Mistakes...

[Kidd-7]

Wanted to start what will hopefully be an amusing thread. What kind of mistakes have you made while working on your trucks that most people would say: Thats why I pay for maintenance. I'll start it off.

Years ago I was changing the oil on my first truck and set down the wrench I was using only to discover it the next time I changed the oil under the hood, glad it didn't fly out somewhere.

And more recently; my daughter about 2 or 3 years old wanted to help, so I had her put on the lug nuts. I then took her inside to feed her lunch planning on coming out to snug them up and forgot. We I drove the 71 to work the next day and blew off all the nuts and lost the wheel. That was scary, but thankfully no one was on the road. The funny thing; when the wheel shot off it bounced between 2 bridge pillars I was under and looked like a ping pong ball. Its funny now, but I always tighten them lug nuts down before I walk away.

[gearheads78]

The following is a made up scenerio and has never happend to anyone I know.


There are 4 bolts that hold a ujoint to a rear end. If you are ever in a situation where you tighten 3 and get to the 4th nut and you feel it strip do not do the following even though you have been saving for a 9" rear and waiting 6 months to have you car on the road.

Self: "there are 3 good bolts holding it will be OK you cruise around a little"
Self: "it's 3AM we've been cruising all night it should be OK to get on the deserted toll way and get on it just once"
Self: "That 406 you built feels strong go ahead and hit 2nd"
Self: " This thing screams run it up through 3rd"
5 seconds later Self: "thats an awful lot of noise comming out from under the car and look at the pretty sparks lighting up the sky.

The next day Self: STUPID STUPID STUPID that 30cent bolt cost you a transmission, driveshaft, and complete exhaust system.

[crazy longhorn]

Does Harley bloopers count? At any rate, I did a rejet on my sporty, stuffed the carb back on the intake(with a new seal), & figured that I would fire her up before I put the backplate(which holds the carb on the motor),to check my jetting. Well, room ba.....big snort out the carb, & the damn carb was swingin in the wind on the cables Im just glad there wasnt a ball of fire with it crazyL

[nibs]

I finally get my truck back from Colorado getting an awesome paint job done to the entire truck. Its the first time I get the truck to myself in the year and a half Ive owned it. I had installed an air suspension setup on it and the truck looks great.

Well, I decide Im gonna take her on a maiden voyage over an hour away from home to the upholstry shop and have my guy check it out, maybe spark some ideas. So I jump on the freeway and start cruising. All of a sudden I notice my left rear isnt level anymore, so I give it a little shot of air and make a mental note to check it out when I get home. About 2-3 minutes later, I notice its sagging again. Hmmm, you would think by that point, I would want to exit and see whats going on. After a couple exits, and realizing that this thing isnt holding any air for more than 10 seconds, I make the smart decision to get off and go to a gas station and see whats up. I get under the truck only to find the left rear air line is touching the exhaust hangar and has melted a hole in the line. No f-ing bueno. Im only 20 miles from home, but just that... IM 20 MILES AWAY! Damn... I found an auto parts store across the street, hoping they had some air line. Not a chance. I decide there is only one thing I can do, drive home mini truck style. You know, all aired up in the front, no air in the rear. Cool, I can handle this! I start getting some interesting looks on the road back. I just thought to myself that if im aired out completely in the rear, my diff is slamming the bed. Not good at all! So i put some air in the right rear, just to keep it up a little. I get home and under the truck and see this catastrophe in the making...




Yes, that is a ball of tire in my hand. And thats just the crap on the fender. There was rubber EVERYWHERE, and not only that, but the paint on the other side of the rear fender is charred. I got really lucky I didnt blow out that tire...

This mistake has convinced me that hardlines are in the VERY near future.

[Shyguy]

Last weekend while replacing the cab corners on my '67 I used one of my son's angle grinders. It did not have a guard and needless to say I nicked the fore fingers on both of my hands when the grinder kicked, good thing I was wearing some work gloves. Also my glasses now have a lot of burn specks.

Lesson learned, next time I will take my own power tools to his garage to work on my truck.

When we put the 454 in my '71 I did not look real close how the headers and oil pan clearance was. Later I noticed that since I have a large capacity oil pan the header on the right side is resting on the oil pan. Now the engine has to come out to replace the oil pan, which is ok since the engine is going to be used in the '67 swb stepper we are building for me. My '71 project has gone to one of my grandsons.

[Indyuke]

Last saturday I decided to replace the rear brake hose. I got myself all set up with a blowtorch and some freeze off wart removal. I swung down under there, PB blaster and alternated using the blowtorch and freeze off to expand and contract those fittings and break them loose. After a couple times of that, I was on the blowtorch again heating up the forward fitting, smelling the hot cutting oil and all that goodness... when BOOM! The rubber brake hose blew up in my face... brake fluid all the the place.

