Simple mistakes

[98ciHemi]

Re: Simple mistakes

Installing gauges on the Escort last year.
Sequence of Events
Unhook op sender
Unhook temp sensor
Hook up oil line to new gauge
Hook up temp sensor and put probe in block

Start car to test temp sensor.

Who can tell me what I forgot to do?

[67prostreet]

Re: Simple mistakes

with maggots raining down from holes in the bed

???WTF

[70chevyC-10]

Re: Simple mistakes

with maggots raining down from holes in the bed

???WTF

trash truck -

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Simple mistakes

Installing gauges on the Escort last year.
Sequence of Events
Unhook op sender
Unhook temp sensor
Hook up oil line to new gauge
Hook up temp sensor and put probe in block

Start car to test temp sensor.

Who can tell me what I forgot to do?

Hook oil line to oil sender? aka Pulled a Chad ;D

[oldsman71]

Re: Simple mistakes

with maggots raining down from holes in the bed

???WTF

trash truck -

YEP!! trash truck I think I paid for my crime!!!

[truckpuller]

Re: Simple mistakes

Installing gauges on the Escort last year.
Sequence of Events
Unhook op sender
Unhook temp sensor
Hook up oil line to new gauge
Hook up temp sensor and put probe in block

Start car to test temp sensor.

Who can tell me what I forgot to do?

refill the radiator????

[Hemi Joel]

Re: Simple mistakes

I could write a novel on this subject. :D But I don't have all night, so I'll just do 2.

When I was in high school I was driving a 67 Couger, and I put a set of 4 guages from JC Whitney in the middle of the dash. I cut the hole just right, it looked great, and I was all proud. About 2 weeks later, on the first rainy morning since the installation, I started tha car and turned on the wipers. The wipers made a few swipes, then started to slow down, then stopped. The new guages started sucking into the area behind the dash, smoke started coming out from under there! What happened is that I routed the 2 heavy wires for the ammeter across the crank on the wiper motor, and they wound around it. Yikes!

Another time I came out after the races at Raceway park and somehow found out that I had a blown tail light fuse on my 65 ElCamino and it was night time. I had fuses in the glove box, but no flashlight. But I had a lighter! So using the lighter as a flashlight under the dash, I got the fuse changed, and lit the fiber insulation on fire. Luckily I got it out before the car burned up.

[FoFittyFoSS]

Re: Simple mistakes

Early twenties, just getting into hotrodding and had just completed my first cam swap in my 1990 454SS . I'm very paranoid at this point, watching guages and hearing every little noise. Next, I noticed oil pressure was good at startup and fell off to nothing after about 10 minutes. Thinking back, the engine made no unusual noises. If I knew then, what I know now, things would have went much differently. Anyhow, after speeking with the mechanic at work as well as others, the consensus was bearing problems. Purchased crankit and bearings, rebuilt bottom end, and put the motor back together. Keep in mind, I pulled the motor with a come-along hanging from a beam, stabbed throught the rafters at the golf course maintenance building where I worked (another story in itself). Back on the road and it was doing the same thing. Replaced the oil pressure guage... Problem solved.

[rack4u]

Re: Simple mistakes

I'm in with one........

As a teen I bought a 1962 Catalina Convertible, 389 , Auto, with eight lug nascar wheels. I tuned it up and detailed the engine compartment shortly after getting it. I had stripped everything loose from the engine bay and upon repainting the engine, installing new headers, I began replacing all the vacuum hoses, re taped the wiring harness and so on........

After getting everything back together under the hood I put it up on blocks and changed the u-joints, shocks, ran new exhaust under the car. This took me a couple of weeks to afford and complete the work. So when I got everything finished I was so excited to start driving it and show it off a bit.....To my suprise it started smoking out the exhaust. I mean bad.........a ton of smoke. I could not figure it out ! Drove me nuts trying to figure it out !

When I replaced the vacuum lines Dumbass me had hooked a vacuum line to the transmission vent tube.

[Barry Donovan]

Re: Simple mistakes

forgetting The oil cap :
It is funny, i worked at a quicklube in he early 90s servicing to the 1500 mark at last recording...it was closer to 3000...not a single mistake. the height of it was 70 something cars in ten hours a day. I've got a subconscious description of all automobiles to this day, to say the least.

My silliest mistake was this past year, as I am 36 going on 137...
There was crud in the overflow bottle, I grabbed an empty oil jug, and drained the overflow crud into it. I then checked the oil while i was under the hood, and ya know what I did? I poored the crud from the overflow bottle, that was in the oil jug, into the engine.
So now I am low on dirty antifreeze and got water in the oil. ;D
It is not like me to slack in the mind for servicing. I HAD to do the chores on my dads rig for several teen years, no mistakes allowed....I'll pretend it wasn't an abusive story.

[JOES66FURY]

Re: Simple mistakes

Here is one of my favorite FUBARS

1. get a call to pick up broke down car on side of road

2. Drive wrecker to area, realize the beacons are not working again...car is on the side of the road in a BAD blind curve on a very narrow, highly travelled road...

3. instead of going back and gettin the flat bed I devise a plan, to pull in front of the car and put it on the wheel lift, pull it to the top of the street where it was safe and drop it and then sling it properly

4. So I do so...forgetting to do 2 very important steps
step A...Strap tires to lift
step B...Put car in neutral

When I jumped in to pull forward there was a horrible crunching sound...the car fell and the rear leg of the wheel lift went thru the fenders.

