What's most knuckle-headed thing you have done wrenching?

[Chuck Tribolet]

What's the most knuckle-headed thing your have done wrenching on a car? It doesn't have to be a PF/QX.

I'll start:

Torquing the little bolt on PF front brake to the ft-pounds for the big bolts. Fortunately, O'Reiley's had a kit of brake parts and it was in stock. And I had NOT parked the PF behind the 'vette so I had wheels.

I was building the motor for my 240-Z. The block had come back from the machine shop, and had just finished painting it, and then chasing all the tapped holes with a tap. I went to roll it across the garage floor to store it, I went quickly, and the engine stand tripped over a seam in the concrete. BOOM. Fortunately no damage.

I was changing out the thermostat on my late wife's '68 Firebird 400 ragtop, and a bolt was seized in the front cover, I got a breaker bar, and the front cover broke. '68 Firebird 400 ragtop with A/C has a unique front cover. There were maybe 500 built. GM still had some NOS. Car is now in New Zealand.

Chuck

[Pathfound49]

Changing tie-rod ends on my '91 Maxima. Disregarded the left handed thread factor and smashed hand against sharp control arm assy. Got out from under the car to kick the first thing i saw and launched a box through the garage window. Spent next hour plywooding window hole.

[Chris.m]

When I first changed the fuel filter, I followed the procedure of depressurizing the lines, so I assumed no gas would come out...

Needless to say, I got a face full of gas...

[saveth]

I picked up the good cv shaft by the side that attaches to the hub and the bearings fell out of the holder inside the boot. It was a pain to put back together.

[THatfield]

On my old 1994 Isuzu Rodeo, I had some aftermarket driving lights on the brushguard. I was messing with one of the bulbs that was giving me fits, and forgot I had the lights on. Luckily the inline fuse saved my a** when I decided to use a screwdriver to try and move the bulb around.

Also on my Rodeo, I was changing the fuel filter, and similar to the above story, I got a face full of gas after I thought I depressurized the lines. Ruined a T-Shirt, Watch and a Pair of Safety Goggles (all 3 reeked of gas following the incident).

And then on my QX4, I wrapped up doing my first oil change and backed her off the ramps so I could put them away. However I had forgotten to put the oil filler cap back on. Luckily I noticed before I closed the hood and took it out of the garage.

I'm young and still learning. I imagine I'll have a few more knucklehead moments to go.

[370Z/28]

The windshield washer fluid reservoir on my Camaro is right where the radiator overflow reservoir is in my Z. I was adding windshield washer fluid to my Z and darned near poured in the radiator overflow reservoir!

[Buzzman]

This one goes back a while, but I was adjusting the valves (rockers) on an old '65 Chevy, straight six.
Had the valve cover off of course, and decided to see the engine running with the cover off. I wanted to hear and see the tappets in action.
Started it up and let it idle, no problem. It was little bit wet on top from the oil splashing around, but all was well.
Decided to rev it up. Big mistake. Reached over and pulled the throttle linkage on the carb to rev it up, and got a face full of hot oil. Ouch.

[Densetsu]

Re-attaching the lower steering column to the steering transfer gear, I slid the bottom gear into a sleeve and threaded in the bolt to clamp the sleeve. It was a lag bolt meant to go in from the top, and in a rush I put it in from the bottom side instead. Unfortunately, it was a lag bolt and the shank had protruding grooves on it, perpendicular to the threads. It still went in fairly easy... until there was only a 1/4" left to go in and it suddenly felt very tight. Turns out those vertical grooves destroyed most of the threads. Luckily, enough of the bolt protruded from the other side that I could put a nut on it and secure it. A few months later and it hasn't moved, luckily. Felt paranoid the first few days that it would come out.

A mishap not involving a wrench: My old floor jack wasn't tall enough to get the Pathy's wheels up, so for years I used a single block of wood (roughly 4"x4"x4") as a spacer to get that extra height. After changing tires last winter, I removed the jackstand and then turned around. My butt touched the door, the block of wood fell out, and the Pathy shifted over and fell. The jack caught the Pathy on the running boards, so it didn't hit the ground. Still surprised the running boards didn't break. Was a nice wake-up call to get a jack with enough height, instead of coming up with half-assed solutions.

[chris_clark1979]

On my old 88 lincoln town car My engine temperature sensor was bad. Drove it to the parts store about 20 minutes away so 40 minutes of driving it to get a new sensor. I get home and start changing the sensor and i get sprayed with scorching hot anti-freeze.. After I realased i was not burnt i was laughing my a$$ off.

Theres more but that was the best of my mishaps..

[Slumpert]

I had my wife's caravan jacked up to change the front left brakes on my inclinded driveway.

