What is the "Beat All, End All" worst repair you have ever taken on?

[JOES66FURY]

I just remebered as a budding propulsion mechanic and a relatively green shade tree mechanic I used to do side work for non-car-guy friends. A co-worker of my wifes was driving a beater 1982 Chevy Citation that needed a tune up and a water pump. The shop she went to quoted her 800 dollars so I told her I would do it. So stupid...so very, very stupid. That effing water pump was pure misery as was the row of plugs along the firewall. By the time I was done I wanted to burn that car to the ground. She did give me 200 bucks that I refused until she threatened to kick my ass...which she very well could have done as she was not a petite flower.

[Loren]

I did the water pump on our similar V6 Celebrity a couple times and it's not bad once you accept that it's in the wrong place (sideways). When the transaxle went, I just could not get that motor out, once one of the worst booger-to-get-to bolts stripped. Car finished.

I seem to see cars and trucks now-and-then with sheetmetal patches screwed onto the bed or floor back around the fuel tank area...yep we know what those are for. Not a bad idea.

I had to drop the K-member on a bud's 440 Duster to re-engineer the motor mounts last year (with the engine still in)...those rotted-in torsion bars moved around a lot easier after I fixed a steel bar to clamp onto them so I had a place to hit w/ a sledge. I didn't have to do the bushings though.

My first engine job, at sixteen, was doing the valves on my '67 327 Nova. Not a big deal but it was some work because I was a total newbie and it was just me and the Chilton manual, and it was kind-of a tight fit, then I had to haul each head by hand ten miles on the city bus and then a further mile walking to my high-school auto shop to do the machining. Then back. Those things get heavy after awhile. For the second head I used a skateboard.

People sometimes complain about doing clutch jobs. I don't know...I kinda enjoy them if it's not too often. I did a neighbor's NV4500 Diesel Dodge a couple years ago, that is a heavy trans. Just have a transmission jack and some patience. Any of those-type jobs...it's just a matter of going through all those motions, and again committing to some patience.

I think the worst was, when a mechanic informed me that (A) the head gaskets were bad on our '96 front-wheel-drive V6 Sebring, and (B) he didn't want to do them. So I went back to Chilton again, who said it could be done (I wouldn't have believed it, looking at it) and got started. Four straight days, total. The back half of the motor buried under the windshield and the timing belt etc. is jammed against the subframe, quite a bit of the work is just done by feel as there's no being able to see what you're doing in there. For that, the gaskets weren't even bad, once I got to them. There was a small pleasure in that those Mitsu 4-valve heads were little works of art, ports looked like they were hand-done. The cylinders, at 160K miles still had hone marks.

I guess the trans in that car would have been a tough one. The hot shot pricey expert who took it on couldn't seem to get it right. It still sits, not able to shift or move, waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

[Beagle]

Worst repair is always is the one that did not fix the problem or ultimately made it worse. lol

no kidding. I really like (NOT) the ones that keep escalating. You think it's fixed? No. Whatever it was really needed it, but was just disguising whatever REALLY needed it.

Chasing the next weak link!

[Beagle]

this damn picture posting bug is about on my nerves. Apparently the worst end all beat all repair I know of is created by the braintrust at vBulletin.

[Grumpy]

I don't have anything that will compare to most of these but this was a tough one by myself, had to change out the clutch in my 72 one ton Ramp Bed Car Hauler truck by myself in a parking lot, had all the tools I needed including jack stands and a floor jack.

[patrickth]

A friend had just graduated college and got her first job as an Editor at Sunset Magazine. It meant a move from San Jose to Seattle. She had a hot little Vega and blew up the engine, She was desperate to keep the car and the job. Her mom offered to buy the engine if she could find someone to replace it. I stepped up to the plate. Got the engine in with no problem, took another 3 damn days to get it started because of a rotten oil safety switch that needed to be plugged in. I was humiliated to say the least, but learned a valuable lesson.

