worst thing you ever had to fix on your 3gee

[lostforawhile]

what is the worst thing you ever had to fix on your three gee. In my case it was def the heater core, whoever designed this dash was a f*&^%$g idiot. all the custom stuff i had done with the dash had to come out the center console had to come out, the steering wheel had to come off,the columb had to be lowered combination switch had to come out,blower assembly,cables for the heat control levers,instrument panel,heat control box, it woldn't have been so bad but i had a ton of wiring i had added behind the dash for the stereo,alarm,power locks,mirrors etc. i hadn't designed any of it to come out,well you get the idea. you have to gut half of the car to get to the stupid core then they put half the bolts inside and half in the engine compartment. why????!!!! all this work and you take a little panel off the back of the heater box and the thing slides out. the plate sits against the firewall for crying out loud, why couldn't they have put an access panel under the hood?? it would have saved me two days work to have just pulled the engine and transmission out slid out the heater core replaced it and put the motor back in. I spent three days working an average of 20 hours a day to put everything back the way it was before. AUGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!! lets hear some mechanical horror stories

[jaiden]

Front suspension for me. The bottom bolt in the fork would NOT come out (yes, I have a 1400 ft lb air gun). The bushings were absorbing all the force. Finally had to cut it with an air cutoff wheel, then push out the bushings with an air chisel, then take it somewhere to have new bushings pressed in. But, before that, spent probably a total of 40 hours on it over 3 weekends.

This is now known forevermore as "the bitch bolt"

Interestingly, I was watching one of those car shows, which normaly fixes up old muscle cars. Kind of like "Trucks", but for cars. Anyway, they have been throwing in one import segment per show, presumably to broaden their audience. They had a 3g on it, and did the front suspension. "all you have to do is remove this bolt (points to bolt), and swing the control arm out of the way" (camera cuts away, and as the control arm swings away I see the BOLT IS CUT!) As the show closed, they had like outtakes or an extra comment or whatever and the guy was basically like "holy crap, that's the hardest front end job I've ever done"

Glad to know I'm not alone.

PS. one of the bitch bolts is still stuck! I had a guy finish the job for me,and he split it at the balljoint.

[lostforawhile]

are youj talking about the pinch bolt that holds the fork to the bottom of the strut? must have corroded i have a set of suspension parts i'm having powdercoated one piece at a time and they came right off of the strut. i guess when i put new struts in i'll use those instead of trying to take the other ones apart. might have saved me some effort.

[buds302]

i had the same problem but i used a torch and cut the whole arm away and went and spent something like 50 bucks for a new one i didnt like the bushing in it anyway it was all dryrotted and stuff. but man whe the torch made it to the rubber bushing dude i thought my car was going up in flames!! that thing burned for an hour! now that was only one side of the car. the other side i got smart and took the whole thing off the car including the springs. and put it in a vise and beat the hell out of it with a 15 pound hammer! it took about an hours worth of beating to get it out. but it saved me from spending more money.

[lostforawhile]

next problem step right this way please

[FyreDaug]

Ball joints after I tried pulling them outta the control arm and ripped the shit out of the boot. Turned out the ball joints had to be cut, they wouldnt come out on their own.

[HostileJava]

Haha well so far the worst has been replacing the damn crank. I just don't have enough time to work on it and it seems like I run into one problem after another.

['A20A3']

I've completely removed an entire front suspension setup and I've removed the entire rear suspension setup except for the rear struts. I removed the front brakes, the radiator, the cylinder head, the block, transmission, exhaust, ah fuck it, I've done almost everything you can do.

The cylinder head removal is a bitch! I can't get the exhaust manifold brace unbolted. I'm one fucking bolt away from victory! Ahhhhhhhhh!

[Hash_man_Se_i]

Some things have been a big pain in the ass... I think the top two are the front suspension... front fork to lower arm bolts were siezed,, real pain in the ass.

And it sounds dumb but the fuel filter is retarded... in such a bad spot, and the fitting that honda decided to use on the one line is retarded... no tool fits well on it.,

[acranox]

The gasket between the thermostat housing and the block.
To remove the Air Suction Pipe required spending about 20 minutes with a pipe wrench, turning the nut about 1/8 of a turn, taking the wrench of, turning it around, readjusting it, then turning the nut another 1/8 of a turn, and then repeat.
What a pain.
The EGR pipe was hardly any easier.

[lostforawhile]

what air suction pipe, hehe. cut the bastard off removed the threaded plug from one end fusion welded in a piece of pressed in steel rod and no more air suction pipe. it't a lot eaisier to work with without that dammed tube in the way. to get it off the first time i got a big ass metric wrench cut off the end and made a special crows foot. thats after cussing at it for a couple of days. i lucked out i haven't had any problems with removing suspension parts. i took the whole suspension out of an lxi at the junkyard i'm just rebulding it one piece at a time. when i'm all done i'll swap out the whole thing. but how the hell do you get the nut all the way off that radius rod.

[snoopyloopy]

Some things have been a big pain in the ass... I think the top two are the front suspension... front fork to lower arm bolts were siezed,, real pain in the ass.

And it sounds dumb but the fuel filter is retarded... in such a bad spot, and the fitting that honda decided to use on the one line is retarded... no tool fits well on it.,

where is the fuel filter on our cars? i was planning to change mine but couldn't find it. and now i have real motivation.

but anyway, this heater hose that i'm about to change won't be fun. especially with a warm engine.

