievable.
I seriously do not know if I'll be able to get the replacement back in.
Why didn't they design it in two pieces? Perhaps a connection on the longer flexible portion? I know it would add more cost to each vehicle but. . .
I really thought I'd be able to get this all done in one afternoon. :cautious:

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I could pursue such a rant for hours. . . That's why I have always stuck with older vehicles, usually trucks. The one exception was a Chev diesel truck that I acquired for business purposes. I had figured it to be (literaly) the last truch I ever bought. "Til I had to change the lower radiator hose, with all its' branches. Ended up having to get my nephew to do the work, I couldn't get in to it. This last stroke put me in a wheelchair, sold the diesel and bought an old ('68 C-30) gasoline truck with a dump bed on a PTO pump and a 283 engine. I need to pay someone to replace a couple of front wheel studs, but that's front end work and I been paying for that sort of work all my life. There's not much else to really go wrong. AND NO COMPUTERS. Not even on the ignition. Points and coil is all there is. The cab sheet metal is about as strong, almost, as paper. But it's a "southern truck" from Georga, so there's no "salt rot" underneath.
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middle.road said:
"The designer's need to work 'repair' on the vehicles they design..." -Ain't it the truth?!!
Click to expand...
Yes it is the truth. In the early 1980s I was working for a Mitsubishi dealer and Mr. Mitsubishi himself came out for a visit as the bloke I was working for had gone into head to head competition with the family that had the Mitsubishi import franchise. I still have the hat and sweatshirt Mr. Mitsubishi gave me after inspecting the layout of my bay and the job I was working on.
Through an interpreter he told me that all designers at Mitsubishi had two work outside the company servicing vehicles in the real world for two years after graduating university before being allowed to design anything for the company. He also used to sweep the floor in one of his factories nice a week so he could hear about any problems. He was in his 80s then.
Mitsubishi used to be a pleasure to work on then Mr. Mitsubishi died and things changed.
With modern vehicles it is often easier to drop the whole front subframe to work on the engine than in place.

P.S. I hate working on little forkhoists!
 
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