Whats the most difficult job performed on your 4by as a Diy mechanic?

G'day axle. Replacing a clutch in a Mitsubishi Challenger has to be up there. Vowed i'de not do another one. (maybe I'm just getting old though) Cheers,Bob.

The worst DYI mechanical job I did was a solo gearbox/transfer case removal and replacement on a S2A landrover, the model where everything has to be removed and the whole lot comes out through the door. Never again.

The funniest, looking back it was, but very frustrating at the time, was a diff rebuild on my very first car ('27 Austin 7).
Somehow I managed to turn the whole crown wheel and pinion cage over so on rebuilding I found 3 reverse gears and only 1 forward. Bugga.

Disco.

On the 4WD it was today. Two bloody difficult hours. And not a neighbour to be seen. I had to remount the winch higher in the bar so that the roller fairlead, that arrived yesterday, would fit. And on my own. That winch is too heavy for me. I had ropes and stuff every where to help me lift it.

But the biggest job I did was on the Kingswood changing everything from the flywheel back to the diff to change the car from a three on the column to a four on the floor. Including cutting a hole for the gear lever with a chisel and hammer and a bunch of files.

I once rebuilt a cosworth engine for an Imp which was easier than the others. I took weeks to do it. Even had to source rings and bearings from the UK. It was in a Hillman Imp GT that was left to me in my brothers will..

Phil

Pulling the front end out to weld the radius arm bracket back on to the axle, Axle. Remote on the Nullabor.

Gday Axle
I have trouble fixing the droning noise on the left side of the car .

So many great jobs already.

With my old landcruiser I had the issue of the rear wheel axle studs snapping off. It happened so often I could easy out 6 of them and put new ones in on the side of the road. It was a problem for years that I could not fix, mechanics could not fix or toyota could not fix. Until finally outside of a ARB shop I saw another landcruiser with the same issue who had drilled the 6mm studs out and replaced them with 8mm studs.Well that fixed it. And then when I bought my new cruiser that is how toyota fixed it too.

Other difficult jobs. When I was younger, swopped two landcruiser engines out each time in the carport at home. That took a fair bit on my own with manual in one hand. The first one was a petrol 2f engine in my old fj45. Turned out the motor from the wreckers had 2 cracked outlet ports. Had to keep rehoning them every couple of days after work to keep going until I could afford a new head back in the day. Got pretty quick pulling the head off and grinding the valves back into place before dinner was served.

Swopped out a bent rear axle housing on my old landcruiser for another one again in the carport at home.

Or after traversing the Gunbarrell hwy and finding the steering knuckles totally shot to a dangerous floppy stage I changed them out in a road stop just out of Alice Springs. Bit hard doing a steering alignment but managed the rest of the 2000km with a bit of toe in.

Had a split radiator top tank. At the time I could not afford to replace it so I would pull it out and resolder it up every weekend. I could pull the radiator in 8 mins after a while.

Oh the fun you have when young and poor. So many more.

Cheers

Serendipty

Axle,

Having absolutely no mechanical skill what-so-ever, I've had the good sense to do the next best thing other than learn how to fix it myself....buy heaps of tools! These days the greatest difficulty I have is actually deciding which bloke I let fix the problem using MY tools! They all fight over the issue, it's almost embarrassing!

Many a time Outback Al (or "ballast" as he is better known as) and I have been in the rig during our overland expeditions when someone will call an issue. We'll both give each other that "oh bleep ...here it comes" look knowing that the other blokes in the convoy will be racing each other to the scene of the crime! They're bloody mechanical-issue paparazzi! I'm almost at the point of having to pack a spare adjudicator to sort out the arguments.

Meanwhile Al and me, well we organise the hot water, cups of tea and do a lot of oo-ing and ahhhing to make them feel good! (Cold beers are forbotten until ze job is done!) ;-)

In all seriousness, putting the rear wheel back on the tucker truck after it sheered the pins on the Mitchell Plateau Road in 2010 was interesting but I reckon rebuilding the motor on the 720 Kingcab ute on the Gunbarrel (circa 1984) using nothing more than a paper clip, a box of matches and harsh language was the best!


Great post. Cheers Mick

I qualified as a mechanic back in 1967 with the BMC / British Leyland company in Southern Africa. I always did my own repairs/servicing until about 18 months ago. In the days when I had my 4runner , one of the worst jobs was having to drop the entire front end in order to remove the sump, all for a 50cent O ring seal on the oil pump. When it was idling you couldnt see anything, but soon as the revs went up , oil would be pouring out the front of the sump right onto the crankshaft pulley. As I had no workshop, other then all my tools and 4 ton garage jack, it was a two day job just to replace that seal. While the sump was off , gave me the opportunity to wash it out thoroughly and then the uphill struggle to bolt everything back.

Sadly age has caught up , and I can no longer do any heavy lifting etc other then an oil and filter change as I have ramps that I run the front end of my latest vehicle up and onto the top. A garage creeper with a head rest, makes the job a piece of cake, but anything over and beyond that, I have to rely on a mate who is a Toyota mechanic and has a fully equipped workshop at his home. Oh and another one, was replacing the front diff to fit a locker in. Getting the diff out was tiresome and time consuming, but to get it back in single handed was nigh on impossible. Plenty of improvising and some choice language plus a few hours of grunting and whinging I finally got it in and running. Why do today's vehicle manufacturers make it nigh on impossible to get ones hands into the engine bay - even to check the oil level on the dipstick ???

Guess i've been pretty lucky, but getting to and replacing the fuel cut solenoid on my 100 series took a bit of patience and choice words. Hammer and cold chisel, not really knowing what to expect.

Peter

The bright spark that owned my car before me thought the best way to fix the cooling issue was to weld up the viscous fan hub so it didn't slip. 30km out of Taree on the Pacific the fan blades disintegrated, sent the water pump off balance bending the shaft and a piece of fan sliced the bottom rad hose.
I'm no mechanic, but I like to think anything I can unbolt and remove, I can bolt back on again. removing fan is easy, removing water pump is not so easy. Top and bottom timing belt covers have to come off to acces the water pump bolts. To access the bottom timing cover the crank pulley has to come off. I didnt have all the tools to do the job, and Taree didn't have all the parts to replace the broken ones. So a trip to Sydney, a couple of trips to Taree for tools and about 12hrs under the bonnet while my brother read his book, and it was fixed.
I didn't have a torque wrench for the pulley bolt, but that was fixed later.

Car is a GQ Patrol with RD28T - another reason to hate that motor.

I had a 1972 Toyota Dyna Twin Cab ute body 1.5 tonne. In 1986 or thereabouts I replaced the 2ltr engine with a Holden 253 V8. In 1992 I converted it from 2wd to 4wd all road legal.

Don't know how some DIYers do it, we have trouble sometimes and thats even with specialised tools and availability of in depth information.

But we also see our fair share of DIYers making the job 10 times harder for us after the tried to save a few $$.

With the onset of more vehicle specific ways of doing things, tools and equipment the days of the DIYers are slowly coming to an end for some repairs.

One of the latest things we have had to get is a specialised tools for "stretch fit belts" with a price tag of around $250 per specific vehicle.

Without these tools you can not remove or fit the engine drive belts.

And not forgetting a scan tool to do brake bleeding or headlight globe resetting after a blown globe.

Worst job would have to be changing the oil filters on a TDi4.2 GU. You will loose skin you will earth yourself to the battery and you will empty both the filters down the side of your motor into your starter then all over the pumpkin before it paints the ground....