No I was not using wheel chocks, nor was I using a jackstand.

After wheel was off, and about to press in the caliper, I went to open the hood to access the master cylinder and I pulled the brake release instead of the hood release.. Van rolled backwards off the jack and slammed down into the driveway with a horrible sound.

[Buzzman]

I had my wife's caravan jacked up to change the front left brakes on my inclined driveway.

No I was not using wheel chocks, nor was I using a jackstand.

After wheel was off, and about to press in the caliper, I went to open the hood to access the master cylinder and I pulled the brake release instead of the hood release.. Van rolled backwards off the jack and slammed down into the driveway with a horrible sound.

That is some seriously scary and dangerous stuff.
I've read about guys losing their lives when cars dropped on them because they weren't using a backup jackstand or wheel chocks.
I'm probably over cautious when working on my truck because I use two jackstands as well as leaving the car jack in place (plus wheel chocks) when going underneath.
Even with all that, I still get nervous crawling under a vehicle when it's up in the air in my driveway.
Be careful out there guys.

[zach7685]

Working on a VW... enough said

[Towncivilian]

I was changing my rear door and I overtightened one of the bolts securing the liftgate strut. It snapped. My buddy and I tried using a bolt extractor drill bit. The tip broke. I just had Nissan weld the damn thing on one side. Bad thing is I can't change that liftgate strut, and mine are starting to get lazy. I'm just going to wait until I find a Pathfinder in a junkyard that's the same color as mine and swap the door again. Mine was painted by myself and a couple of buddies and ended up darker and has a different texture than the rest of the paint. It doesn't look awful, but it's noticeable.

My first oil change I've ever performed, I started twisting the oil filter the wrong way and overtightened it to hell. I had to stab a screwdriver through it and even then it was real hard to get it off.

[Buzzman]

My first oil change I've ever performed, I started twisting the oil filter the wrong way and overtightened it to hell. I had to stab a screwdriver through it and even then it was real hard to get it off.

This isn't really about cars in particular, but I remember as a kid learning the hard way about left hand threaded nuts and bolts. Stuff like bicycle pedals or saw blade nuts.
I was trying to loosen a left hand nut once, with my dad watching over my shoulder.
He waited until I rapped my knuckles hard when the wrench slipped. He had that little smirk on his face when he explained the problem, and I've never forgotten that lesson.

[ferrariowner123]

Trying to start a freshly swapped BMW E30 M20 engine without an oil filter.

happily it didn't start. and we noticed the leak.

[zach7685]

Trying to start a freshly swapped BMW E30 M20 engine without an oil filter.

happily it didn't start. and we noticed the leak.

Wow these are in my nightmares

[zach7685]

Dropping my car. While working on my rear brake shoes I had the car jacked up and on a jackstands. I had the car on a slight incline ever so slight with the front pointing down. As I took the tire off and began to pull the drum off the remaining tire on the ground rotated and the drum went the opposite way Had to use the bottle Jack to jack it up by the trailer hitch. No damage done amazingly considering the drum was half off and fell on the lugs.

[D13_R50]

I was replacing the serpentine belt and the idler pulleys on my Jeep about 3-4 years ago. I wasn't paying much attention tightening down the bolt and proceeded to over-torqued and stripped the threads off the aluminum bracket. Turned a 20 minute job into a couple days of work fixing this mistake.

[PathyProject]

I remember back when I was in school taking automotive technology I made a very stupid and embarrassing mistake. I had my Pathfinder in the shop and I was asking my teacher a question, my Pathfinder was on by the way. Anyways I was talking to him about something, and I pointed at it and the plastic fan hit my finger. It didn't hurt or anything but everyone was laughing and it was embarrassing.

[Buzzman]

I remember back when I was in school taking automotive technology I made a very stupid and embarrassing mistake. I had my Pathfinder in the shop and I was asking my teacher a question, my Pathfinder was on by the way. Anyways I was talking to him about something, and I pointed at it and the plastic fan hit my finger. It didn't hurt or anything but everyone was laughing and it was embarrassing.

This brings back a lot of not-so-pleasant memories of guys I knew getting hurt, and even killed.
I worked in a paper mill when I was young, and those giant paper making machines were unforgiving if you made even the slightest mistake.
One guy lost his balance while up on a scaffold an fell in. Died instantly.
I also worked in the print business, and knew more than one guy that lost a finger, or even an entire hand, when getting careless.
It only takes a micro second of inattention to get hurt.
I've had shirt sleeves and neckties get caught in machines, but always managed to get away with nothing more than a scratch.

