Ok,I'm sure most of you have seen these in CarCraft,so I thought maybe we should share some of our own with each other,so here is mine...The year is 1993 and I have just traded an Olds 455 motor straight across for a 72' Skylark 2 dr post.Mine son was 2 and a half years old and was outside with me and my youngest cousin while we are checking out a 76' Camaro I had to see if the engine was as hosed as I feared it was.I'm hooking up a pair of jumper cables to the Camaro and my son was in the front seat of the Skylark(with it running)and my cousin is in the Camaro.I drop the cables to the ground so I can open the hood ,and when I reach down to pick up the cables,I notice the bumper of the Skylark slowly coming towards me.Before I could even get "Oh,sh&% out of my mouth the Skylark has me pinned in between it's bumper and the Camaro's.Mind you this is while I'm squating down so it has me pinned at the ribs and I can feel my rib cage being pressed forward from the sides and cannot breath,feeling like I was literally having the life crushed out of me.My cousin finally realizes what has happened and gets out of the Camaro and comes to the side of the car that I'm pinned in between.It takes him a second to realize what is happening and it finally kicked in.My son had accidently put the Skylark in gear.My arms were at my sides when I was pinned and the only thing that saved my butt was the fact his little legs could not reach the gas pedal.So my cousin finally gets a clue and jumps in and puts the Skylark in reverse,releasing the cars death grip on me.It felt like some huge giant had a death grip around my chest and suddenly let go,as I could feel my rib cage go back to it's normal shape.Needless to say I was more than a little tender for a couple weeks but luckily nothing was broken.The moral of this story...Don't take it for granted that just because they're that small doesn't mean they can't put a car in drive.You know those shifter levers are nice and shiny and fun to pull on. Next... ou:
Well, I can't top your story but the stupidist mistake I made while working on my Buick was not disconnecting the battery when replaceing the water pump. I know what you are thinking, they don't have anything to do with each other so why undo the battery. Well, when I loosened all the belts and slid the alternator to relieve some tension the post on the rear touched the intake manifold and shorted the wire going from it to the starter. It quickly turned those wires into molten metal. Luckily I had a battery quick disconnect and it prevented anything else from burning up. That post had a rubber cover on it but it had fallen apart and cracked with age. Moral of the story: At the very least have a battery quick disconnect.
You guys trying to tell me , only two of us have ever goofed the whole time you've worked on cars?Yeah, right.And monkeys might fly outta my butt!:grin:
i don't have any of those long, in-depth stories...just a collection of dumb mustakes and oversights. most recently was hoisting an engine up and forgetting that we didn't brace the tranny first. it stopped short of hitting the ground becuase driveshaft came up and whacked the floorboard.ou:
In 1996 while prepping a '72 Chevelle SS for a show I decided that new mufflers and tailpipes were in order. With the car up on stands I was trying to remove one old muffler and it would not seperate from the pipe. My solution - use a bigger hammer! While pounding away at the muffler I knock the car off the stands right on top of me. Lucky for me the only point of contact was the frame across my stomach. I was under the car for almost 25 minutes before someone finally realized that there was an awfull amount of yelling coming from under the car. That was the last time I ever worked under any vehicle on four jackstands. ou:
This is hard to admit. I was doing a rear main seal on a Pontiac Tempest w/326 & Auto Trans. Pulled the engine, pulled the old seal, installed the new one and dropped the engine back in the car. Overall, with nights and a couple of weekends, about two weeks. (Not in a hurry to get it done.) Anyway, everything is reconnected and I hit the key and nothing happened. Dash lights went out, but no starter whine, no clicking of the solenoid, no smoke, nothing. After playing with the stupid car for another week, and telling my buddy his car was 'almost ready' to go, I was sitting in the drivers seat, thinking about all of the things I had done that could have affected the starter circuit. I had already taken the starter out and reinstalled it four or five times, had the starter and the solenoid checked by two different shops and just generally went through most every wire in the front of the car. My 2 year old daughter wandered out to see what I was doing and as she climbed up into the passenger seat, her shorts hung up on the floor shift. That's when I realized some idiot (guess who) had put it Drive!! And left it there! I slowly put the car in park, checked one last time to ensure no tools were going to get a flying lesson and hit the key. Imagine my surprise when it fired right up. Stupid car didn't even leak anymore......
been there, done that. i once thought my car broke down at a gas station before realizing i had pulled the handbrake but not put it in park.
