Admit your most embarrasing wrenching blunders - here is mine

[peppy]

Doing a partial engine drop to fix some oil leaks, I forgot to unhook the coil wire. The came out of the connector on the coil.

I called Magnecor and they fixed it for free. I bet I was the joke of the place though.

[gunlover05]

I just thought of another one of my really stupid blunders...I was replacing my tie rods with Turbo Tie Rods last summer, and i was really struggling under the car...after 6 hours, I was getting close to the end and was pulling the boot over the rack with a screw driver...i had been under and out from under the car several times in the heat of August and the sweat was dripping and fogging up my saftey glasses...evidently i had taken my glasses off @ the bench and got back under the car to finish with the boots...here comes the real dumba$$ move - I wasn't paying attention and pulling on the screwdriver, and the screwdriver slipped, and put a deep gash right above my eye on the eyelid. another 1/2 lower and i would have literally poked my eye out. At that point, I realized i was evidently tired and careless, and I just left everything as it lay and walked in the house.

I was so frustrated with my stupidity, I didn't even go in the garage until days later.

Take care of your eyes my friends, we only have two, for life!

[wcc]

I put in about 2gallons of windshield washer fluid. I was thinking WOW this thing holds a lot! Then as I was going for the third gallon I saw this river flowing down the driveway. Then I noticed the hose was unhooked at the very front of the car. Oh well.

[JV911SYDNEY]

Originally Posted by gunlover05

I have to imagine all of us make mistakes when working on our car. What are your blunders?

yeas ago i had a holden (isuzu) gemini. HOT engine...stroker crank, 13:1 compression, ported head, twin webbers, avgas etc etc etc.

anyway one day i bought some longer intake trumpets/stacks for the webers and aparently i neglected to tighten all the bolts tightly. while driving one of the bolts worked itself loose and found its way into the intake manifold and into the combustion chamber!!!

smashed a piston, gouged a hole in the cylinder wall and destroyed the head

[oceanvue]

Here's on from the factory. On a '82 928 I used to have I was having the brake master cylinder replaced and the mechanic get's deep into the back of the engine bay into an area that had never been touched by human hands since it left the Germany and pulls out a German made hammer that he swore had been wedged in there since it left the factory.

[01sport]

Just last night. I go over to my father in law's and he's hooking up a battery charger to his car. I offer to help. He's had a new battery for 3 weeks but hasn't put it in. So I put the new battery in while he holds the flashlight. Go to start it and nothing. WTF! it's only 2 wires! Pull the wires off so I can measure with meter and found that I'd left the black plastic cap on the negative terminal.

[Rich Lambert]

I had just finished putting my 912 race motor back together, including plumbing in a remote filter and an external cooler. The filter I used was a Fram HP1, which is a really heavy duty unit. I had it mounted on the right side of the engine bay and it was kind of obstructing access to the #1 plug, so I went shopping for a filter and found one with the same mounting threads and a smaller profile. I screwed it in, started the cold motor, and BAM!...blew the top right off the filter. It's truly amazing how much oil can come out of an engine in a relatively short amount of time. Did I mention everything, like the newly painted engine tin, fan housing, etc.. was spotless prior to this? What a frickin' mess.

Shortly after the oil filter debacle I took the car down to SIR for a PCA track day suspension adjustment shakedown prior to the first SOVREN race of the season. The car was running better than ever...5 seconds a lap faster than the previous year and I was in heaven. I found a 914 to play with and we were having a blast. Suddenly the 914 has backed way off and his wipers are on. Then my car starts smoking bad and I'm thinking, wow, that was a short race season. I pull into the pits, open the hood and there's oil everywhere...again. I looked for the source, but there's so much oil I can't figure out what's leaking. So, day's over and on to the trailer. The 914 was pretty oily too. After I got home, I was wiping the oil off the engine tin on the right side of the motor when I feel something scaping under the rag...one of the screws that holds the engine tin on had backed out. Those screws thread into the heads and the screw holes go all the way through to the valve spring area. Loctite is your friend.

[Laneco]

When Steve and I put the 3.2 into his 80 cabby, we were unable to get the starter to engage. Everthing "should" have been good, bought the whole drive train from a very very reputable guy. Pulled the starter, had it checked - all good. Put another old lay-around starter in - no go. Pulled the known good starter from the spyder and stuffed it in - no go... ????

Stuck a flashlight in the hole and realized that we had not put the starter ring gear on after we had installed the fresh clutch...

DOH!
angela

[cgarr]

Originally Posted by Rich Lambert

I used was a Fram HP1, which is a really heavy duty unit. I had it mounted on the right side of the engine bay and it was kind of obstructing access to the #1 plug, so I went shopping for a filter and found one with the same mounting threads and a smaller profile. I screwed it in, started the cold motor, and BAM!...blew the top right off the filter.

What filter did you end up using? I am using the Canton filters with replacement elements.

[Superman]

That's nuthin'. I drove down the street after putting a wheel on my car and not installing the lug nuts at all. I made it about fifty feet, and the wheel came off. Driver's side rear. On the 911.

That's just one example. If I confessed them all, you guys would ask Wayne to ban me from the Board.

[gregg911]

This is one of the funniest threads ever!!

