Project VehiCross Part 4: The Single Worst Repair…In The World!
Last time you read about our VehiCross project, we ended with a tease about how bad replacing a power steering hose is. Originially, this was going to be the closer of our previous post, but as the power steering hose balooned, it took on a life of its own. A few years ago, I replaced the same hose on my 240SX. It took a little more than an hour and was fairly easy to do with the most basic of hand tools. In the VehiCross, it took 11 hours spread over three days.
No, that's not an exaggeration or a typo. Oh and I banged up the first joint of my thumb so bad I was in a splint for a week and sore for another. Luckily for you, there are a few things you can do to make this repair slightly less dramatic (and painful). That said, even if you do things the right way, it will still take the better part of a day to do this seemingly simple repair.
The big tip (and the cause of most of our trouble) is that to properly replace the high pressure hose, you will have to remove the radiator. The long loop of hardline simply does not pull out from the top or bottom of the truck with the radiator in place. You CAN do the service with the radiator in, but it will cause more problems than it solves. Trust us on this: you really do need to pull the radiator. This should also be your first step. This will also not be the first time you curse Isuzu's design team. You will have to pull the upper air box and MAF regardless. We found (the second time) it was easier to pull the entire intake tract instead of just the box.