After rebuilding the engine of my '72 Chevy C10 (wish I had never gotten rid of it) and installing it back into the truck and tightening every thing up, we found (2) 3/8-16 X 2" bolts left over. We had a hell of a time trying to figure out where in the world those two bolts could have gone. We finally figured out that we had been up entirely too long when we realized that they were the bolt that we used to lift the motor up with the hoist using the manifold mounting holes.ou: We decided we sould go to bed and fire it over in the morning after another check, just to make sure we did nothing else that stupid.:TU:
my first 'car' was a 62 chevy II when i was 16. i had decide to do the brakes [my very first brake job] and when i finished jacking the car down, i went to start her up and drive off for my first test drive. the car wouldnt move! i didnt have the drums too tight, i had forgotten to take out the blocks on the tires. but i stormed around the car trying to figure out the problem for about half an hour. my parents still wont let me live that one down. i have a story for about every car i've ever owned including several near-death experiences but it is always the first that makes an impact.
not a car story but While most of my stupid car stories are tame, I have a good one about a skid steer (Bob Cat) I was driving (well at least this is vehicle related). A contactor was doing some work at my house and had a skid steer (small front loader) parked behind the house. I needed to do some road work on my lane and asked if I could borrow it, he said sure! I did my work and was returning to the house to park it. Now to get to the back of the house you have to go up a steep hill next to the driveway....For those who don't know the skid steers are counter balanced in the back to balance any weight in the bucket. Up the hill I go until the front lifts up in the air! I'm keeping the throttle going, balancing the power to each wheel to keep it straight, looking at my suburban in the drive way next to me thinking that would be a mess if I land on that and scared sh%$*&^ess! My wife finally looks out the window after an eternity and sees whats going on. She runs out with her girlfriend and they jump in the bucket....just enough weight to bring it down.....whew! I slowly back down the hill, turn it around and back up the hill like I knew what I was doing! ou: ou: ou: Never lived that one down, had witnesses! - Bill
Here's a couple for ya... First on is on my dad- 1967 Chevy stepside pickup, straight six motor. Nice little black truck, his daily driver. One day it quit running. He had just gassed it up but couldn't get it to start - it would crank and crank but wouldn't fire. Had spark and fuel. Had it towed home and started to "work" on it. We ended up pulling the motor thinking the timing chain was shot or something. Got a junkyard six banger and swapped it in. Same story, mystery why the motor won't start. Dad tries AGAIN, swaps in ANOTHER junkyard motor, same story AGAIN. THree motors, none of the m work. I went over for "one last try" befor pushing the truck into the lake. We decided to check the fuel pump again, so I pulled the line and had Dad crank it again. Suddenly I realized something - "Dad, this doesn't smell like gas!" it was - wait for it - DIESEL FUEL! The classic wrong gas pump mistake - cost Dad mucho bucks and more time. Now, to show the apple don't fall too far from the tree - 1987, I was driving a 1983 buick 225 with the unforgettable diesel "powerplant". It was a hard starter, but always kept running once it got started. I never shut it off unless I had to. One day, fueling it up while running, it quit! Would not restart - just cranked and cranked. We pushed it away from the pumps. Had the whole family in it and two friends and we were only 3 blocks from home, so we walked and got another vehicle. As I racked my brain wondering what was wrong, it came to me to retrace my steps. As I stood by the pump and turned around, I noticed that I was by the no lead pump, not the desired diesel! I pulled my dad's boner in reverse! My fix was easier - I just got a couple of 5 gallon trash buckets, disconnected the fuel pump, and cranked the motor to pump out the "bad gas". Lucky for me i only put 10 bucks in! It ran ok in the mower, pretty smoky though. There's more, but that's enough of my stupidity for now.
