Have you ever did anything stupid/dumb while working on your car?

When I was doing my H/C I didn't tight up the ground wire in the back of the drivers side head. So the car keeped on shutting off on me on the way to Vette Doc's in Long Island to get tuned.

Eventually, half-way there the car just shut down and would not start. Had to get a Flatbed Tow for 45 miles ($260) and rent a car for 3 days ($230) on top of that it was ($300) for Vette Doc's to figure out whats wrong with the car and ($100) for a dyno tune.

3 days later on the way back after tunning, my car started to overhead and started to leak cooler in the back of the passenger side head. apperently one of the back bolts on the head was not tight enough and the head gasket blew. ($30) for a head gasket and ($40) for brand new head bolts.


Talk about no luck when doing major engine work on my car for the first time. :thumbdn:

caught myself on fire with my car, coffee can of gas, and my 84 monte, put gas in carb tried to start then repeated but a little spark poof i went the carb on fire my fender and me, my dad was working on a car next to me he jumped up, got the ext, put me then the car out and walked away not one word, after i got done working on the car. approx. 2 hours he looked at me and said " you learn you lesson", and "i bet you won't do that again" it's a joke now but i am lucky i didn't get more gas on me. :lol:

I tightened down my valve cover, and didn't notice the damn engine grounding strap was between the gasket and the head. Pretty damn big mess!

When I was 16, working on my first car, I changed the oil without putting the drain plug back in...........well 5 qts went on the garage floor. I never did that again

i cant remember all the stupid shit i have done:lol:

i'm just staying out of this....

i was helping my buddy put a set of Pacesetter longtubes on his Silverado and i was underneath helping guide them in. i slid a jackstand closeby on the frame to keep the truck from crushing me just to be safe. what i didnt realize was it was under the oil pan and as soon as i slid out from under the truck my buddy slammed the truck back to the ground but i forgot to move the jackstand so i put a quarter sized hole in the pan. :nono: couldve been worse i guess :dunno:

Doing my cam swap and we had the lifters locked with magnets on them. Then my buddy said let me get over here and hold my magnets and about that time I was on the last cam bearing of having my cam in and I heard a lifter fall. So I had to finish putting it in and round up LS1 parts on a Saturday since this was my daily driver. Spent all day Sat rounding up Head bolts, head gasket, oil pump, and timing chain. Well what went from a $500 cam swap went to a $1000 cam swap and about 24 more hours into it. Well I learned a lot and spent a lot.

I could write a novel with all the stupid shit I pulled. The one that sticks out in my mind the most though.... When I was 16 I put a new set of airshocks on my 76 t/a. Took it out for a test drive all jacked up in the rear with some big ass racing slicks. Drove by this girls house that I really like at the time, she lived about 10 miles from my house. As soon as I got right in front of her house the whole car started vibrating then just dropped on the drivers side rear. I slammed on the brakes thinking SHIT the airshock busted. Look out the window and there goes my rear tire down the road. To this day I still overtighten all my lugnuts in fear of losing another wheel.

Kept putting off fixing my hood latch because it was becoming hard to close the hood it would not latch on.

Driving down the road at 40mph WAM!!! hood is on the windshield im like fucking chris farley looking out the side window trying to get off the damn road.

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Originally Posted by Bigrus

Kept putting off fixing my hood latch because it was becoming hard to close the hood it would not latch on.

Driving down the road at 40mph WAM!!! hood is on the windshield im like fucking chris farley looking out the side window trying to get off the damn road.

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good stuff.:yup: :Popcorn:

God That Would Suck !!!!!

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Originally Posted by dipherentdesign

God That Would Suck !!!!!

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New hood: 500$

New windshield: 270$

Knowing you can scream like a girl while swerving over three lanes to get off the road......PRICELESS

I was adding some insulation sleeves to my fuel lines (they run to close to the headers). I figured I didn't need to disconnect the battery for this work. The sleeves were bunching up and I could see why from the top. Put the car up on jack stands got under it. Still couldn't see. The starter was in the way. Got my handy 3/8" ratchet wrench out, went to remove starter... BLAM! No permanent harm to me or anything else, but nearly crapped my pants.

Maybe not the dumbest thing I've done, but fresh on my mind as it was just this past week.

john

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Originally Posted by john

I was adding some insulation sleeves to my fuel lines (they run to close to the headers). I figured I didn't need to disconnect the battery for this work. The sleeves were bunching up and I could see why from the top. Put the car up on jack stands got under it. Still couldn't see. The starter was in the way. Got my handy 3/8" ratchet wrench out, went to remove starter... BLAM! No permanent harm to me or anything else, but nearly crapped my pants.

