I got to thinking, there has to be a ton of intresting,funny,strange,ect stories out there that would be great reading. I will lead off: Back in the mid fifties my uncle and I had built up this 50 Ford and it was pretty quick locally. We got to reading hot rod mag. and decided that we wanted a supercharger. Well we were po boys and couldnt afford one. :Smarty: So we decided that we would build one. o No: This is when we got educated about superchargers. My grandad had a mechanic shop, wrecking yard and welding shop. we went out and got a heater blower motor from an old merc. and proceded to build us a "supercharger". :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: We worked for a couple of days cutting, welding and mounting the supercharger on to the 2 bbl carb and when we got through we could not put the hood back on because the blower motor stuck up about a foot and a half too high!!!!!!!!!! :laugh: :laugh: Not discouraged we wired the blower motor to a toggle switch and took off down the road to town. In town we noticed that every one was pointing and laughing histerically. :bglasses: Undaunted we headed out the highway and nailed it, turned on the toggle sw. and the car got slower, but the blower motor got faster. :Brow: :Brow: It didnt take very long for us to realize that we didnt have a supercharged car. The old flat head did supercharge the blower motor and it gave up the ghost. It took us a while to live this one down. ou: ou:
Back in 1976, I was freshening up a F@rd 429 engine for my Mach 1. Things were going fabulously along, could feel the impending rush of power from the big block pulsing through the veins. Final assembly almost done, my little brother, about 12 at the time, was impatiently awaiting for the promised first ride, thus watching my every move. Ready for the carb, where's the :rant: gasket???? Oh, forgot to buy one, and it's Sunday, remember what year were talking here, NO parts stores are open. Hmmmmm..what to do?? Happened to glance over at the trash, what's this?? An empty Corn Flake box :Brow: :Brow: Do you see a MacGyver solution yet??? Yup, took that cereal box and cut myself the exact gasket needed. Little brother was sooooo proud of big brother, he's going for a ride TODAY, :3gears: :3gears: not tomorrow :ball: :ball: Drop the gasket onto the intake, then the carb, hook up all the linkage and the fuel line, bolt her down turn the key and WTF :af: :af: D@^^N*D thing WON'T start. :rant: :rant: Fires, coughs, stutters, pops thru the carb, but won't run :error: :error: Of comes linkage, lines carb, gasket, all appears OK. Double check the timing estimate, looks good, check valve lash again (solid cam), so far, so good. Back together it goes, same result, only all this time, the little brother still watching big brother slowly make a fool of himself :spank: :spank: Take her apart again, everything looks good, put her back together a THIRD time.....no change. Now I'm getting verry, verry, annoyed. Time for a beer or two, sit back and ponder what's going on. One more time apart it comes, by now little puke of brother grinning like a canary fed cat. After removing my proudly home made gasket, he quietly asks: Tom, are those washers supposed to be sitting under the carb??? Or should they be on top of carb flange??? Little b@$$t@^d knew it all along, just wanted to watch me squirm. :spank: I never noticed them sitting so innocently atop the intake. ou: ou: Re-assemble CORRECTLY this time, fires right up with a flick of the key. Couldn't be angry with him for too long though. He got the first ride, course, I drove. He periodically reminded me of my faux pas for several years afterward. I remind him that perhaps that is why he took auto mechanic shop later in high school :TU: :TU:
Bet you've never done this! I am new to this board so I shouldn't share this yet.... Decided to sell my father my beloved 76 3/4 ton 4X4 chevy truck. Did alot of work on it to get it just right for my dad. Last thing on the list was a new starter as mine used to hang up once and awhile....maybe 2% of the time but hey, trucks for my dad right? Evening time, limited lighting but bored so I thought I would just get it done. I am currently living in an apartment while we are building our new house so the truck is packed in with other cars under the car port. Pulled the old one out...fun job as you know...and put the new one in. No problem. Hooked the battery up and was gonna go give her a try...?? Standing in front of the truck...oil started pooling out from under it like an emerging flood....what the @$^%@? How does replacing a starter cause a massive and sudden oil leak? How about forgetting to wire the direct hot from the battery...? Do you know if you forget this step and that wire is resting on the oil pan you know have a homemade welder puncturing your oil pan...welded itself right through it..about a 4" hole... Simple plan to quickly remove the old starter and give my dad a new one....now replacing battery, wire and oil pan under an apartment awning and cleaning up 5 quarts of oil....best part, dad called me the next day and found another truck! Hmmmmmm......
