Repair theology --- All at once or one step at a time.

[Wade Nelson]

What's your repair theology --- do it all at once, or one step at a time.

For instance, when I replaced my injectors, I did it one step at a time.

Two weeks before I replaced all my high pressure fuel injection hoses.

Next was replacing the injectors themselves, and the connectors.

Today I got around to replacing the fuel filter.

My theory is/was, if I do things ONE STEP at a time, and something goes wrong, I immediately know what to look at -- because I only changed ONE THING at a time.

If I do it ALL AT ONCE, and things screw up, I don't know if it was the hoses, the filter, or the new injectors.

Now, if my fuel filter was holy, and feeding crud into my NEW injectors, that could be a very bad approach.
(Perhaps replacing IT first, then the hoses, would have been the better order in which to do things).

What's your repair doctrine? Do it all at once, do it RIGHT? Or slow and easy, one step at a time?

[9teen7t240z]

Wade,

For me, it depends upon the situation. If I have a specific problem and am trying to troubleshoot the issue, I will typically replace or repair one "usual suspect" at a time, for the same reason you cited in your post. But, if I'm confident that I know what the underlying problem is, and yet have to remove some major parts in order to fix it, I'll often try to fix/upgrade/make cosmetic improvements while I'm into the project.

A good example is what I'm working on now. I recently had a power loss issue and, thanks to the feedbackfrom the group here, was able to rather quickly ascertain that my vacuum advance on the distributor wasn't working. So, I needed to replace it. But, I figured that it is probable that I have the original distributor that was put on this car, and that it may have never been serviced before. So, now I decide to remove the distributor and service it as well. All the while, I had been planning for months to finish detailing the engine, so, have now removed both the inatke manifolds and exhaust manifold, heat shield, and carburetors for polishing/cleaning up. Seems likie a good time to repaint the engine block....so tomorrow I'll be steam cleaning the engine and preparing it to be painted. Along the way, noticed a few tired looking, albeit original, braided water hoses....so may as well replace them now. The metal lines could use a good facelift too, so now they're on the list. Since I've had to drain all the coolant, decided to flush the cooling system while I'm there.

It's hard to imagine that a faulty vacuum advance on a distributor could lead me to where I am now

Mike

[72 OJ]

PREVENTIVE.........to me is key. Do it right from the get go, get the best replacement parts if all possible

[5thhorsemann]

I'm of the thinking that if you are reparing a problem, the step approach is the way to go. currently I'm working on my 91 Toyota pickup which has a blown head gasket and an oil leak on the front of the block somewhere. It also has an intermitant tapping noise that I haven't been able to pinpoint, so I am going to pull the motor and do a complete teardown/ rebuild. In this case jumping in with both feet is the order of the day, so every step gets double checked before moving on to the next step.

[siteunseen]

I wanted to get a fresh motor right off the bat, before paint and then the interior. So I guess I'm a little of all 3.

[Stanley]

More to the question than meets the eye. It made me reconsider my current lil project - a minor carb tune with new nozzles, float valves, float adjustment, and needle mod. Was going to do the first three all at once. Really screwed up before by not considering the test 'n tune order. Pulled the rear pump which was clogged - didn't put a filter back there. Ran better a few days, then wouldn't run until I ran a steel cable PITA through the steel lines that clogged up. Then I put the filter - then I cleaned the tank when it clogged the new filter in a week.
I like to know the theory, then test it on the street. Speed is science. Mostly, one step at a time to diagnose. Guess I'm lazy, or in a hurry, so I sometimes I don't follow the rule. Need to keep a notebook, too, which I don't.
On the other hand, if you do everything to tune a system at once, more gets done, you don't just stop when it's fixed and maybe miss something else that might fail next. But if you're tuning two systems, say carbs and timeing, definately on step at a time.
Anyway, good timing. I'm gonna go step by step on these carbs, thank you. And get a notebook...