Automotive engineering nightmares.

[Htchevyii]

I'll start by saying that I like a lot of different vehicles. Although American are generally my favorite I've had Hondas, air cooled VW's and Fiats.

 

My dad had fond MGB memories, so he bought one to go on sports car cruises with us. Where I've found the Fiat Spider to be pretty self explanatory to work on with a few exceptions, that British stuff is pretty wild. Maybe from trying to use mismatched parts or reuse parts designed 30 years ago, there's a lot of weird stuff going on.

The picture is of the CARBON throw out bearing that exploded after 3000 miles. Maybe just aftermarket junk but a weird design.  To top it off, you are supposed to remove the engine and transmission together. There is a welded in cross member under the trans, (early models are worse with a full pan beneath).  Luckily with the car on a lift, we were able to unbolt the transmission, spin it to remove the shift tower and then slide it back.

I know that Jeeps are a hodgepodge of parts from various manufacturers, but they are still pretty easy to work on in comparison.

 

What nightmares have you worked on?

[89 MJ]

Wow, that is impressively stupid. 
 

The front differential mount in my Eagle is a stupid design too. It mounts to the engine using the same bolts as the motor mounts, but uses different brackets. On the driver side of the differential, there are two bolts that go vertically into the pumpkin. The exhaust is completely in the way to see or get a wrench on these bolts easily. 
The nuts for the seats are also a pain. The seat brackets have studs that go through the floor. That isn’t necessarily a bad idea until the threads get rusty. And the nut for the driver seat is above the transfer case. Plus the inner tie rods and lower ball joints are Eagle specific, so those are fun to source. 

[eaglescout526]

I do not remember what we were replacing on my dads F150 Harley truck but it was something that was a nightmare to replace and put us in little bit of a pickle. I literally have done a good job to not remember that haha.

[Htchevyii]

It's best to block some things out!

 

It took both of us what seemed like an hour to get the 4 transmission mount bolts started. There are 3 different mounts, the bolts go  through various pieces of sheet metal that are fighting each other. To top it off, the bolts are in a barely accessible tight area, you're basically pushing against the head with a screwdriver and turning them 1/16 turn at a time. Id like to forget. 😂

[Eagle]

Anyone remember the Sunbeam Tiger? It was a British Sunbeam Alpine, with a Ford 289 V8 stuffed into the engine bay. You had to pull the engine to access the two rear-most spark plugs.

 

 

[Eagle_SX4]

The rear brakes on a 1984 Jaguar XJ6. It has independent rear suspension and the brakes are in-board right next to the pumpkin. You have to tear the entire rear suspension apart to get the brakes changed.

 

Edit: Jaguar used the inboard brakes from about 1961-1993

[Htchevyii]

Ow wow! Good for unsprung weight I guess, but  what a nightmare.

[Pete M]

if anyone thought doing a timing belt on a front wheel drive car was hard, the PT Cruiser's tiny engine bay wants you to hold its beer. 

[Htchevyii]

14 hours ago, Pete M said:

if anyone thought doing a timing belt on a front wheel drive car was hard, the PT Cruiser's tiny engine bay wants you to hold its beer. 

I've done that twice. The first time was on the ground and I swore that I'd never do if again. I did it again, but at least it was on a lift. I gave the car away with 220,000 on it and the last I heard, the highschool kid hadn't killed it yet.

It was actually a good car for us, I bought it cheap from the dealer I worked at because the old lady that traded it in somehow ruined the 1st gear synchro. It was perfectly drivable if you acted like it was a 50's car, but I  swapped in a used transmission in the driveway. We put 140,000 on it before giving it away.

[pizzaman09]

My 62 Austin Healey Sprite is very similar to the MGB you described.  It too has a graphite throw out bearing, apparently there and upgrade to a roller trust bearing style from some old Porsche.  It is best practice to never hold your foot on the clutch for significant periods of time to prevent the graphite from overheating.  The Sprite also is a flat floor with the transmission above it, so the engine and transmission come out together out the front.

 

The worst design I've ever come across is literally everything on a 1986 Ford F150.  I helped a friend swap away from a terrible Ford 4 speed auto to the Mazda 5 speed manual from a 94 F150.  The transmission cross member was above the C channel frame instead of below, making it extremely challenging to remove.  The catalytic converter was in the way of removing the cross member.  The bolts holding it in were 18mm (didn't own the socket) and torque to yield so extremely challenging to remove.  The intake manifold on the Ford 5.0 V8 is also a nightmare to remove, and install. 

