Lower wishbone control arm bush's, have to drop the steering rack, susupension, exhaust and raise the motor, all I can say is !@#$%^&(*() Twice!!!!! and did it of the ground using a jack and jack stands, bought a car hoist after that, never ever again!

 

Mike,

I've done that high pressure hose job twice now. Once with the motor in the car, and once with it hanging on a hook a few inches off the motor mounts. Although it wasn't easy either way, I'd almost say that it's worth the effort to do all the work required to pull the motor, and just lift it up and out of the way several inches, rather than trying to reach those connections, let alone align the joints well enough to get them properly threaded. What a bitch indeed.

 

I've been waiting for someone to mention a very obvious one, which all of us must do every few years, or risk Hell's wrath at the most inopportune time possible...

...replace ALL those umpteen thousand coolant hoses, especially the 3 that connect the crossover pipe to the water pump and the thermostat housings, and the bottom hose from the radiator to the water pump. I learn new curse words every time I do that job.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going out to play with SpeedDemon's exhaust a little more, shoot a YouTube video of the car running with uncapped exhaust, replace the steering rack boots & tie rod ends, then try to find an exhaust shop that will modify a section of the exhaust to fit around the transmission pan, on the day before a long Independence Day holiday weekend. On second thought, maybe I better try finding the exhaust shop while it's still early in the day, before the techs decide to kick off the holiday weekend early, by getting drunk in the shop after lunch.

 

Katoh:


Completely agree on those front lower A arm fulcrum bushes! I ended up dropping my front suspension to do those, and I put poly in the lower A-arms, and OEM bushes elsewhere. If I could have found Delrin, I would have used that. I NEVER want to do that job ever again.


Scott:


Yeah, the ops on the rack are MUCH easier with the engine lifted away or out altogether. When I did the manual box install, I pulled the engine and when the bay was clear, was able to use that opportunity to do the rack bushes, and I needed a whole day to extract those.


Not long after installing the engine and the manual box, I developed rack leaks. One at the pinion seal, and another in the high pressure hose right near the fitting crimp. So, out came the rack and high pressure hose (did both hoses, just to have more fun). Turned out when I re-installed the engine/trans, I inadvertently let the engine rest a bit on that host/fitting, and this provoked an eventual through-wall seeping leak. Occupational hazard of doing these ops by yourself- you can't see absolutely everything while doing certain ops.


But you are right- many ops are better done with the engine out. That is the time I picked when I completely changed out all the cooling hoses on the engine, for the reasons you just described!


Those of us posting on this thread clearly bear the scars.


Have a fun holiday, sound's like you have a plan- I will look forward to the video (um, the audio, that is ;-) ).


My own holiday will be spent finishing the assembly of the IRS (new disks, rebuilt calipers, parking brake pads, and...a 3.54 diff!) and fitting this back to the car.


-M

 

I think I cursed myself by mentioning the coolant hoses. See my latest post on my SpeedDemon exhaust post for further details. Now I need to get back out to the car, and start the dis-assembly, just so I can access the new problem.