Darwin Award - Car Mechanic Edition

[asphaltgambler]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^many years ago I saw a rotor just like that - to the point that the pad backing plate had been scrubbed through and the caliper piston caught the vanes and was pulled out along with the fluid....................

The absence of a brake pedal is what brought them in ..................................driving it............... believe it or not.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

The absence of a brake pedal is what brought them in ..................................driving it............... believe it or not.

+1 He drove it in. Said he was skeered with no pedal to speak of. Piston almost out and crooked in bore.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Jolly Amaranto

We used a "cage" made up of welded heavy duty pipe that you rolled the wheel into and clipped on the air hose to the valve stem. Then you turned on the air while hiding across the garage and waited a long time after reaching pressure just to be sure.

In high school I worked at a gas station at night and took in an occasional split rim for $$$.
I would just put the legs of the hydraulic lift on top of the tire when inflating and hope for the best.
never had one 'splode, just lucky.



I had a guy come into the shop with a noisy motor once, asked if I could take a look see.
He had lost his 710-cap (look it up) and replaced it with ...... a rag.

the rag had gotten partially sucked into the engine and disintegrated into little bits of cloth just barely large enough to clog the oil galleys.

I sold him a quart of oil and sent him down the road

[Por_sha911]

Does someone have the pic of casters bolted to the bottom of a 911?

[RWebb]

[fastfredracing]

I once helped these redneck boys change a transmission at their home . I said I would do it for 150.00 $ It was maybe a 76/77 nova with a 350. They said they had tools.
These guys lived on top of a big hill in a trailer with no running water, way out in the sticks . Real Pa hillbillies.
They had tools , but no jack. The night before, they parked the car, and dug a pit out from underneath the car, so we would have room to drop and install the trans.
I wish I would have taken some pics . It was redneck fabulous, and actually worked pretty good .
I earned my 150.00 that day .

[74-911]

Redneck 2 Post Lift ??

Cinder blocks and 2 landscape timbers do the trick on a stripped down VW. The garbage can giving lateral support I guess ?

[sc_rufctr]

[sammyg2]

710

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by Rawknees'Turbo

Dayuummmnnn, that guy standing on the truck wheel and tire is fortunate that thing didn't land on his head (and that he didn't land on his head on the concrete floor)!

It looks like that other guy who whacked that tire (with an axe?) and lost most of his right arm. He may not have survived.

[URY914]

A couple of years ago I bought a rusted out POS 914 for a few parts. I jacked it up while it was on the trailer and ran some 4 x 6 under it. Now this is redneck engineering.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

I've seen that personally on a passenger car.

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

It looks like that other guy who whacked that tire (with an axe?) and lost most of his right arm. He may not have survived.

Wow, that gif wasn't there when I saw the other one (or it wasn't showing on the browser I was using at the time) - nuts!

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by speeder

FWIW, Darwin’s studies had exactly nothing to do with people doing stupid things. Ironically, continuing the habit of using his name in this way on the internet contributes to the general dumbing down of society.

FWIW, the "Darwin Awards" are not named after Charles Darwin, and have nothing to do with his "theory". They're named after George Darwin, the first winner of said award. You know, the guy who bolted the JATO booster onto his car, and ended up splatting into the side of a mountain?

See, Darwin's "theory" would say that someone who used tools (like the interwebs) to further his knowledge about the subject, is better than someone who did not use tools (like the interwebs) and therefore did not know the facts.

I'll leave it at that.

[stealthn]

Please don’t post videos of people getting killed, regardless of the stupidity, that never leaves the Internet, and I wouldn’t want that for my kids or wife for eternity...

God Bless

[asphaltgambler]

Bob & Masraum - I remember that to this day - could not believe it. When I asked him how he stopped it - he said he drove slow and used the emergency brake!

[speeder]

Can’t imagine the gut wrenching sounds those people had to put up with for quite a while on those brake neglect stories.

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by speeder

Can’t imagine the gut wrenching sounds those people had to put up with for quite a while on those brake neglect stories.

"never heard a thing"

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Speaking of bad brakes- had a coworker who had been driving her car with similar rotor situation for several weeks. Went out to look. Rear rotor had broken off with a pie shaped piece missing, which comprised about 1/2 of the entire rotor. With nothing to push against, the brake pad and caliperpiston got pushed out and destroyed by the mangled spinning rotor. There were no pads and one piston was completely gone. Brake fluid had completely drained from system thought missing caliper piston. I didn't even ask her how she was alive- just said- "Don't drive this" next day picked up new rotor/caliper/ pads from autozone and put them on her car at lunch.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by speeder

Can’t imagine the gut wrenching sounds those people had to put up with for quite a while on those brake neglect stories.

Yep, just like the folks that have the lug nuts loose and clanking around so long the wheel falls off. It has to make a horrible racket for a while that was ignored.

One of my buddies got a phone call from his daughter one day. She was sobbing and crying and it took a while for figure out what she was saying. She was driving along in his Mercedes 300D and all of a sudden the rear tires locked up, and she slid off the road. She had continued to drive, even after the engine started smelling worse than normal for a diesel. She checked the temperature gauge, like she had been taught, and the needle was so far buried she said she figured the needle had just fallen off. The water pump failed, the engine got so hot it locked up while in gear. The car was totaled. She was fine and that was the only important thing.