ALL Owners of Used, Abused and Misused, Cadillacs and Cadillac-La Salles

[Porter]

Dont get too "buffaloed" trying to dismantle your old Cadillac.

Ive basically dismantled my 66 CDV for refinishing without the use of a shop manual.

I requested some info from Mr. 66 Cadillac: Ralph Messina recently to help with dismantling my 66 CDV front seat  , to quote him "the shop manual was wrong again, as usual".

Some basic detective work had the front seat backs removed quite easily.

As long as you remove all exposed fasteners and NEVER FORCE ANYTHING  you will be fine.

The sail panel removal had me "buffaloed", Mike Jones had the straight dope on removing those plastic lenses, too simple.

Jim # 1500, I couldnt resist borrowing your quote, hope you dont mind.

Porter

[Rhino 21150]

"If you have to force it, something is wrong. Probably you." Rhino Guy, sometime in the late seventies.

[Porter]

It took me 10 minutes to remove the inside Van engine cover (on my 1990 G20) and 15 minutes to replace the alternator (which lasted 140K before the bearings let go), that is good engineering.

Then again, the engineers seem to have mercy on light duty truck mechanical repairs.

I doubt the late model light duty trucks are any better than the cars, engineered for profits, not repairs.

Or at least engineered for ease of manufacturing, durable long mileage quality and too expensive for you to want to repair them when they get too many miles on the odometer.

Perhaps a function of compact design, they really shortened the hood length in 1988, good or bad thing ? The late model truck bumpers are a joke, just like the new car plastic urethane covered crap, but they look nice ?

Porter

[Mark]

Recently I had the opportunity to replace the in-tank fuel pump on my 10 year old GM full-size pickup.  

The choices I faced were:  drop the tank knowing that the fuel lines were too short to maneuver easily - when you extend the lines to be able to reinstall the tank they get kinked OR enlist the help of several strong friends remove the bed to access the top of the tank and then find the friends to help reinstall the bed.  

Either choice was going to be an all-weekend job.