Success

As posted a while back, the tire issue was still with us.... the spare tire on the suburban would not release - due to a real crappy design by GM engineers.

The fellow at Les Schwab was willing to try, but gave up after about 1/2hour of stubborn resistance.

We discussed this at the B&B and Clark was happy to give it a look -- he likes problems.

So, here we are again under the car...

         Imagine trying to get your tire down to change it in some back country dirt road.  Sheesh.

Now Clark and I started wrenching. He, unlike the Schwab guy, torn off a plastic cover to expose more of the mechanism... and with a note to the picture I had of the part and what it looked like... mostly Clark here, bang and grunted and pushed and pulled... and FINALLY with a simple push with a finger it dropped onto my lap - thud.

Clark did have a grinding wheel to cut off the offending hook, but was thinking that there must be a replacement device that eliminates the problem. So off we go to talk to some guys. The NAPA guy says "Never heard of it", so we head out to TireRama, a spot that Clark knows.

I tell the story of the release problem to this counter guy and all he does is smile and nod his head. Apparently he has dealt with this in the past."OH YUH" he says. "see them all the time - stupidest thing GM ever did"

"How do you fix them?"

Somewhat of a dull look.

"So, in YOUR suburban, did you cut off the hook?"

"Oh, in MY car that thing would be gone"

> Nobody company wants to cut the thing off<

He then adds, "Ford are much easier since they haven't got the hook thing, just rely on the cable"

Clark looks assured --- 15 minutes later the hook is gone and Alicia and I are happy