Rednroll

This is meant to be a fun thread. This is the Do-IT-Yourself Anonymous support group discussion thread. From here on out referred to as DIYA. This will be where we come clean and share our stories of how things actually went when we decide to take on our DIY Jeep mod projects.

SETUP:
So you've decided to perform a MOD or do some type of service/repair on your Jeep yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you. You know all the merits and rewards of doing it yourself. You've shopped around for parts, you came to the forum, asked some questions and got some good advise/tips. You browsed over the install instructions, looked up some step-by-step guides and may have even watched a few YouTube videos of others performing a similar task. You seen others post, that this shouldn't take you anymore than 2 hours to complete. You purchased all the necessary tools and other accompanying knick knacks (lubes, loc-tite, etc) you think you'll need. I'M READY!!! I CAN DO THIS!!! are your famous last words before diving in and doing the task yourself.



Instructions steps will read:
1. Insert bolt through holes, place washer on bolt and tighten nut onto bolt with 18mm wrench

Your ACTUAL steps tend to go like this:
1. Holes aren't aligned to insert bolt...find scratch all or some other tool to use to pull holes into alignment.
2. Insert bolt, still not fully aligned, bolt very snug, use hammer to tap bolt through holes.
3. threads of bolt are now boogered up, nut will no longer screw on, but holes are perfectly aligned, go to hardware store and get replacement bolt.
4. Insert bolt....ahhhh complete. Take a short break to relieve frustration of how a 2 second task just took you 30 minutes.
5. place washer on bolt
6. start to thread nut with one hand while holding 18mm wrench in other.
7. Drop nut....nut rolls into some God forsaken hidden location in the chassis.
8. Spend time searching for nut, see nut lodged in an unreachable location, get mirror, flashlight and magnet telescopes to retrieve nut....nut retrieved.
9. thread nut on by hand....."now where did I set my 18mm wrench down at?" Search for wrench....find wrench.
10. Start to tighten nut with 18mm wrench. Realize standard 18mm closed end wrench has very little clearance room to tighten where I'm lucky if I'm getting a 1/4 turn of the wrench to tighten. Realize, this is going to take all day to tighten.
11. Go look for 18mm ratcheting wrench, realize that's the only size you don't have in a ratchet wrench.
12. Make trip to usual tool store to purchase 18mm ratchet wrench. Find out they don't carry an 18mm ratchet wrench. Go visit another tool store and purchase an over priced 18mm ratchet wrench.
13. Get back home,Tighten nut with ratchet wrench.
14. Realize, in all my extended frustrations, I forgot to put anti-seize on threads of bolt. This is one of the main reasons you wanted to do it yourself, so meticulous care was paid attention to in the install and to save yourself some grief if future repair was needed.
15. loosen nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
16. apply anti-seize on bolt threads
17. re-tighten nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
18. Clean up and put away the 10 tools you had to use, instead of the originally planned one tool.
19. take a smoke break, that was stressful, but step 1 has been acomplished!!!
- Planned time <1min. Actual time=2 hours.
20. Go to step 2 of instructions.......

Seriously, I know I'm elaborating some in my example but ALL these things have happened to me at one time or another taking off and putting on a single bolt on projects. Am I the only one?

I know I'm not......please share your DIY stories that didn't go exactly as planned.

This is a 12 step program, so always remember, the 1st step to recovery is admittance. The next step is being able to look back and laugh at yourself because you know if you shared your actual experience, others would likely laugh at you and you would feel embarrassed. I'll follow up by posting one of mine where there are quite a few to follow.

Most of all let's keep it friendly and ENJOY!!

DIYA Slogan: "It doesn't cost that much more, to just do it yourself."

Rednroll

Hi my name is Rednroll....

<Forum members in unison> Hi Rednroll!!!

I've been a DIYer for 30 years.

DIY JK Project: Heater core flush

So I've been having some heater problems this winter, I've been trying to diagnose. I suspect a possible bad heater core or blockage within the heater core. I read some forum posts of others doing it. I watch some YouTube videos of the various methods others have done. Sounds like a 30-60 minute job and one simple enough I can do it myself. I have all the tools I think I'll need. Air compressor, CLR, replacement coolant, various pliers, etc. I'M READY!!! I CAN DO THIS!!!