[Htchevyii]

@pizzaman09 my dad was up on the throw out bearing treatment, it was probably just junk. I saw that there were aftermarket bal bearing ones, but apparently they suck too. At least the one that we installed was different, so hopefully better. 

[pizzaman09]

31 minutes ago, Htchevyii said:

@pizzaman09 my dad was up on the throw out bearing treatment, it was probably just junk. I saw that there were aftermarket bal bearing ones, but apparently they suck too. At least the one that we installed was different, so hopefully better. 

Good luck!  It can be frustrating to find quality parts for old British cars at times, the original components were frequently quite good.  I suspect the graphite release bearing in mine is original and I hope to never have to address it.

[Htchevyii]

15 hours ago, pizzaman09 said:

Good luck!  It can be frustrating to find quality parts for old British cars at times, the original components were frequently quite good.  I suspect the graphite release bearing in mine is original and I hope to never have to address it.

Quality parts are getting difficult to find for everything, unless OEM is available. I try to buy quality parts, but I've had more failures on new parts than old ones lately. It's get to the point that I'm afraid to replace a functioning 40 year old part for a new one. 

Recent failure list:

 

New shifter bushing broke in the Fiat Spider. Stuck in 3rd gear. I had replaced the 40+ year old functioning one with a crack in it

 

 Napa lower temp fan switch on the 82 Fiat. The old one still worked, just wanted lower temp. I wired it to a toggle 400 miles from home.

 

The LUK internal slave on the MJ. 10,000 miles on it. Never had one fail in the previous 300,000ish miles. Drove home 500 miles with no clutch.

 

O'Reilly water pump failed on the XJ. I replaced it on the side of the road in Bend OR.

 

Flowkooler water pump failed in the MJ. 12,000 on it. Leaked in the garage at least.

 

I'm sure there's more, junk parts will be the killer of the old car hobby I'm afraid.

[pizzaman09]

7 hours ago, Htchevyii said:

Quality parts are getting difficult to find for everything, unless OEM is available. I try to buy quality parts, but I've had more failures on new parts than old ones lately. It's get to the point that I'm afraid to replace a functioning 40 year old part for a new one. 

Recent failure list:

 

New shifter bushing broke in the Fiat Spider. Stuck in 3rd gear. I had replaced the 40+ year old functioning one with a crack in it

 

 Napa lower temp fan switch on the 82 Fiat. The old one still worked, just wanted lower temp. I wired it to a toggle 400 miles from home.

 

The LUK internal slave on the MJ. 10,000 miles on it. Never had one fail in the previous 300,000ish miles. Drove home 500 miles with no clutch.

 

O'Reilly water pump failed on the XJ. I replaced it on the side of the road in Bend OR.

 

Flowkooler water pump failed in the MJ. 12,000 on it. Leaked in the garage at least.

 

I'm sure there's more, junk parts will be the killer of the old car hobby I'm afraid.

I have a similar list. 

Rubber bushings for the Austin Healey rear suspension lasted 2000 miles, replaced with polyurethane which are doing great 

 

Replacement carb for my Yamaha ATV couldn't rev, turned out the outside dimensions were the same but the throat through the carb for airflow was significantly smaller than stock.

 

Two replacement wheel bearings for my Oldsmobile that had a geometric interface issue between the wheel studs and the mounting bolts on the car, had to spend really solid money on an OEM replacement to fix that.

 

Convertible top seal kit for a vintage Mercedes that literally not one seal fit well, it was a pain to install all of them and every single one needed some modifications.  I'm still sanding the one seal down to allow the window to in the driver's door to close fully.

[75sv1]

On 4/19/2025 at 8:21 PM, Eagle said:

Anyone remember the Sunbeam Tiger? It was a British Sunbeam Alpine, with a Ford 289 V8 stuffed into the engine bay. You had to pull the engine to access the two rear-most spark plugs.

 

 

I thought there was an access panel in the driver's floor well. ???

[Eagle]

7 hours ago, 75sv1 said:

I thought there was an access panel in the driver's floor well. ???

 

Possibly. I don't remember -- that was a lifetime ago.

[Ωhm]

Right handed/Left handed lug nuts & studs. For the new, old guys now, they can make a fool of you. Ask me how I know.

[Htchevyii]

I've ran into a rig that only had one wheel with backwards threads. Apparently the other had been changed. 😂