Maybe not the dumbest thing I've done, but fresh on my mind as it was just this past week.

john

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John, you just reminded me of another thing : a couple of weeks ago, I changed those wonderful plugs, and as I was going for #6, I thought I had the socket on the plug and let go of it and dropped it on top of the starter. Boy was that fun to get out, I thought I was going to have to drop the starter!

The shorty plug wrench gets javel'n down the street along with all possible expletives at 140 decibals when trying to change the last 2 spark plugs.

:notworthy:

snapped a sparkplug while it was still in the engine... ARGH!!!

lol, installed an amp power wire once and thought "eh, I can just put the fuse and grommets in later I just wanna hear it already". . .well later turned into never. firewall ate through the wire and lit up the underside of my hood. The wire ran across the fuel lines on the drivers side and melted all three. . .lit it up even more. popped the hood and allllmost opened it, then figured out air would be a bad thing to give it at the time, so I walked away and hoped it would just smother itself with the hood closed. Luckily it did. Had a 3/8 channel melted all the way around the side across the fan shroud and around the side of the battery. Between my new channel and the fuel lines I got out lucky, I was a jackass for leaving it that way and deserved worse I guess, but I learned my lesson

oh, made contact with a moving radiator fan once too. Due to the way it spins though it won't cut you from the underhood side. . .wheeeeew, I was scured

1. replaced the exhaust valve guides on a 52 Plymouth Cranbrook

http://www.rv-busconversions.com/cla...2cranbrook.jpg

straight 6 upside down, not knowing the intakes go in one way an the exhausts go the opposite. But what was cool was it didn't matter performance-wise. Lots of torque on those old sixes but not much high end.

2. Got drunk rebuilding my brakes (shared a sixer of Carlsberg Elephant Malt liquor with a friend at his house so I could use his tools) on a...get this... a 1964 Datsun 410.

http://www.ratdat.com/history/1959to...963_410_dx.jpg

The result of this was while driving home from by buddy's, the brakes failed, :eek: I went thru a red light and hit a couple of fags riding on a motorcycle. It was a good thing they were drunk b/c they survived the accident with no major injuries. I don't know how that happened, but the insurance adjuster who interviewed them gave me the whole story.

Seems they had just left a gay bar, :beer: completely hammered, and the guy on the back was leaning way over, from side to side, trying to get their bike to fall over. They must have been wasted. Well, they didn't need to fall over, they just timed the green light as they approached the intersection and slammed into my right front fender as my little bright orange Datsun was sailing thru the red.

I then carromed off an oncoming vw bug that had actually stopped at the red I couldn't, and then coasted about a block down the street, stopping in front of a school by sliding up against the curb letting it do my braking. Left a big black skidmark on the curb for about 20-30 feet. When the cops asked me why I stopped so far away I said I couldn't find a parking place. I didn't say anything about my brakes, and they never found out. Those guys never did sue me for anything (I think they were afriad to, since while in the ER they prolly had their BA level tested), but the VW owner sued me for $650 in small claims court and won.

I'll never drink and work on brakes again...:no:

:lmao:

I thought I could rebuild a T-56.........
Turns out I can't

Here's a real Dumb Ass move for ya! :brick: . . . .Wasn't my car. . .which makes the screw-up even worse! :wwf:

About 22 years ago I worked on a friends car that was blowing white smoke out of the exhaust really bad! After a full day of checking everything we could we finally were faced with possibility of a blown head gasket.:thinkin: He hadn't changed the coolant or oil in a long time so it looked like coolant contamination. So.. after shelling out $900 on manufactured Longblock (Ford V6), meticulous cleaning of parts and careful re-build, we fired it up! Purred like a kitten for about 5 minutes,:woot2: then billowing white smoke starts pouring out of the exhaust again. :Ohno:

You guessed it! It was a Friggin blown Vacuum Modulator for the transmission the whole time! :sillyme: :brick2: :spank2:
:wall:

which was causing white smoke from the exhaust? how did that happen?

Most recent I can remember...

Stock valley cover bolts with a FAST intake. I even reminded myself to change them to the ones FAST provides. I didn't.

That would take to long.

I was helping a friend put a body lift on his Ford F250 4x4 and you had to modify the tranny linkage....so I am under there working in on it and just as I tighten a bolt...click, click....into nuetral it goes! I manage to dodge the back tire as the truck starts rolling out of the driveway and it goes across the street and slams into a parked truck...MY parked truck! Needed a new fender and headlight on my truck and it didn't do shit to his truck.:slap:

These are great! Keep’em coming!:Popcorn:

anytime you see white smoke from an old ford replace the vaccum mod. been there done that really pissed me off!

