Eastern Panhandle Camaro Assoc.

... and I finally got the spark plugs and wires changed in the Jimmy.

The Jimmy now has 105K miles on it, so I decided to give her a good tune up. The oil filter refused to come off during the oil change, which led to my first big ordeal. The oil filter is only accesible through an access panel, Since I could not get a good enough grip on it, I had to take the whole front clip off,.. just to loosen the seized oil filter. This turned a 30 minute task into an hour and a half long battle.

After the oil change I started to replace my plugs and wires. Low and behold this would not go smoothly either. The number 3 plug sits right behind the steering column! After an hour of attempting to get to the plug from the side, I decided it would be easier to drop the steering column. This made life simple to change that plug, but in the proccess, I managed to slice and bust open my knuckle clear to the bone. After a quick field fixing of electrical tape and a clean detailing cloth, I finished with the tune-up and reinstalled the steering column.

The Jimmy runs like a new car now,.. and yes,.. I did properly care for my knuckle when I was done.

tmurph01 wrote:... and I finally got the spark plugs and wires changed in the Jimmy.

The Jimmy now has 105K miles on it, so I decided to give her a good tune up. The oil filter refused to come off during the oil change, which led to my first big ordeal. The oil filter is only accesible through an access panel, Since I could not get a good enough grip on it, I had to take the whole front clip off,.. just to loosen the seized oil filter. This turned a 30 minute task into an hour and a half long battle.

After the oil change I started to replace my plugs and wires. Low and behold this would not go smoothly either. The number 3 plug sits right behind the steering column! After an hour of attempting to get to the plug from the side, I decided it would be easier to drop the steering column. This made life simple to change that plug, but in the proccess, I managed to slice and bust open my knuckle clear to the bone. After a quick field fixing of electrical tape and a clean detailing cloth, I finished with the tune-up and reinstalled the steering column.

The Jimmy runs like a new car now,.. and yes,.. I did properly care for my knuckle when I was done.

Congrats on a typical day of working on GM products. At least you didn't take it somewhere and wait 5.5 months to get it back.

Ouch! A typical day as a mechanic. Never goes the way you want, eh? That's why you never take on a project when you are in a hurry. Glad it turned out OK.

I had the whole day to do it,.. I just didnt expect to have to take the front clip off to change my oil..haha.

tmurph01 wrote:I had the whole day to do it,.. I just didnt expect to have to take the front clip off to change my oil..haha.

Yeah, that's a bit insane. I had a heck of a time with my wife's Saturn SC1 when she had that car. I made about 2 or 3 trips to the store for different types of oil wrenches and none of them worked. Then, I figured I'd try the whole "stick a screwdriver through it" trick, which didn't do a thing but mangle everything up.

When all was said and done, I got the filter off, but didn't realize the gasket did not come off with it. We wound up with a major leak, and my wife had to bring it to the Saturn dealer by work 60 miles away. I had to call her at work and tell her we had a nice puddle of oil in front of the house.