[Beagle]

A friend had just graduated college and got her first job as an Editor at Sunset Magazine. It meant a move from San Jose to Seattle. She had a hot little Vega and blew up the engine, She was desperate to keep the car and the job. Her mom offered to buy the engine if she could find someone to replace it. I stepped up to the plate. Got the engine in with no problem, took another 3 damn days to get it started because of a rotten oil safety switch that needed to be plugged in. I was humiliated to say the least, but learned a valuable lesson.

btdt! Knocked it off during an oil change.

sister called the house one time, car was dead. I took 3 quarts of oil up to the school on my bicycle, filled it up with oil, threw the bike in the back and drove it home. It broke a clutch cable another time, same bike. lol. Drove it home in second, I'd yank it out of gear at stop signs, kill it, start it in gear. Wasn't old enough for a license yet, I wonder what the cops would have said.

[patrickth]

That gt was pretty sporty little bugger and she was a damn fine looking woman, but thinking back on it, there were a lot easier ways to get lucky :-)

[Cyclone03]

Clutch on some kind of 70's FWD Mazda. It was the assistant shop chiefs car, so some pressure, It was the only time I got time off because I was working on car.
I had the whole right front of that car on the floor when he came by to check on my progress , finished it the next day after an all nighter , IIRC it took me about 30hours non stop.

[Stewzer55]

That gt was pretty sporty little bugger and she was a damn fine looking woman, but thinking back on it, there were a lot easier ways to get lucky :-)

I did an oil change and front brakes on a co-workers Carolla, made a mistake and accidentally drained the transmission. I bought the ATF to refill it, it looked really bad and was probably a favor to her anyway. Did I get anything, nope. In fact I told her she didn't owe me anything. She was okay looking at best really, but I heard she was pretty decent at other things.

[patrickth]

I did an oil change and front brakes on a co-workers Carolla, made a mistake and accidentally drained the transmission. I bought the ATF to refill it, it looked really bad and was probably a favor to her anyway. Did I get anything, nope. In fact I told her she didn't owe me anything. She was okay looking at best really, but I heard she was pretty decent at other things.

She would have to be a whole lot decent at "other things" to remember after all these years. Just saying.

[chevybuytroy]

On our old ladder truck, I extended the ladder to far and instead it stopping it snapped the chains that drive it on both sides. It took me all day and a lot of patience to get the chains back together cause they ride inside the ladder part.

[JOES66FURY]

Oh! Another nightmare of a job I did was replacing valve cover gaskets/plugs and an EGR valve on a 5.0 Explorer....so much suck!

[Stewzer55]

It was only a year and a half ago. I'm not an oldster! Plus, I don't want to get some disease, she was, probably still is, a slut.

[Barry Donovan]

being a former quick lube guy and starving teen hillbilly. A lot of stuff done for nothing...

I halped a friend, relating to joesfury.. the first citation v6 must have been 1981 or so. Ran beautiful.. needed a water pump. Horrifying. At the time, I was maybe 15, not even the fullsized adult I am today. NONE of us could get at it right.

That was late 80s. I do not do sideways engines. I took on a corsica once, less than 96 k miles... figured I'd beat the b-pilar back into shape, drive the pants off it. Blew the engine before 100k going down a hill.

No sideways engine ever again.

About the most dramatic repair is in this thread.. old mopar torsion. My god.
I am loving the 96 gmc with torsion, if mopar could have been that easy. I actually flipped my opinion on torsion. There is something amazing for the 4x4. Anyone remember the nissan that played with that?
anyway..


My worst ever is stooping to rice sized subaru, and taking on a whole chassis measurement. this means wheel wells, strut towers, like a rally car build. Very very difficult...just add awd to the mix.

This past january, I dove in for 30+ hours for just 70 something bolts: two heads and an intake change, subaru ea82. Winter drives me insane, so I have no regrets. It stayed so cold since then, I cannot get an engine burn in. (ground loop).

There is another repair, very bad. The tiny rear fuel tank in a kc135. I was inside one trying that stupid bladder with ropes. The skinny guy.