.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

BangShift Question Of The Day: What’s Your Worst “I Forgot Something” Moment?


BangShift Question Of The Day: What’s Your Worst “I Forgot Something” Moment?

You’ve gone over every possible nut and bolt that could need attention from the torque wrench. You’ve filled the fuel tank, you’ve topped off the oil, the transmission is good to go, and you’ve finally got a battery that has a charge. After weeks…months…oh, who are we kidding, years…the build is over. So why is it that you’re still so nervous about twisting that key? It’s because somewhere, in the back of your head, you know that you forgot something. You have absolutely no idea what that something is. You don’t know if it’ll matter or not. But most rational, sane people will stop, make one more pass through their checklist and then, and only then, light the candle.

Yours truly, on the other hand, wasn’t that patient. When I finished transferring the running gear from the SuperBeater Mirada into the Imperial back in 2012, I had made great progress getting the engine and trans bolted up, and then school, finals and winter collectively kicked my hind end and the car sat, half-finished. I had enough by February 2013 and started spinning wrenches again, and when I got the engine to spin over, I was floating on cloud nine. I rushed everything together just to get a first drive out of the way. Bless my neighbors, they didn’t mind open headers at ten in the morning and thank my buddy Greg for standing outside with his phone with no hearing protection to capture the moment, but the video caught my biggest “forgot something!” moment. No, it’s not the high idle…that was a bracket that was sticking we addressed shortly after the drive. No…look under the car, in front of the passenger door, on the ground. That puddle ain’t snow melt…that’s where the dual in-line fuel filters are on an Imperial, and one hose clamp wasn’t tightened when I was slamming it all together, allowing fuel to puke out at what I would consider an alarming rate. I didn’t even notice until I parked the car, stepped out and…sniff, sniff…”Why does it smell like gasoline?!”

Even being careful, things can happen. And if you’re too careful, you might do something like check the brake lines nineteen times to make sure there aren’t any leaks or something like that. So let’s hear your stories!


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

16 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: What’s Your Worst “I Forgot Something” Moment?

  1. Darryl Daniels

    I took a mate and his missus to a hotrod show where he was invited to take his race car , an altered Topilino , to to do startups during the day, as it was on an open trailer he put a clean hand towel into the bug catcher to stop stuff from blowing in there on the way up.As the car didn’t have to be started to get it off the trailer , it was just rolled off. Try as he might with the aid of a few batteries he couldn’t get it to start until we got home and he discovered a fuel soaked hand towel stuffed down the throat of the carby. Started first shot after that.

  2. Darryl Daniels

    One other “I Forgot” moment that comes to mind was my grandsons old car , which we restored the engine in , in my driveway. All the mechanical work was finished , the connecting up of wiring and fuel lines , injector wiring etc. Connected all the radiator hoses , checked everything over to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything and being satisfied left him to top up all the required fluids.After a while I wandered back out and saw that the car was still on the ramps and thought that’s funny he should have been finished and had the car off the ramps an hour ago.I found him in my shed looking for some engine oil. I asked him what he did with the oil I gave him , he said he put it in the motor but it didn’t register on the dipstick.He’d also used another 6 liters of my oil (expensive oil) and it still took another 2 liters on top of that and needs more! that’s 14 liters of oil when he needed just over 5. A quick look under the car showed a massive honey coloured oil slick and right next to it, sitting on the ramp was the sump plug he forgot to put back in!

    1. john t

      Hey Darryl tell them about the time that fat kid up the street gave you an old Dodge he had just chopped the roof off of! (that was me at 13!!)

  3. Tom Atkinson

    When putting our brand spanking new Schmidt 540 in our Mk1 Cortina wagon many years ago, we kinda forgot to put the oil filter on! Split second of cranking, no pressure on the gauge, HUGE puddle on the workshop floor…. Fail!

  4. Singapore Hot Rod

    I forgot that I put 8 quarts of oil in our fresh for the season 572. And then I put 8 more quarts in (no dipstick to check). Took it to the strip and immediately blew holes in 3 pistons when we turned on the N2O because obviously the rings couldn’t control the oil. 400HP of N2O and oil are a bad combo.

    I felt stupid and Dad was not very happy.

