On question #2 that procedure is somewhat standard I think and is not going to hurt anything. It comes from a safety standpoint. Pushing the shrader valve on the fuel injection rail will do the same thing, except it sprays gasoline all over the place which of course is a bit of a fire hazard when that happens.
On the rest of the questions, I have not worked on a LW300 and can not tell you first hand and my service literature I have available does not cover one in much detail.
I've never had a problem changing hose clamps, and usually do, due to age and the re-sealing capability of factory units. However that has to be evaluated when looked at them. Some times you get something that is really unique where a one sized fits all answer does not work.

 

So, I finally summoned the courage to pry off those strange British hose clamps and remove the intake manifolds. Getting at the spark plugs wasn't nearly as difficult as the dealership and Chilton's would have had me believe. Definitely not $500 difficult. It took all of 40 minutes for me, a complete novice, to change the spark plugs and have the car running again.

So, the "vindication" part - the spark plugs weren't the problem. $500 in unnecessary dealership service saved (and who knows how much the next steps would have cost)!

And, the "sort of" part. All-in, I spent $500 to fix this problem myself and it was because of luck, not intuition, that I was right about the plugs. The final fix was a coil pack. If I was smart, I would have switched boots for cyl 1 and 3 on the old coil to see if the problem was actually a boot instead of the coil, but I just wanted to be done with it.

Moral of the story: doing your own work on your car saves money even if you are terribly inefficient For a little less than what the dealership was going to charge me to replace good spark plugs, I got a new MAF sensor, new crank shaft position sensor, new battery, new plugs, and a new coil pack. I'm pretty sure that the MAF sensor was a total waste of $175, but it seems that the crank shaft position sensor actually did some good. Before replacing it, my DTC codes were sporadically reporting misses on all cylinders but #2. After replacing it, I only got misses on cylinder 1 (consistently and repeatedly for a couple weeks). Maybe the crankshaft position sensor was a confounding factor.

So, thank you guys for all of your help! I really appreciate it! I get the feeling I'll be starting a new thread soon about replacing my A/C compressor. I just replaced the compressor/drier and flushed my Subaru, but the Saturn looks significantly more difficult. I'll probably have to do most of the work on my back. :S

-Mike

 

Mike,
Congratulations are in order for accomplishing a repair that did not cost an arm and a leg and you learned something from, all while enjoying what it was you are doing. That I guess is a secret that few actually learn and are not frustrated by the activity involved.
I actually started my enjoyment as a teenager when my Dad bought me my first car, an about 10 year old 1947 Desoto, well used on sale marked down from $27.00 to $19.00 at the local Lincoln Mercury dealer. I remember it because amongst other things I blew up the engine by the end of summer, not from abuse but ignorance on how to take care of it.
I learned from it and my second car purchased from a junkyard was a 1930 Model A Ford with a cracked block that I replaced the engine in it with one that a cylinder had rusted up and managed to figure out how to make it work right.
Back in the day!
Things are different now, it's technically harder, you need to read and think smarter.
I'm still learning and still enjoy it and still work from the philosophy that I can screw up a car cheaper than a professional mechanic.
Kudo's to you and keep up the pleasure side driving stuff you couldn't afford if you had to pay some one else to screw it up for you.

 

I'll bet on your Saturn it will be easier for much of the work to pull a tire off and the inner fender well access panels and come in from the side.

 

Thanks uncljohn, for the help, advice, and encouragement! My first car was a 73 Dodge Dart. I got it for $1,000 in 1994 with 32,000 miles on it. I wish I had done more work on that car while I had it, it would probably still be running today with 150,000 miles on it! My second car was a '92 Ford F150, and that was my first taste of working on a car. I replaced the water pump and radiator in it with the help of a mechanically inclined friend. Nowadays it's the economy that has urged me to do more of my own work, but you're right. I love it. I'll only do more of my own service as time goes on.

Thanks again everyone!

-Mike