Damn Ford Engineers....

Before I start my rant, let me just say that I have always been a fan of Ford cars.  Twenty-five of the thirty cars I have owned over the last 15 years have been Fords.  But today, that changes.

My wife’s 1996 Ford Contour started showing signs that the water pump needed to be replaced, (Just after doing a brake job, replacing all the tires, and having to replace a ball joint and half-shaft on the passenger side) so I pulled it up into the garage, supported the engine and pulled the passenger wheel off so I could get started.  This is where my problems just start.

To get to the water pump, you literally have to take off half of the components on the front end of the engine:  The engine support, power steering pump, accessory drive belt, valve cover, radiator overflow tank, engine mount, crankshaft pully….you get the hint yet?  All this just to replace the damn water pump….I am just getting started.

Now, as I get most of this removed (I am still looking for the last bolt holding the power steering mump in place), I notice that the timing belt needs to be replaced as well, because it has cracks all along the belt.  No problem since it has to come off to get to the water pump anyway, set the engine at TDC (Top Dead Center) and remove the belt and then after you finally swap out the water pump replace the belt and all is good with the world…Not even close.

Some over-paid hippie bastard decided that timing marks are unnecessary on this engine (The crankshaft pulley is supposed to have notches according to Chilton), so you pretty much have to use a compression tool to gauge when your engine is at TDC.  Well, I got that far, and remove the timing belt and of course one of the two camshafts still had some life in it, and rolled at least a quarter turn on its own.   Now, on any other car that it would have happened on, it would be no big deal to time the camshafts because there would be aligning marks on the camshaft sprockets.  But not on this POS….You have to have some god-awful special camshaft alignment tool and use the force to judge whether or not you have the camshaft in time.  God help you if you are one tooth off, because this is an interference motor, which means that the valves can and will puncture the piston if one of the camshafts is not properly timed.  Not to mention that your motor will run like crap if the two camshafts are just one tooth shy of being in time.

You would think that it would be simple to just run down to NAPA, Advance Auto, Carquest, O’Reilly’s Auto, or even Autozone and either purchase or rent this tool…..NOT!  None of them carry it, and none of them have one in their rental program.  Ford is even less forgiving, because they will not rent one out to you, but they would be more than happy to bend you over the counter and either sell one too you at 200% the actual value of the tool, or charge you $50/hr to fix it for you.  I am not the type of person to let a dealership work on my cars, because more often than not I have left there with more car problems than when I brought it in…

What every manufacturer needs to do when these hippie engineers come up with a new fangled engine design, they need to stick them in a garage with a normal set of Craftsman tools and make them do the most common tasks, such as change out the waterpump, belts, oil, etc. and if they cannot do it very easily or within an afternoon, then they should go back to the drawing board and re-design it until they can.
It is getting to the point to where you almost have to have a PhD in automotive technology just to perform the most remedial of tasks.

Hopefully I can find this tool on eBay or something, fix this car, and then sell it because I am going to buy something else.  At least the Japanese do things right, and make it easier on the mechanic to do the job….Maybe I can convince my wife that she needs a Honda or Mitsubishi instead….