[dickepoohp]

As I enter my "golden age" I am a lousy mechanic, but nowhere NEAR the oaf I was as a young teen.
Lacking any 'wheels', best buddy and I elected to construct a moving vehicle fromassorted free parts. Our goal was to combine a 1946 Ford 4 door, a 50s era Studebaker v-8, and a Ford truck rear end..40s vintage.
We managed to get the engine in and running, final job was to reassemble the differential, when we discovered the truck diff had two holes, one directly on TOP and another (obviously to "check the level")..slapped it all together...running smoothly!! eased into reverse, e a s e d the clutch..and inched FORWARD.
Pushed it off rack and into parking lot and discovered we had three reverse speeds and one forward.
Later was kindly informed by a real wrench that we had turned the differential (pumpkin)upside down when assembling. (The TOP hole turned out to be the drain the other part way down now instead of up was intended for filling.

The same month, after purchasing a nifty 1940 Chevy Master coupe, ($75) on the way home it commenced a terrific shaking/grinding/bucking. It crunched and limped home amid awful crunching going on...obviously I had trashed the transmission.
WALKED to nearby junkyard, and bought a Chev 3 speed which the owner kindly sent WITH the U-joint...$10. Carried it home on my shoulder with an unpleasant streak of oil down my 'rear deck'

I put my bumper jack on, jacked it up, pulled the seats, and floorboards dug intothe old torque tube undid the U-joint bolts and eased the torque tube to the ground.
Pulled the ransmission and peered inside. Oily. Smelly. BUT apparently complete with all it's teeth. Then I found that the problem had been the disintegration of the U-joint with all it's needle bearings wedged into the torque tube ball like covering over the U-joint.
$10 hard earned bucks WASTED on a transmission!
Cleaned out the old junk, lifted the joint from the donor trannie, got to the point to re-bolt the U-joint andfound the faces were badly misaligned..when one side touched the other was 3/4" apart.
Mashed the floor starter, which turned it over and the OTHER faces were gaping.
I had obviously BENT the driveshaft when I set it to the ground.
I fought it.
I tried longer bolts hoping to squeeze the gap.
Two days.
My NEW car now worthless. My bank depleted.
In total frustration, I kicked the bumper jack off the front....................and the joint now majically aligned.
I had just twisted the whole rust induced Swiss cheese-like frame by lifting one side (Hey, it was a 40 Chevy.)
Reached down, put all four bolts in two fingered.
Sold "old" trannie to same junk guy for $4.
Try THAT budget on a 911.

[Rich Lambert]

Originally Posted by cgarr

What filter did you end up using? I am using the Canton filters with replacement elements.

I stayed with the HP1 and just worked around it. Never had another problem.

[TechnoViking]

I installed a carrera oil cooler in my SC. There were two little "thread protector" plastic thingies stuck in what I thought were mounting holes.

Since I used my own bracket, I just left the plastic thingies where they were and took her for a test drive. Turns out one of the plastic thingies was covering a hole for a fan sensor that goes all the way into the cooler.

When my thermostat opened, the plastic thingie popped out and I dumped 12 quarts of Mobile 1 on the street.

Just one of many, many stupid things.

[SCrescue]

I'm sure I'm not the first to commit this error....or the last probably....first time ever draining the oil from the 911...after removing the sump plug, it suddenly occurred to me as I watched the unrelenting flow of oil that I didn't have nearly enough drain pan under it....by the time I ran (and I do mean RAN) to get another pan, oil was already cresting the lip and spreading across the floor....

I vaguely remember thinking "its a dry sump, how much oil could be in there?".....before I pulled the drain plug.....

[teenerted1]

just ask Drago about the transmission lines I twisted on his old Dodge. he brought it up again this weekend.

righty tighty lefty loosy even works when you are under and American truck and turning nuts you can't see.

[Super_Dave_D]

Back in 1986 - had to take a early trip in my POS 77 924 so I decided to check the oil when I filled it up. About 30 minutes into the trip I look in my rear view mirror and im trailing smooke like a wounded B-17. I pull over and see that the cap was still on the shock tower - right when I left it!! Oil EVERYWHERE! To this day I am paranoid about leaving the oil cap off.

[TerryH]

Many moons ago, I dropped an oily ~15 lb starter out of my '70 Mach1 and onto my face. It likely fell less than a foot, but with the back of my head firmly pressed against concrete, there wasn't much give. It didn't knock me out, but it was the closest I've ever come to it as I literally saw stars. Fortunately, there were no witnesses and I didn't lose any teeth.

[oldE]

I watched a friend do this: 67 Chevy II, my friend wanted wider rims & tires on the back, so installed 'chrome reverse' rims and nice fat tires. When he removed the jack, there was, as you can imagine a 'slight clearance problem' with the fenders.
In a moment of inspiration, he jacked the car back up again until he had clearance and installed exhaust clamps on the tube shocks so they supported the rear of the car!!!
I refused to get in it until the clamps were removed and the thing actually had suspension travel once again. He said it handled 'kind of funny'.

Les

[eR1c]

This was about 20 years ago when I was in high school. A buddy and I were entering our cars in a local car show. We had early model Ford Capri's that we had tricked out (mine had a mustang 5.0 engine my dad and I swapped into it). Anyway can't remember whose idea it was, but we got a little carried away w/ the Armor All and instead of leaving it on the tires, we began spraying our entire cars with the stuff. We thought it gave our cars a nice shine. By the time we got to the car show we had all kinds of dust and grime that had stuck to our greasy cars. Imagine vaseline all over your car.. what a mess. It took weeks to get that crap off the paint. -Even after continuos washing.