Admit your most embarrasing wrenching blunders - here is mine
 

I have to imagine all of us make mistakes when working on our car. What are your blunders? Here is my recent blunder. I completely rebuilt my suspension over christmas - a major project to say the least...here is my thread about it.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/384596-just-finished-my-complete-suspension-rebuild-i-m-impressed.html

I've driven the car several times since, and amazed at how well it performs on the street...first AX is next weekend.

One thing I did notice was my car understeered a bit now when pushed hard. Didn't think a lot of it, until yesterday. I was retweaking my tie rod arms yesterday, since my steering wheel was off-center from previous toe adjustment, and I noticed my stock sway arm didn't look like it fit right in the bushing on the a-arm...after looking at some other pictures this morning - CRAP, i had installed the front swaybar completely backwards! UGGH!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202664502.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202664645.jpg

So this morning, i jacked the car up in the front, dropped one of the a-arms, and had it all back together correctly in 1.5 hours.. I don't see how anyone can remove and install the front sway without dropping an arm. After fixing my blunder, i took it for a spin and i believe the understeer is pretty much gone...i think the sway bar installed upside down was "stiffer", than the correct way.

Anyhow, this is my latest "blunder" - I felt like a moron this morning.

Yeah, sounds like the bar may have been binding.

Got a few hours? Enjoy:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/131836-admit-your-stupidity.html

dropping the a arms wasn't really necessary. moot point of course. undo the center clamps, lube bushings liberally with silicone spray, force the bar further through one outer bushing until it comes out of the other, and install the same way.

This reminds me.....We had a customer come in the dealership (Chevy) with a knocking noise in the front end of his new Suburban. We put it in the air and the front swaybar was reversed. Then we noticed the galvanized plumbing pipe from the cat back to the mufflers (I kid you not). It had the frame replaced too and then he told us it had been in an accident...after I tried to get Chevrolet to pay for the fix.

What's a wrench?

Actually EVERY project I do is embarrassing.

= Mechanic

My wife kept me company during an oil change....brought some lunch to the garage and hung out. Upon refilling with my 3rd quart of oil, my wife said, "What's dripping?" Of course, the dripping was the absence of drain plugs. After about an hour, I had the floor cleaned to an acceptable level. This time, with drain plugs in, my elbow hit the extra large funnel that I was using to fill the oil tandk and 3/4 of a quart of clean oil now covered the top of the engine. That was clean up took about 4 hours. I was actually glad that my wife was present......I blamed the whole thing on her for somehow diverting my attention from the task at hand. She didn't go for it, but I gave it a shot.

Steve

Well the worst part of this is i am a mechanic (shop foreman).
After over filling my porsche and filling my airbox with oil,i cleaned the motor up with engine degresser.Then i reached through the window to start the car .About that time i realized they can start in gear.So to make along story short, off goes the car in reverse into the front of my lowered pickup.

lucky the truck was lowered so there was no damage to either one, other then a small nick in one bumperet.


So how's that for stupid.:o

Reposted from this thread...
admit to your stupidity


I’m 17 and I are a self edgimacated auto mickey-nick.
I'm working on the finishing touches of the new engine in my car and when I try to start it, it burbles and never quite catches.

I realize that the engine is flooded. I fail to think about why it would flood. (Turns out that you need to put the distributor in the car correctly to burn the fuel that goes in.) The short term problem is that the engine is obviously flooded. So how do you dry out the intake?

I know!!! It's gasoline! Lets burn it out! (Surprisingly this in itself works well and doesn't cause a problem!)

A brief application of the propane torch and the carburetor is burning nicely. After a minute I try to start the engine and it seems like it nearly was going to start. Re-light the carburetor so I can give it another try. After doing this a few times I realize it isn't drying out the intake fast enough for me. There isn't any fresh air getting down into the intake to burn off the gas down there! I can fix that!

I hold the throttle of the 4-barrel wide open and blow down into one of the venturis and sure enough it mixes really well with the gas and burns it off...

... as the blow torch like flame proves when it blows up out of the opposite venturi and removes part of one eyebrow and just a little bit of the hair on the side of my head.http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/...amingdevil.gif

It is funny but it was at this point that I asked a couple people for some guidance.

this is more of a funny moment.......i posted this a few years ago after someone asked how to remove wheel bearing races:

if you heat the hubs in the oven, make sure you clean them very, very well with degreaser and/or brake cleaner. if the hubs are not very, very clean, your house will smell like a meth lab, and your next few meals may taste like porsche-meat.

trust me on this one.............

i cleaned mine like a surgical instrument, then warmed them in the oven when my ex-wife had gone to the mall. (uh......some projects just can't be explained to a woman). when she got home, all she asked was why i had used the oven. i just smiled !