[ICEMAN707]

what is the worst thing you ever had to fix on your three gee. In my case it was def the heater core, whoever designed this dash was a f*&^%$g idiot. all the custom stuff i had done with the dash had to come out the center console had to come out, the steering wheel had to come off,the columb had to be lowered combination switch had to come out,blower assembly,cables for the heat control levers,instrument panel,heat control box, it woldn't have been so bad but i had a ton of wiring i had added behind the dash for the stereo,alarm,power locks,mirrors etc. i hadn't designed any of it to come out,well you get the idea. you have to gut half of the car to get to the stupid core then they put half the bolts inside and half in the engine compartment. why????!!!! all this work and you take a little panel off the back of the heater box and the thing slides out. the plate sits against the firewall for crying out loud, why couldn't they have put an access panel under the hood?? it would have saved me two days work to have just pulled the engine and transmission out slid out the heater core replaced it and put the motor back in. I spent three days working an average of 20 hours a day to put everything back the way it was before. AUGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!! lets hear some mechanical horror stories

trust me the 3gee dash is the easiest dash to remove compared to any car. 7 bolts holding the dash, steering wheel, instrument cluster, and steering column...that's all that needs to be removed. i've taken my dash off like 12 times no problem. once you know where all the bolts are located, it's very easy the 2nd or more times around.

try removing a camaro, firebird, bmw, mercedes, cavalier amongst others and you'll see how much more a pain in the ass taking the dash off these cars are.

[ICEMAN707]

where is the fuel filter on our cars? i was planning to change mine but couldn't find it. and now i have real motivation.

but anyway, this heater hose that i'm about to change won't be fun. especially with a warm engine.

fuel filter is on the firewall next to the black vacuum box. it's a black canister with a fuel line coming from the gas tank and one to the fuel rail.

[BITESIZE]

I'd have to say the friggin rack and pinion...really sucks doing it by yourself.

[lostforawhile]

trust me the 3gee dash is the easiest dash to remove compared to any car. 7 bolts holding the dash, steering wheel, instrument cluster, and steering column...that's all that needs to be removed. i've taken my dash off like 12 times no problem. once you know where all the bolts are located, it's very easy the 2nd or more times around.

try removing a camaro, firebird, bmw, mercedes, cavalier amongst others and you'll see how much more a pain in the ass taking the dash off these cars are.

yea if everything on my car was stock it would be easy to remove. i've got so much custom stuff in there along with the center console all the wiring the radio diferent modules to different stuff i've created over the years, and all the wiring was bundled in one piece at a time. gauges etc. everything had to come out then because i had put everything in one piece at a time i had to create new wiring harnesses. there is still a lot to take out even after the dash is removed like the blower assembly has to come out then other stuff has to be moved around to get the stupid heater box out. it would have been so much easier to have an access panel on the firewall. I used to do a lot of custom stereo work so i've taken out my fair share of dashes before still think this one is a pain in the ass.

[lostforawhile]

fuel filter is on the firewall next to the black vacuum box. it's a black canister with a fuel line coming from the gas tank and one to the fuel rail.

snap on ya8980 that is the special snap on socket that removes that banjo bolt on top of the fuel filter. it says 89 and later but i think the earlier fuel injected banjo bolts are the same.

[newaccorddriver]

for me, the worst thing i had to fix is still to come, although ive went to the junk yard to yank ouy a transmission. the hardest repair for me is replacing a auto transmission thats fucked with a standard transmission. soon to be done... very soon...

[88Accord-DX]

I had the same problem with that front forks' bottom bolt seized up. I just pulled the strut out from the side of the fender & took out from the top. Did the same thing with the back, (just for spings) cause all my damn bolts where seized up on the bottom. The new fuel fitler on the back needed hose clamps, it is in a bad spot to get too. The crank pulley bolt was real hard to break loose. My hardest thing to fix will be coming up later with a motor re-build, all the hard to reach bolts I know are there.

[lostforawhile]

I had the same problem with that front forks' bottom bolt seized up. I just pulled the strut out from the side of the fender & took out from the top. Did the same thing with the back, (just for spings) cause all my damn bolts where seized up on the bottom. The new fuel fitler on the back needed hose clamps, it is in a bad spot to get too. The crank pulley bolt was real hard to break loose. My hardest thing to fix will be coming up later with a motor re-build, all the hard to reach bolts I know are there.

makes me wonder if these struts i got at the junkyard with the rest of the stuff might be newer then i thought because everything came apart by hand eaisily. took the entire suspension out with hand tools nothing was stuck. must have been disassembled recently.

[snoopyloopy]

and actually, fixing the lower water heater hose was easier than fixing the two hoses at the top of the engine by the entrance to the manifold. probably because this one was made to fit, those weren't.

[Strugglebucket]

nothing on my 3g has been that hard. and i've done everything from rebuilding the engine to swapping the tranny from auto to manual.

worst thing i've probably done was a clutch job on a friend's 4g. getting the transmission back in was a bitch-and-a-half. i wound up having to rent a hoist because the damn thing weighed about 150lbs(manual!) and i could lift it, but i couldn't hold it up long enough to get it to fit. there's like a mm of clearance between the frame and where the tranny is when it's mainshaft meets the flywheel. yup...plus i dropped it a couple times and chipped a toof.

[ICEMAN707]

i would say removing the EGR pipe, the intake manifold, and the head would probably the pain in the ass jobs. all 3 are related too.

[lostforawhile]

yea that egr pipe is a real pain. if the thermostat housing gasket goes bad at the head it has to come off. it doesn't bend back into the same shape it ws when it came off. hey do you know where to get one? dealer says they don't make them anymore.

[POS carb]

rebuilding the automatic