  5. Fishbone

    Routine oil change on my 66 Mustang. All buttoned up and started. Then 5 quarts of oil on the garage floor; quickly! Forgot to take off the old rubber gasket from the block before spinning on the new filter. A mistake you will make only once!

    1. bob

      No fish, you will do it again. I’ve done it 3 times already. FL1A, FL400 & FL820. Sure makes a mess.

  6. AndyB

    After doing a timing belt on a little VW GTI (the tiny 2.0L turbo motor), I failed to put the clips on the intercooler plumbing. Gently putted around the neighborhood without difficulty, and rolled into the throttle to ensure things were ok. Earth-shattering KABOOM!! around 8psi. Engine off immediately, pulled onto the shoulder immediately, freaking out that I’d clearly screwed something up and blown something expensive in the motor. Popped the hood and was greeted by a very obvious intercooler charge pipe that was no longer connected. Felt better once I put it together correctly and it held 23psi!

    Similar idea, left a small spring clamp off a minor portion of the pressurized side of the inlet after doing some other work (can’t tell what it was, but it was minor). Turns out it’d hold 12psi with the hose just shoved onto the barb, but definitely not 20! Found that after some swearing, but fortunately after the earlier mishap, I knew what order to start checking things.

    When working on the various bikes, I’m more careful to use paint/sharpie/safety wire, so I make damned sure that things are right before going out. No fun spinning the tire at 25% throttle because a fuel line split and was pumping gas on it.

  7. Patrick

    Just finished rebuilding a stroker bug motor for a class five off road car. Pulled a late night and got the carbs and ignition on and it all bolted into the chassis. So confident I put the tear cage and tins on and jumped on the seat to fire it up. I sat on the throw out bearing I forgot to install in the trans. Out it all comes again, oil lines off etc

  8. Matts90gsx

    It was awhile back but my awd Mitsubishi blew another clutch so out it came, but there is a single 8 mm bolt that threads into the block through a dowel pin..it\’s not like the others that are 10 mm… So long story short I forgot it and ending up breaking the ear off my 6 bolt and had to pull the motor..

  9. CoffeeJoe

    In High School, pulled my 71 Cuda into shop class to change out the gears. Pulled everything apart, changed out the gears and slammed everything back together, torqued the last bolt, yanked the stands, started it up, threw it in gear, (its high school and I had been without my wheels for a WEEK!!0 and promptly ran into the shop wall! I forgot to bleed the brakes and knocked out 3 blocks from the wall and tweaked my bumper!

  10. Gerrit

    30 something years ago my Alfa Romeo GTV steering wheel startet to vibrate. Then the whole care started to shake and I made it to a parking area where I found only one remaining lug nut (loosely) on the left front wheel. Rest was gone.
    Obviously forgot to torque the wheel nuts before showing off my new rims.

  11. Walter Joy

    Back in October, I was helping my grandfather and uncle replace the brakes on my 1989 W250. We needed to take the bed off so they could have easier access to the old brake lines that ran along the inner framewell of the truck. We had already done the front calipers, rotors, and pads but no lines were in, so no brakes. So they put me in charge of driving the truck to where we’d put the bed. Idled truck over, used parking brake to slow down, shut off truck, and pulled bed off. I hop in to start it, instinctively pressed on brake and it goes directly to floor. It was at that point I remembered I had no brake lines installed, so the left fenderwell was covered in what was left of brake fluid in the master cylinder

  12. Rhett

    Was doing a timing chain on my 71 GS455, and blocked the oil passage to the block while it was apart.Buttoned it all up only to realize I had only pulled out 1 of the 2 plugs I put in the oil passages. Yep.

  13. Mopar or No Car

    Working under the hood on the ’66 Newport I used the poor man’s remote start — Screwdriver blade across the relay works every time. It works so well it bypasses the neutral safety switch. Thank the Lord almighty I had the e-brake on because the trans was in drive. That’s a lot of oomph from a 383 at 2000 rpm high idle. But the e-brake held and the car didn’t even roll off the jackstands. Could have been much, much worse with me running alongside the car trying to get through the window to stop it before it crunched something at 40mph with no driver behind the wheel.

Comments are closed.