How my 30 minute project went (multiple blunders and one big one):
- Identify inlet and outlet heater hoses in the engine bay.
- Decide disconnecting the hoses at the firewall connection will be more difficult and harder to reconnect than disconnecting at the engine connection side of the hoses. So that's what I'll do.
- Top hose, very easy to reach and easy to disconnect with a pair of pliers.
- Bottom hose, harder to reach and get a pair of pliers on the hose clamp to remove.
- Investigate taking off from underneath rather than from the top.
- maybe pulling the fender well lining back will give me some better access to it. Removing fender well lining, wasn't in my plans and don't feel like figuring out how to do it. Pry fender well back and hold it there by inserting a crow bar. Still difficult, hose clamp is turned in opposite direction to get pliers on it.
- Get vise grips instead to try and clamp them on the clip.
- a lot of effort....but at last...got the clamp released in open position. I can't turn the vise grips from underneath to pull the clamp back enough....time to go back up top.
- need some more room to reach down far enough, valve cover breather hose needs to be moved out of the way.
- Remove valve cover breather hose from air filter and shove the hose up under something to keep it out of the way. (This is the setup to my mistake to come.)
- slide clamp off, hard time pulling hose off from the top....back underneath, yank bottom heater core hose off.
- drain the coolant.
- Let's start the reverse flush.
- I want to limit the air compressor to 15-20psi, compressor limit adjust doesn't work very well on any setting lower than 30psi. Want to figure out how to solve that problem, because I don't want to end up destroying the heater core and make the project bigger and more expensive.
- insert planned compressor hose adapter into outlet heater hose....too small, doesn't seal good enough. Time to go to the tool store, I now have 2 problems to solve which require additional unplanned tools that I don't have.
- Honey, I have to borrow your car to run to the tool store........Her: "What else is new?"
- Pick up a finger adjust limiter valve with gauge for further pressure limiting, some multiple air compressor adapters with various diameters to make a better seal with the heater hose. Good to Go!!! Head back home.
- Picked a good size adapter to fit the heater core hose, wrap some black tape around for a good seal.
- Get 3 gallon jugs with water, perform multiple back flushes....everything going well now.
- Pour in some CLR in the heater core.
- Time for dinner, good timing to let the CLR work on any debris/clogs.
- Come back 1.5 hours later, should have been plenty enough time.
- It's now dark outside and hard to see. Clamp a Halogen light on the hood.....ahhh, much better that will work.
- Start to Perform flush to get all the potential gunk and CLR out of heater core. Halogen light burns out.....where are my extra bulbs? Search around, find them hanging on my work bench peg board right where I left them. Get tools to disassemble light and change bulb.
- Peform multiple forward and backward flushes with water. Notice it takes about 1/2 gallon of water to fill core before water starts running out the opposite heater core hose end.
- One more flush of water should do it...........(mistake ahead)
- Pour in 1/2 gallon of water.....hmmm??? Strange, no water running out of other hose yet? Must be too dark and I just didn't see it drain out. Continue to pour.....still no water out other end.
- Get a flashlight so I can see end of heater core hose better. Continue to pour water. Still no water coming out opposite hose end.
- Finish pouring entire gallon of water into hose and still don't notice any water. What the heck is going on??
- Put flashlight on the hose I've been filling. This hose connects to the valve cover!!!!
- The valve cover hose I had tucked up and out of the way came unhooked and was laying right next to heater core hose and I grabbed the valve cover breather hose by mistake....they're similar diameter.
- I just poured an entire gallon of water into my engine through the valve cover breather hose.
- Ummmmmm....Honey, I need to borrow your car again to run to the store. I need to go buy some oil and change my oil.
- Drain my oil....see water pour out the oil pan drain plug followed by recently changed 1 week old oil. Yep....it must be true, water and oil don't mix.
- Let sit for 30min to drain water/oil.
- Finish changing oil.
- Use air compressor multiple times to ensure heater core was dried out.
- Reconnect heater core hoses.......ugh, that bottom hose again reconnecting. Ahhh....not so bad, things do get easier with experience.
- Jack up front of Jeep, fill up coolant. Let run for 30-45minutes and burb cooling system multiple times.
- Good to go!!! Let's go take her for a drive and test out my heat, it's now pretty late and really cold outside.
- Back up out of drive way and hear some wheel rub.....Hmmmm??? My 35's never rubbed before?
- Back into street, and hear a metal clank on the pavement.
- Stop and get out.....DOH!!! I forgot about the crow bar I logged in between the fender well lining and the tire.
- No damage....Whew, that was a close one.
- Drive for 20 minutes down the highway.....Heat is working GREAT!!!!!
- Drive 20 minutes to get back home. Notice on the drive home my heat was getting cooler and cooler.
- Heater problem the same as when I started.
- DIY project FAILED!!!
- Go clean up and put away the multiple assortment of lights, tools, air compressor hoses/adapters and fluid containers which were much more than originally planned.

Total time of 30-60min DIY project= 7 hours. How rewarding!!!

Next time, I'll cut that time in half, I promise.

What you got fellow DIYA members? I know you're out there.

Rednroll

128 views and not one DIYer willing to step up?

Either everyone's projects always go according to plan or you're in complete denial and an intervention is needed.

Or more likely, I killed you all with that wall of text I posted and need to post the crib notes version. Sorry, I got a little carried away....tends to happen with those of us with addictions. Yes, I have a DIY addiction. I'm so past the admittance stages in my 12 step program.