#1: Fiero engines come out the bottom so you need a lift (to lift the car off the drivetrain)
#2: No garage
#3: It's bloody cold out there with no garage
and most importantly
#4: I don't like to get my hands dirty
I have done basic things like replace the clutch slave cylinder and basic distributor/ignition stuff. I've grinded excess casting off the factory exhaust manifolds. I know everything I want done and I've picked every part myself, I'd just rather pay someone else to put it together and leave me to the most important part: enjoying the driving.
It's not any warmer in the shop during the winter ( for thoes shops with no heaters ). It never felt right standing under a car on the lift, 3000lbs of hardware slightly rocking back and forth as you do your thing.
Ive seen guys not set the arms right, and hit the switch, crushing the undersides of doors. I knew a guy who had one drop off the lift, and he broke a bunch of ribs(he was most likely drinking). A friend of mine had a car up on a jack and no stands, replacing a starter on buick, and things didnt look quite right. I grabbed a large wood block and just as i slipped it under the frame, the car fell, it ended up resting on the very edge of the block. Dude got out from under that car real fast.
One time i replaced the clutch on a 240sx, flywheel was burred so i sent it into the machine shop to get turned, put it all back together to find out they turned it beyond spec, so i had to take it all down and replace it.
many times ive had transmissions sent off to the tranny guy, just to have them break 2 weeks later and have to pull it down again( and not get paid of course ).
Same thing with engines from the junk yard. Spend 10 hours pulling and replacing an engine just to do it all over again when you find out you got sold bum hardware. Customers call up pissed off their car is in the shop for a week, they tell all their friends yer a crook and you suck.
Every car has a completely different electrical setup. One wire shorts to ground or a sensor is off by an ass hair, and the either doesnt run or runs like crap, takes days to find the problem.
No matter how many times you do it, setting time on an interference engine is scary.
Cheap pontiac cars are engineered by monkeys. Aluminum thermostat housings, steel bolts holding it down. Plastic connectors that rot after 3 years, fuel sending units that corrode, etc.
You dont need a lift to get an engine out of a car where it drops out the bottom. You just need to prop up the front end an awful lot and walk the engine out from under the car on a jack. Think of the lift as a convience/time saver piece of equipment. Theres always a way to get around not having one. If that werent the case, most southern rednecks would be riding bicycles.