[milner351]

Re: Simple mistakes

Wow

So many to choose from.... hmmmm.

Randall to make you feel better - I did the two gaskets on the oil filter thing - while trying to show my brother how to change his own oil - he's never tried again!

After working on a bunch of GM cars - I got back to working on a ford - helping a friend install his freshly rebuilt engine.
New everything - including wires, cap and rotor. after checking and rechecking everything - we hit the key... cranking and nothing but backfires - out both ends.... thankfully this was before the flat tappet modern oil issues were common place.
We kept checking - got several local experts to take a look - guys with dozens of years of experience... nobody could place it. We figured the most reasonable explanation was the rockers were too tight. Finally out of desperation I decided to have him crank it while the cap was off to make sure the distributor was in fact turning..... it was.... and the firing order was right.... IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!

Helping another friend with a fresh engine start up - get the cam broken in - notice oil dripping off the driver's side of the oil pan... pull the pan (69 cougar 351W) replace the gasket with a one piece rubber one with the washers to prevent over tightening - make sure the pan rail is flat.... still leaking in the same spot. He decides it must be the pan, gets a new pan and another new one piece gasket - still leaking - in the same place.... then finally he puts die in the oil and gets a black light from work - to find that the source of the leak was the extension pipe for the oil pressure sending unit about a half inch above the oil pan rail, the oil pan was never the culprit! DOH

[Loren]

Re: Simple mistake's

I put the throw out bearing in the Skylark in backwards. I was even smart enough to take a picture of it, then put the transmission in. D'oh!

That was, quite honestly, the hardest I have ever laughed at a forum post ;D. I can totally picture it.

I know in the past I have told the story of gas-welding an oil pan gash in my 215 Olds/Vega and causing an explosion. Apparently there had been an internal fume buildup while it sat. Fortunately it just wrapped the lifter-valley cover around the bottom of the intake manifold.

A very special five-minute period of my life, one that I have remembered over and over again, was test running the engine of my inboard/outboard, sbc-powered boat in the driveway. Seems like it was making a funny noise...I revved and revved it, thinking it might go away, or that I was imagining things. I didn't remember it having that noise, but of course I didn't use the boat that often. I continued running the motor, on and on. Dang if the noise wasn't getting a little louder. How could that be? Another minute passed, and then I was sure of it. It really was getting a little noisier.

While continuing to run the now-clattering motor like a complete moron, I mentally reviewed the work I had just done which was just to replace a small shaft having to do with the outdrive lifting mechanism. I hadn't touched the engine at all. Not at all, except for when the oil filter was in the way and I had to temporarily remove it..."OH F#CK" :o.

So that was the end of that motor and there were now six quarts of oil sprayed in the bilge (space between the bottom of the hull and the floor). I emptied as much as would come out through the little drain hole in the back, then while the boat sat waiting for a new engine enough rain got into the hull to fill the bilge and lift the remaining oil up into the carpet. Not having a better idea, I poured kitty litter on it, which turned into a gooey clay slime and could not be cleaned.

I did fix the boat, only to go on to more sordid depths in my experimentation with powered watercraft (I didn't grow up around boats and had to learn a lot of simple stuff on my own). Stories for another time.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Simple mistake's

I put the throw out bearing in the Skylark in backwards. I was even smart enough to take a picture of it, then put the transmission in. D'oh!

That was, quite honestly, the hardest I have ever laughed at a forum post ;D. I can totally picture it.

Glad I can brighten up the world ;D I didn't find it so funny at the time :P

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! Nothing seems to be going my way today. Every little thing I worked on today seemed to take two to three times longer than it should of. Then to top it off to end my day I put in the clutch pedal linkage and immediately could tell something wasn't right, it needed way to much adjustment and didn't feel right at all. Going back under the car it became apparent I put the throw out bearing in backward > The Trans has to come back out, grrrrr.

What I did get done today was I got oil to all sixteen rocker arms while priming the pump, did a preliminary brake bleed and got fluid to all wheels (pedal seems decent, but I need to do a better bleed and try with the vacuum booster). Got the front seat bolted in (took way longer than it should of), the power steering bolted in, distributor in (took way longer than it should of), half way done installing the rear shocks, I couldn't find the OE lower bolts and the ones I got turned out too short. Installed two of the eight subframe connector cross bolts. Damn this is a short list considering I was out there from 8am to 4:30pm. > Guess I'll pull the trans tomorrow.

I was sooo pissed off I went back out there that night and pulled the trans, haha.

Ok, the transmission is back in and the clutch pedal feels like it should, whew. My back burns, feels like a sun burn from the sandpaper like driveway. I tried the cardboard thing but that just got shredded real quick. At one point I thought I might as well give it the old school brute strength method of just bench pressing it up and shoving it in....... I pretty much got 2.5 trys with that method before the hundred and something pound trans beat me and came to a nice rest on my chest under the car : Dandy. It took about 20 minutes for my strength to return enough just to get the trans back on the two jacks I've been using. But it's done now and back to getting the top end ready.

[HEMI]

Re: Simple mistakes

Lemmme see....so far this year none.