This was pretty darn embarrassing... and sad at the same time. Installing new front discs and pads on my 91 Stealth ES. Brother and I bought jackstands for the job and we put them all up, slapped on the new rotors and pads, got everything put back together and parked it in the yard overnight (it was already like 11 PM). Next day after work I came home and decided to take her for a little outgasing and a run around the block. Brakes were felling strange, but that was expected with new pads and rotors. We get around the block once, then going for a second lap feeling good no more noise from the pads etc. So I give it to her pretty hard trying to go from about 30-0. I got it down to about 15... a big snap happened, something big and black flew past my open driver's side window and I'm riding on the ground before I can figure out what's happening. I bet we skidded on the driver's rotor for about 50 feet before she finally stopped. Shortly after that my 18" konig/toyo combination came rolling down the street and about knocked over someone's mailbox. Who needs to tighten lugnuts? o No: Anyway, we forgot and it messed up my fender pretty bad, damaged the rim a little but nothing too bad. Took me months to quit tightening my lugnuts after every time I stopped.
I keep catching my hair on fire - I don't "store" my stuff in the winter, because normally it's getting worked on and moved around. As a result, I have a regular routine where I start all the cars about once a month and let them warm up real good. I had started my Chevelle in February the year before last, let it run for quite a while and then shut it off. The first part of March I needed to load it into the trailer to take it to Atlanta for an NSCA race. When I went to start it she wouldn't fire. I cranked and horsed around; no luck. It was cold out, so I thought maybe the fuel line was frozen or who knows what. Finally I got some starter fluid out, and it would hit and run for as long as I gave it little shots of starter fluid. Well, you guessed it - during one of those iterations it popped and backfired through the carb while I had my head stuck in there. POOF! I didn't think much about it until I started smelling something unusual later on. It got all the hair surrounding my face, plus singed my eyelashes, eyebrows and moustache. Finally, it occurred to me: I wonder if this thing is outta' gas? Sure enough, threw a couple gallons of race fuel in and it started right up. What are the chances that one month ago I ran it exactly long enough to NOT have it quit but to NOT have enough gas in it to restart it?!? The second time I was fooling around with my propane heater. I had it going but it blew itself out. I lit another match and stuck it in the pilot hole and POOF same thing. The third time I don't even remember a significant emotional event. I just walked in the house, past the wife and daughters lounging in the living room, and on into the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror AUUGGGHHH I saw that familiar hairdo. I calmly walked back into the living room and, pointing to my head, said "LADIES, DON'T YOU NOTICE ANYTHING UNUSUAL HERE?!? Their response was something about getting used to me looking like that... I've got hair growing out my ears but I still don't have much in the way of eyebrows or eyelashes.... K PS - Please don't tell my buddies over on the NSCA board about this.
I did something similar to you Docray,I just bought my 66 VW Fastback and was changing the rear axle seals and apparently didn't tighten the lug nuts on the left rear tire,Well me and my bro went and drove for about 20min and parked it over night.Mom wants to take a ride in the new car and tells me not to go fast(yea right,in a VW?Wish i could)and we hit a dip about a block away from our house and the rear end gets all squirrley(sp?) and the back end just drops,almost all the neighbors are out side at the time seeing if the car would actually make it,kinda embarassing,but now I know waht it'll look like when I lower it!
A long collection of stories As a kid I sprayed WD-40 on the rims of my 10-speed to see how long it would take to wear away. *** At 16 years old, on my first car brake job, I left the coating on the new rotors (didn't know I should have scrubbed it off). That first test drive was fun, and I had to ride the brake a few blocks to get them to grab. No, this didn't turn into a trend. *** Battery acid tastes like very strong lemon juice! o No: *** At 17 I tried to fiberglass the holes in the trunk of my 74 Camaro. The glass sat fine on the trunk floor by the frame rail, but I had to hold it against the inner fender until it started to stick... and I wasn't wearing gloves. I used abrasive pads until my skin was clean - wow, did that hurt. *** That winter I squirted water in the carb of the Camaro to get rid of the carbon, as I read about in Hot Rod magazine (I didn't know better). Then, as we pulled out of the drive onto a snowy street, the accelerator froze open. The brakes didn't do much good on the snow - we kept going forward. Fortunately I knew enough to cut the ignition. *** In my undergrad I was advancing the timing on my Skylark a bit at a time, with no timing light, to try to get rid of the bog under hard acceleration. It was working too. I'd turn off the car, nudge the distributor, start it, punch it, stop, etc. Finally I turned it too far, and as I cranked, it must have kicked backward, b/c it broke the starter in two. A friend took me to a parts store. We got back and I pulled the starter in the law library's parking lot - I found they had given me the wrong starter (for the wrong side of the engine). I returned the starter and got the right one. The guy asked if I wanted a solenoid too, and I said no, mine's still good. So I'm now finally changing the starter. Its exam week of the Fall quarter - no snow, but very cold. People walking by commented to each other how they'd rather kill themselves than work on a car in the cold like that. Everything is now bolted up, and I'm connecting the positive cable to the soleniod. Nice and snug. Well, another quarter