As for car stuff, I had an old Ford Escort that used to flood all the time.
One time was so bad that I decided to remove the spark plugs and dry it out.......with a propane torch.
I lit it up and stuck the flame in the spark plug hole. It worked all right. Nice little voom/woosh, and my eyebrows were gone.

[Chuck Tribolet]

Ouch! I've had a fan bang a knuckle a couple of times.

The big safety message here something I learned in high school machine shop class about 1963: No neck ties, long loose sleeves, rings, or watches around moving machinery. And lest you think "Ties? In high school?", school colors were purple and white, and on football Friday's in the fall, we wore purple ties and white dress shirts. It was OK to tuck the tie into the shirt a button or two below the neck.

Ever wonder why the Maytag repairman wears a bow tie?

Chuck

[Buzzman]

I was bored, so I pulled up this thread from last year.
We seem to have a lot of new guys on the site, so it might be fun to hear a few stories from them.
If you've got something, share it.

[Leo1998]

I was pulling a Ford 400 small block out of my truck with a cherry picker and stupid me forgot to extend the legs out all the way, I cleared the truck and thought i had done a good job, then in slow motion the cherry picker tipped forward and landed the engine onto the concrete smashing my oil pan and the oil pump pickup tube. That sucked!

[Z Car Barbie]

When I first changed the fuel filter, I followed the procedure of depressurizing the lines, so I assumed no gas would come out...

Needless to say, I got a face full of gas...

LOL, I did the same thing on my '82 280ZX.

Another time, I was removing the steering wheel on my '80 280ZX and thought, "Now why the heck would I need a steering wheel puller?" So, I just gave the column a slight pop with a rubber mallet and BOOM - yup, it came off immediately and slammed into my chin and "the twins". Ouch!

Oh, and another time, I was under my car on my mechanic's creeper and had my hair up in a ponytail. Well, when I tried to roll-out from underneath the car, my hair got caught in one of the creeper's wheels. After several attempts to untangle it, I realized I was stuck. Finally, I managed to squeeze and roll my body off the creeper and out from under the car with my hair still attached to it, then lifted the creeper up and on top of me so that I could unwind my hair. Now that was hilarious! I should have charged my neighbors for that show.

[atraudes]

After almost a year of rebuilding the engine in my 65 Mustang, I made 2 mistakes: I didn't have an oil pressure gauge and the oil pump shaft missed the bottom of the distributor and was sitting just next to it. After the first start and some victory revs, the engine stalled and became harder and harder to crank and start. I was at work when the mechanic called me and told me what had happened.


Yeah, it was like that

Call it an object lesson in how important oil is to an engine. $2000+ and another 6 months later and it was back on its feet again. All things considered, the components held up amazingly well. It needed a new crankshaft as the old one was slightly bent, and the rods and the pistons were salvageable in the end. The bearings, however, melted.

[Buzzman]

Call it an object lesson in how important oil is to an engine. $2000+ and another 6 months later and it was back on its feet again. All things considered, the components held up amazingly well. It needed a new crankshaft as the old one was slightly bent, and the rods and the pistons were salvageable in the end. The bearings, however, melted.

Different circumstances, but similar results:
My first car was a '65 Chevy 4 door Biscayne, straight 6 with a 2 speed powerglide automatic. No options other than an AM radio with one speaker in the dash.
Ah, the good old days.
Anyway, took it in to a local garage for an oil change. Done by a kid just learning the game.
He forgot to tighten the oil pan plug, and it worked loose a few miles down the highway.
Doing 60 MPH, and all the oil poured out.
Didn't notice until it started to labour, and saw a huge cloud of smoke in my rear view mirror.
Done like dinner.
Had it towed back to the garage, where they supposedly fixed it.
Ran like crap after that, and had to get rid of it.
I was only a kid then, and if something like happened to me today, I'd be suing for a new engine.

[Chuck Tribolet]

Buzzman, I was wondering why you didn't post your recent airbag experience and now I see why.

The Biscayne trumps the airbag.

[Leo1998]

I would take the airbag incident over the Biscayne story, just because the oil pan plug wasn't really his fault...But that airbag going off was crazy!

[Buzzman]

I would take the airbag incident over the Biscayne story, just because the oil pan plug wasn't really his fault...But that airbag going off was crazy!

Buzzman, I was wondering why you didn't post your recent airbag experience and now I see why.

The Biscayne trumps the airbag.

ha ha. I actually debated whether I should repeat the airbag story in this blog.
I wasn't sure if anyone bothered to read about it in the other thread.
Personally, the airbag thing is probably the dumbest thing I've done in a long long time.
I can't emphasize enough how loud and violent that thing was. Scared the s*** out of me when it went off.
I can post a picture of the ripped seat back if you're interested.