A few years ago a buddy and I made a deal that got me my 70 GS for putting a motor together and puttinG it in his Stage 1 car.He had assembled the lower part of the engine and I was to put the heads and such together and get it running for him.I got it all together and filled it with all the fluids.Decided to prime the motor with a drill and I put a gauge in the oil sending unit hole.I practically burned the drill up but, no oil pressure could be made.Took the oil pump apart, checked the oil level,and everything I could think of.All I could hear was the pressure in the oil pan when I ran the drill. I called everyone that I could think of to see if anyone ever had this problem.Even TA and Scotty AT PEE GEE Performance.They were filled with all kinds of ideas.Scotty told me that if I couldn't figure it out that I was to bring it to him to check it out.Thought it was a very nice gesture.I decided to pull the motor and check things out. About 1/2 was out I thought I would try to get the oil pan off without pulling the motor.(what a b@%$h!).Pulled the pan down and found the problem instantly.When he assembled the lower 1/2 he forgot to put the gasket on the oil pump pickup tube thus making a leak. Moral: don't trust anyone that has little knowledge of engines. and check things out for yourself first. PAT :spank:
I was at my friends house the one afternoon, hes a mustang guy, and he kept blowing up the 5 speeds in his 89 GT. He decieded to put an AOD in it. He gets it all buttoned up but it wont start. He checked everything, starter, selonoid, all of it. So he calls me over to that part of the garage and asks what i think. I jumped on the car, pushed the clutch down and she fired right up.ou: :laugh: ________ HorseHung84 live
Here's one of my classics... Back on '91 I was tuning up a buddy's 76 Chevy pickup w/ a 250 six in it. It was a rust bucket but only had 65,000 miles on it. I needed to replace the valve cover gasket since it was leaking so I removed the fuel line since it was in the way. I did the whole tuneup and did the valve cover gasket and was ready to start it. I jumped in and fired it up. It fired right up and about 2 seconds later the whole engine bay was engulfed in flames! I jumped out and went right for the fire extinguisher and let it rip. The fire went out thank God and then I realized the the fuel line was still off and had been spraying fuel all over the HEI cap! The best part is that once I cleaned up the engine bay, I found NO damage at all! I had caught it in time. When I took the truck back I told my buddy that I cleaned up the engine for him and he thought that was great and he still to this day didn't know that happened! And the truck is still plugging right along like nothing ever happened to this day! He is my best bud so some day I will tell him and we will get a laugh out of it. Maybe. Brian
One time a buddy had the carb off his GS, and needed to bump the motor over for some reason. It started! The fuel line was spraying fuel across the carb mounting pad, and engine vacuum was pulling it into the intake.
When I did a timing chain on my 455 years ago, I was looking at the manufacturer's mark ("o"), not the timing mark ("0") and timed it wrong. Car idled well but could not go over 40 mph...I pulled it apart to check what could have gone wrong immediately. My buddy and I figured out later that the engine was about 40* out at the time. No damage. Buick engine good, fire bad, tree pretty. Dropped the starter motor onto my face last spring while I was under the car installing it. I saw it start to slip and was lying on my back...one finger could not hold it up...my other arm was over my head looking for the dropped bolt...no where to run, all I could do was close my eyes. Them things is heavy. Trapped a 9/16 box end onto an exhaust flange on the manifold way back when...did not want to take the exhaust apart again, so it was there from '92 to '97, firmly wedged in place. Replaced the roof outside...yes it rained that day in the middle of the project. Hood hinge popped a rivet while installing the hood last spring, dropping it onto my head...which was stopped by the fender. Didn't scratch the paint... Made up a special one off, needed-it-right-now throttle stud. Took me two hours, but it worked great. Then my dad pops on over to the shop, looks in the box the carb came in and says, "what's this thing?" (while holding up the factory ball end stud I just fabbed a replacement for)
Rebuilt engine wouldn't turn over in my 67 'lark. Spent 2 hours tracing the entire ignition system for a problem... While sitting in the driver seat utterly baffled, hand resting on the shifter... which was in R. ...smartass car doing exactly what it's supposed to. How dare these machines reflect our own stupidity!!
My "stupid" is one we've all done. Problem is....i Continue to do it, over and over and over...... !!! Why...oh WHY !!! Can't I..... Remember to.... Put the FRIGGIN' ROTOR !!!! back on the shaft BEFORE i put the cap and wires back on ???!!??
Hate to admit it..... I was 17 and cutting school to finish swaping a SBC into a 81 Firebird. Parents were away for the day, no neigbors and I had a buddy at the house with me. After I set the engine in place I relized that I had put the motor mount in the wrong position on the cross member. Not wanting to pull the engine out agian I picked up the engine (from the waterpump neck, no less) with the cherry picker. I proceeded to remove the frame mount from inside the engine compartment(under the engine hanging from the waterpump). I dropped one of the bolts into the center hole of the crossmember . So I stuck my right hand middle finger in the hole and got it stuck in there. My buddys rolling on the ground laughing his A** off. Ended up that the police, parametics, volenteer fire department, local munciple mechanics, school bus mechanics(about 30 people in all) trying to get my hand out from the crossmember. By now my finger has expaned to twice it normal size from trying to free it. The firemen were ready to cut the car with the jaws of life when one of the mechanics came to me and said "this car is too nice to let them cut it up". I would have sooner had them cut my finger off. We ran cold water over my hand, soaped it up, he layed under the car and pushed my finger up from the bottom while I pulled. It worked, a little blood ...but it worked. I am a legend in that town to this day......... Jake
Jake I think that was the best one so far.At least I didn't attract the attention of the whole town.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