Old honda Goldwings are ALL about carbs and often the years have gummed them up pretty good what with rusty gas tanks and all that sitting over the winter ect.
I had acquired a rare aftermarket aluminum intake manifold for a single Holley carb conversion and couldn't wait to try it. I had the installation complete and started and ran the bike for a while but it kept running worse and worse fouling plugs and running rough. Tried hotter plugs and various carb tuning tweeks. Still nothing.
Took the top off the carb finally and uhg! SO much debris and junk in the bowls.
I had installed the old in-line fuel filter backwards.
yeah.

I was replacing my injectors and broke the head off of an old fuel injector trying to remove it. The rest of the injector slipped down into the combustion chamber.
I stood there for a while and then had the brilliant idea of starting the engine and trying to use the compression to blow it back out. Didn't work.
Then I use a retractable magnet. Didn't work.
Then i took took out the spark plug and tried to go at it that way and pull it out. That didn't work.
After trying these types of approaches for two days, I was just about to remove the manifold and go at it that way and figured I would give the magnet one more try.
I felt something click and slowly pulled on the magnet, the injector must of caught the magnet just perfectly and it pulled right out.
I got lucky.

Moral of the story, Jim Beam and auto mechanics don't mix.

Sorta mechanical related: Building a 2nd-story loft inside my shop using 2 x 10's for the floor joists. Too lazy to move my dent-free '74 455 T/A outside. I kinda eye-balled how much room I had for the cut-off lumber to fall and determined there was plenty of room between where the wood would hit the floor and where the T/A was sitting. So, cut-off the end of the first joist, a 2' long piece of 2 x 10 starts falling toward the target area, hits the concrete floor, BOUNCES and whacks the fender of the T/A leaving a nice dent in a previously un-dented car. http://www.rockverap.com/forum/style...t/banghead.gif

http://home.earthlink.net/~rolexwatc...s/framing8.jpg

I think my first blunder was many many years ago, pre P-car ownership. I was at an SCCA AX with my Pontiac Fiero (don't laugh, it was all I could afford at the time). I was getting ready to change to my AX tires, when I realized I forgot to pack my breaker bar. Being young an stupid, I decided to use a regular ratchet. The first couple of lug nuts came off with no issues, then a particularly stubborn one was my down fall. I was leaning on it with with hands on the handle and all of my weight when it broke and I went face first into the fender of the car. Thank God it was plastic and gave some when I hit it.

After sitting down for awhile waiting for the pain and cobwebs to clear, I went and borrowed some tools. Needless to say, it was not my best day of driving. Anyone have an aspirin. :)

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D Good one!

OK, I wasn't going to admit this, but we're among friends here. After installing the back-up camera on my car, I backed into the wife's SUV (was not paying attention!) :mad: Guess I need back-up sensors too! Small split in the bumperette after hitting the SUV tire/rim - no damage to either car

I just finished replacing the muffler on a 74 bug and when I was packing up my tools I spotted a bag of new exhaust gaskets that came with the muffler.

Doh !!

Ok...here's mine. I once helped my brother take his front coil springs out of his 69 Mustang Mach 1. I used the wrong type of coil spring compressor and and had it compressed too much on one side. When I pulled it out of the wheel-well, the damned thing bound upped on one side (like a Slinky going down the stairs)....my index finger got mashed by the spring on the tip. Another 1/2" down and I probably would have lost the tip of my finger. Genius huh?:eek:

Don't get me started about stuff I've done around the house.....

Ive been stupid enough to forget to secure the tool box in the race trailer, twice. I love the game lets pick up the sockets and screwdrivers for a hour. The second time the tool box broke in 1/2 :( Im lucky I didnt damage the car.

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.

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. :rolleyes:

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

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. :eek: Then I noticed the hose was unhooked at the very front of the car. Oh well.

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
:(

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.

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.

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.

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... http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...s/a_frusty.gif

DOH!
angela

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

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.

This is one of the funniest threads ever!!

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.

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

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.

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....:eek:

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

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.

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.

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. :D

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

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.