I've had some that were so unpleasant that I've completely blocked them out of my mind but this one stays with me, probably because I was proud to pull it off. I was traveling from Los Angeles to MN in the summer of 1994 in my very clean 1961 Ford F100 unibody PU truck w/ 292 V-8 and 3-on-the-tree. Just myself and my dog. I like to say that I'm the only person in America who completely missed the OJ Simpson Bronco chase because I was on the road not listening to the radio and of course no smart phones in those days.
I made a stopover in Santa Fe, NM to do some work on a house/ranch that belonged to a Hollywood TV producer, Steven Bochco. He had just got done renting it out to one of the studios for Kevin Costner to use while filming Wyatt Earp. He normally would never have rented out his prized NM home, (being filthy rich himself), but Costner wanted it and they made him, "an offer he could not refuse."
None of this has much to do with the auto repair but it's a story.
They had an open checkbook to fix anything that KC scratched or broke in the way of a huge security deposit and they only wanted me to do it, they were private people and did not want anyone else in their beloved cabin. They offered to fly my dog and me out there on their private jet but I was driving to MN anyway and lost out on that.
I was their guest and when I arrived, they breathlessly told me about the OJ chase. They could not believe that I was in the dark on that...literally everyone on earth saw it. I remember that Steven said that absolutely nothing got done in his office that day...everyone was glued to the TV.
Sorry...got sidetracked there reminiscing. Everything went fine on that leg of the trip until my old F100 sprung the mother of all oil leaks...rear main seal completely gave out and just started gushing out oil. Thank god they had a dirt and gravel driveway/roundabout. Remind me to tell you guys some time about the time one of my workers left a small pallet of white oil-based primer on another Hollywood big wheel's slate driveway in Pacific Palisades and someone ran over it. Good times!
Anyhow, I had a toolbox with me and we were pretty far outside of actual Santa Fe, up north in Powaukee(?) I set out to fix the leak. First, I dropped the 3-speed manual transmission and removed the clutch and flywheel. This is where it gets fun...it was a rope seal, not a simple plastic round one that you tap in.
Soooo, I dropped the oil pan and started scratching my head. The bottom half that goes on the pan is easy but how am I going to replace the half that goes above the crankshaft into the block?? I proceeded to loosen all of the main bearings a lot and of course I could not budge the crankshaft one millimeter from the block, all of the pistons and rods were holding it up. Now I was really into this repair balls deep and running out of options, no one else around except a billionaire and his wife who were nice as hell but probably did not have any helpful advice. I never asked.
Well, necessity being the mother of all invention, just like Bill in the jungle a few posts back, a lightbulb went off in my head. I disconnected the coil wire so that the SOB wouldn't start and bumped the starter with all of the main bolts backed off 1/2". Kids, don't try this at home but fk me running...the crank dropped down onto the mains and I was able to get the old rope seal out and snake the new one up into place. I then carefully and gradually tightened to main bolts to draw the crankshaft back up into the block, buttoned everything up and prayed to a god that I only partially believe in that it would be ok.
Reinstalled the flywheel/clutch/trans and drove it the last 1000 miles to MN and all over the midwest that summer with zero problems and zero leaks. I need a nap after just telling this story.