When did it get so difficult to change plugs?

[Alan L.]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I did ALL the recommended 50 hour service on my brother's Mule myself and of course the total cash outlay was well under $50 )</font>

The only part that I had no idea how to do was adjusting the valves on the industrial engine. Maybe I should have gotten a shop manual or something. For this reason I went ahead and let them do it.

Boy I love the mule!!

 

[AMP762]

I think that was the V8 350 Monza. Very good power to weight ratio I drooled over them as well. I think the fix was just as your challenger had, take a hole saw to the inner fender.

JohnS


That was a mighty 262 cu in and yes you had to lift the leftside of engine,but I'd take that anyday over an Aerostar

 

[soarkrebel]

WHEWWW $586.39!! ouch!
my 95 gmc sierra has only had one other person besides me touch her. and that was to evacuate the a/c system so i could replace the compressor. and he replaced the coolant and pulled a vacuam for me. i gave him 30 bucks ! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
it has 168,000 miles on it and i would get in it now and drive cross country.
oh yeah i can't do frt end alignments so i have a buddy that does those.

yeah cars are alot different than my old 79 chevy or 78 trans ams. but i use a buddy who has a code chaser to diagnose and heck auto zone does them free.

and as far as plugs hard to get in goes, have you ever changed a fuel control on the #1 engine on a boelkoel BO-105 or sikorsky S-76? in a mirror!
now airplanes they build with no pity on a mechanic!

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Maybe I should have gotten a shop manual or something. )</font>

Yep, my brother remembered when he bought the Mule to tell the dealer he had to include the shop manual because the Mule was staying at my place well over 100 miles from the dealer. Very hand manual.

 

[CSAW]

I believe on the newer Mitsubishi Monteros that you have to take the intake manifold off of to get to the spark plugs. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I don't think they engineer cars, they just make everything fit.

 

[BB_TX]

Repair and maintenance is a major profit center for the dealerships. The more the manufacturer can pull away from the shade trees and get into the dealership's shops, the more profit his dealerships can make. They have no incentive to make it easy, and a lot of incentive to do otherwise. Although, admittedly a lot of it is also putting a whole lot more stuff in smaller packages. 20 years ago you could actually see the whole engine when you raised the hood.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have been a mechanic of some kind most of my life. The first job I was ever payed for was fixing the mechanical brakes on a 1928 Chevy when I was 10 . I have worked on all kinds of equipment since then much of it done while under the water .
I stay away from those dealers service departments. I have a 93 Chevy astrovan with 122000 miles on it and have never changed transmission fluid or power steering fluid. Have changed plugs twice. I also have a 2001 ford F 350 diesel. It has never been back on a dealers lot and I dont think it will be. I do all my own serviceing. I change the oil on schedual and flush radiator every 3 years.
That thing of cleaning the throttle body, clean the injectors and decarbonizing the engine can be done by buying a bottle of fuel injector cleaner at the parts store for $2.00 and adding it to your fuel tank at the next fill up. Thats all they do. They add cleaner to your fuel tank. If I had a problem during the warranty period that I couldnt or didnt want to fix myself I would take it back to the dealer. After the warrenty period I would take it to an independent mechanic. Never a dealer. Check thier price for parts and then go to a parts house and check thiers. I had a electric fuel pump go bad on the astrovan and the dealer wanted $214.00 for it. I went to Carquest and got it for $65.00 That tells you what dealers service is all about. Carquest had a life time warrenty also.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Another thing I would recommend is always get a service manual when you buy a new vehicle. They are not cheap I remember when I bought a service manual for a 64 Rambler it cost $3.50. The one I bought for my ford F350 cost $240.00 and that did not include electrical It would have cost me another $70. I got it later on ebay on a CD for $15.00 . You can buy a lot of tools for what one serviceing would cost. Of course I realize that many people can not do thier own work for reasons beyond thier control. But if you can you should . Its your patriotic duty to remain a free person and if you have to pay those kind of prices to drive you are not free. Just think how much of that $1000 bill one fellow paid was taxes. . Those taxes go to polititions. They make laws that make your life more difficult and help them live in luxury at our expense . /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Ralph

 

[bgott]

That bottle of injector cleaner is good for washing the varnish out of the injectors. To decarbon the top end I get a can or two of GM top end cleaner and rig a small valve to a vacuum line. You run he11 out of the car down the freeway and then rig the top end cleaner to a vacuum port and run the engine. crack the valve and feed the cleaner until you get a healthy lope out of the engine. Too much and it'll take a while to restart it when it dies. You'll be amazed at how much carbon ends up in a pile at the end of the tailpipe. This'll cure a lot of cold start/idle complaints. Too much carbon on the back of the intake valves and it'll soak up the extra fuel the engine needs when cold. I had really good results doing this on Exploders, the owners think you're a god when they can drive their truck before it's run ten minutes. I've scrubbed my share of throttle bodies, too. I used the old timers trick of a coke bottle of water through the carburator to decarb the intake valves on 2.2 Chryslers when I worked a Chrysler dealership back in '84, it made more sense to do that rather than pull the head for the crappy warranty flat rate time they paid. Decarbing and throttle body cleaning have their places, just as long as it actually gets done.