turn should be enough.... SNAP. My friend had left a while ago, so I had to walk to the parts store and take that guy up on the soleniod. *** For about 6 months I was unable to travel the highway for more than 45 minutes before I began to lose speed and finally stall. After sitting 15 minutes it was fine again. On a ski trip through Michigan we even put chunks of ice and snow on the engine - thinking it was vapor lock (hey, we were young). I finally decided to change the fuel pump. The replacement pump had 3 connections, the one on the engine only had two. The previous summer I had performed my first engine swap. I figured the junkyard engine's pump was correct for it, so I simply plugged the third line. *** Again, during my undergrad, while going to pick up my date, the car stalled in an intersection. I didn't know at the time the float was sticking and the carb was flooding. I started it, heard a bang, and flames seemed to come through the hood (no scoop). Popped the hood, saw a fire on top of the engine, and got my emergency winter coat out of the trunk to beat it out. Of course, this was a nylon coat, which melted. I had thought it simply flooded and a backfire set it off. (I later learned the neoprene fuel line was cracked, and there was a bare wire on the block). The the coil wire was burned in two, but hey, this is an old V8, I can run on 7 cylinders. I swapped a wire, started it again, and POOF - more fire. My date drives by and stops to help; the BP on this corner wouldn't let us have their fire extinguisher. I'm beating the fire again - some guy was shouting something about me being crazy..."do you want to blow up?" I explained I was beating out the fire so it wouldn't blow up. I finally put out the fire as a fire truck shows up. When asked if they were headed toward my dorm (we always had false alarms) they said no, someone called and said a car was on fire. A friend from my dorm happened by, and we pushed the car into a parking lot. It was winter, so I decided not to fix it myself. We had it towed to a different BP for repair. When I checked the repair I found fire extinguisher residue on the block. Turns out they had "fired" it up too. *** Still in school, a couple years later. My best friend called from a Denny's (late at night). Her Caprice diesel wouldn't start. The battery connections were corroded; with a little wiggling of the battery cables she drove it back to the dorms. The next day I decided to clean the terminals with a file. One at a time I cleaned each terminal and reconnected it. By the time I was on the last one (of the two-battery system) I realized I never disconnected the ground. Well, I made it that far with no poblem, so I decided to just finish. While cleaning the final positive cable, I accidentally touched it to the radiator. It arced, made a pin-hole, and a tiny stream of radiator fluid commenced. "Thats not good," my friend said with a questioning tone. I had to borrow a propane torch to solder it. *** Another year passes, and that summer the same friend visits with her Caprice. I notice a huge band of thick aluminum bolted to the inner fender-well, the other end connected to the alternator. A bolt flange on the alternator bracket had broken, and her brother and father connected the aluminum, pulled hard for tension, and bolted it to the fender. It seems that when I'd last changed her belts, I really overtightened one of the bolts. *** Learning the hard way is fun, isn't it. :laugh:
Talk about being stupid.........here's one. I must have r&r'd the distributor from my Nailhead at least a dozen times in my lifetime. Well, when I rebuilt my motor the last time, about 3 years ago, I inadvertantly installed the gear upside down. ou: Not knowing this, and unable to figure out why she wouldn't start, I was totally baffled. By the time I figured this out, the motor was totally flooded. I have the Pertronix ignition, which will make a spark when the key is turned off, even though the distributor is not rotating. My wife was in the car turning the motor over while I was trying to figure this out. When I realized the the dist was not turning, I told her to turn the key to off.........BIG MISTAKE.........when she did, BOOM! The muffler on the right side of the car blew up and expanded big time and my poor wife nearly had a heart attack! It was 1:00 in the morning, and the neighbors must have thought we were having a suicide bombing or something! When I jumped I bumped my head on the hood ou: Well needless to say, my new motor was very well primed although the gas prolly wiped all the oil off the cylinder walls.........they run pretty good though when you put the distributor gear back on the correct way! :laugh:
Keith, Are you sure your name is not Tim Taylor????? Reminds me of some of the funny stunts they did on Home Improvement.
"Home Improvement" = my favorite show Didn't we just do a thread on favorite "Seinfeld" episodes? We should do one on best "Home Improvement" shows... K
my gosh, you guys are making me feel so much better about myself :beer i've only recently started to work on cars, but already i can tell that having a short memory is going to serve me well! one thing i did, non mechanically, was take the molding off my z28.....well, it must have been repainted at one point, because with the molding off there was a definite change of shade in the paint.......brother-in-law said to wet sand it a bit.........one thing led to another and soon i was sanding the whole bottom half of the door to the point were i see there was a bondo filled hole near the bottom......i primered and repainted it, but didn't give myself enough room to fade the paint, so now it's got a nice line in the door.......and there are swirl marks on the rest of the doors.........a nice car cleaning that ended up being a 14 hour day ou: i just keep telling myself it adds to the piece of junk street sleeper look........you can see it better up close, but notice the dark bottom right corner of the door.....ah well i'm sure there will be more stories to come on my website, as i have a penchant for screwing things up.....