When I was about 14 I changed the oil in my pops truck without putting the drain bolt back in, that was a messy clean up job. and my worst is when I built my 355 for my Z28 I was in such a hurry to hear my first creation fire up that I forgot to put a oil filter on it haha.... no harm done, just lots of cleaning up

How about something from the 'Ricer Lore'?

How many HP will the (ghey) sticker pack get me at the rear wheels???

about 2 weeks ago I had to replace my water pump... first water pump ive done.. and first car ive worked on... I have replaced other things on it such as rack n pinion and some lines.. but... something new... dont know what your doing.. well i got the thing out.. and i clean it off... look at it... and see that its just bolt on by four bolts.. its easy... a stooge can do this... right? Well i put the new gaskets on with the pump.. put everything back.. im like sweet... so i start the car.. its running.. but i dont let it run to test if it overheats... i start just cleaning my mess.. well... what do i find while cleaning? the little piece that connects the pump to the engine and spins it... it fell off when i was moving the pump! FUCK... had to get two new gaskets and start over.

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Originally Posted by Motrv8d Steve

which was causing white smoke from the exhaust? how did that happen?

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Over time the rubber vacuum diaphragm inside the modulator deteriorates and ruptures, allowing the vacuum to suck tranny fluid up into the intake via the vacuum hose. Fluid get ingested by engine, spews white smoke!

I think all of us have probably done something that wasn't too bright, especially when you are learning about cars and young and dumb. When I was 16, I had an old 60 SS Impala (slow as shit). Going down the road it started missing. I jumped out, engine still running, popped the hood to see what was up. Noticed a plug wire off the plug, grabbed it and immediately found myself about ten feet away from the car, sitting on my ass, arm hurting like it had been yanked off. Never made that mistake again.

The funniest thing I saw though was similar to the first thread, guy that worked up at the local grocery had an old Corvair, put a 427 block in the front of the damn thing. Sat in the very back seat of the car because the engine ate up the front trunk area. Anyway, he couldn't get the car started and put some gas down the carberator while another guy turned it over. Shit backfired out of the carb, started a fire and burned the thing to the ground right there in the parking lot. Laughed my ass off.

I always hit the positive with the negative battery terminal when removing my battery.
Also doing a 1/8 mile run with the hood open.

Opened the radiator cap on what I thought was a cooled down radiator. Got a face full of hot coolant and a trip to the ER! Needless to say, the nights plans were ruined!

I took my hood off by the bolts on the hood instead of by the fender so now my hood is going to be a PITA to line back up :mad: :brick:

I knew a guy who was changing a tranny out of his truck... by himself

needless to say he's on workmen's comp now

as the transmission fell on top of him :lol:

Well I've officially made my first stupid move.. I had just finished cleaning my car really well, and I went to put up my hood, not realizing I left the wipers up. Yeah.. I'm replacing my windshield Tuesday. :hide:

When I was 17 I was trying to change a tire on my Z and didnt have jack stands, but we had a big rock in front of the house. The rear axle slid on the rock and almost crushed me, I almost made some brownies in my pants! Rocks suck for jackstands...

When I was 17 I was trying to change a tire on my Z and didnt have jack stands, but we had a big rock in front of the house. The rear axle slid on the rock and almost crushed me, I came damn close to making some brownies in my pants! Rocks suck for jackstands...

ok, now that' was REALLY dumb right there....GEEZ!

The latest stupid thing was when I was doing the clutch on the Z28 the last time. Since the weather was bad, I had the car in the garage with the door shut and up high on stands. I lowered the front of the car without opening the door and it wedged my rear bumper into a metal hinge on the garage door. Stupid.

One of my favorite stories that you run into on the diesel truck forums is the number of times that guys have drained the oil for the first time and not realized that the drain container they used was something like half the capacity of the oil pan.

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Originally Posted by GM Man

When I was 17 I was trying to change a tire on my Z and didnt have jack stands, but we had a big rock in front of the house. The rear axle slid on the rock and almost crushed me, I came damn close to making some brownies in my pants! Rocks suck for jackstands...

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wow that is really dumb.

Torqued the crutch sleve down too hard when doing a gear swap and couldn't figure out why my rear end moved so hard in neutral... car sat for a weekend before i realized what i did after going over the backlash ect... also got a nice 4" scar out of it on my back cutting myself on one of the wheel studs when i changed the axel.