Scared me half to death, and then the truck caught on fire! I noticed the now open brake line was hissing tons of white smoke, and thought, "darn! the fire is following the fluid down the line!" I raced around the the front, pulled open the door and pumped the pedal a few times hoping it would push the fire out the brake line and not make it worse. I got lucky.

I got the brake hose off! Yay! lol

[no moa]

There isnt' enough space on the server for all the stupid crap i've done.

[turbostang7]

i was helping a friend fix an exhaust one time, we had no idea that the fuel tank was "fixed" at one time with the type of putty you put in there. i was under there with the torch cutting the exhaust out and he was up top working. the putty gave way at some point and the fuel shot accross hitting the torch! we had one hell of a mess for a minute there!
it was on a 96 chevy pickup so the fuel tank was on the drivers side and the exhaust on the passenger before anyone says anything lol i didn't hit it with the torch
scariest thing that has ever happened to me!

[pops45]

I've been working on getting my 91 blazer back on the road and have pretty much touched everything on the truck. I thought I would take it on a test drive around the block. I got around the corner and after making a turn I hear a loud grinding noise from the front end. So I pull over only to discover no lug nuts on the front wheel and the brake rotor did a nice job grinding the inner wheel. DUH! Fortunately the wheel did not come completely off. Lesson learned- tighten everything before moving on to other stuff.

[FleetsidePaul]

Does getting married to crazy women count? but seriously I think the biggest brain fart I've done was when I was about 16 and changing the oil on my 68 Charger and forgot to put the drain plug back in the pan and poured about 5 quarts of oil into the motor before I realized it was pouring out on to the driveway...what a mess.

[bollybib]

I never make misteaks.

[Shyguy]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

Does getting married to crazy women count? but seriously I think the biggest brain fart I've done was when I was about 16 and changing the oil on my 68 Charger and forgot to put the drain plug back in the pan and poured about 5 quarts of oil into the motor before I realized it was pouring out on to the driveway...what a mess.

Does being married to two crazy women count? Actually they were sane when I married them, maybe I drove them crazy.

I did not do this, but it happened to me on a trip years ago. We were in California traveling with our '92 K-3500 and travel trailer combo.

I noticed it was time to have the tires rotated on the truck so I took it to a Sam's Club and had them do it.

All the way from Northern California to Los Vegas I noticed a slight shimmy in the front end of the truck. After we got setup in a campground I looked at the the front end and noticed that the wheels were cocked on the hubs slightly. They had used an impact wrench to install the tires/rims and did not make sure they were centered. I loosened up the lug nuts and centered them and all was well.

[mpotts64]

going to replace the rear brakes and wheel cylinders because they had been "sticking", drove around and I knew they were stuck, finally beat the drum off after much time cussing, discussing, and drinking (that should have been a clue there, lol), only to find I still had the emergency brake on, did I ever feel smart

[RUSHNBOBO]

Drove home over 50 miles ....ZERO BRAKES !!! that includes e-brake. This "technique" involves the following steps to pull off successfully...(alive)

1.--Preferably a large shoulder areas just before any stop sign, red light or motionless vehicle in front of you.

2.--Manual trans...why? because when the above plan breaks down and your forced to stop, you have to gear down to first, turn the key to the off position and pray aggressively....(only for the very advanced)

3.--Know how to start a manual transmission truck in gear---clutch engaged....if your stopped, engine off, and gravity is not your friend (on a hill) .....how do you get going again?

A. If your on a hill AND the hill is steep enough AND your pointing the right direction (down)..you just "pop" the clutch...easy.

B. If the conditions are unfavorable ... pointing up a hill and stopped ... or worse, rolling slowly backward w/ key still in off position..."THIS IS BAD" Now you must carefully deploy the "make sure your still in first gear w/clutch engaged, turn the key to the START position, and PRAY even harder technique"
You WILL now hear sounds at this point coming from your truck which you SHOULDN'T have ever heard before, but the good news is the engine MIGHT start and you will be back on your journey of near death experiences.

4.-- And the last thing, you MUST have a great battery...when you perform the above step repeatedly ...HOW YOU GONNA START IT ?

[crazy longhorn]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

Does getting married to crazy women count? but seriously I think the biggest brain fart I've done was when I was about 16 and changing the oil on my 68 Charger and forgot to put the drain plug back in the pan and poured about 5 quarts of oil into the motor before I realized it was pouring out on to the driveway...what a mess.

Dude....didnt you know? All of them women are crazy When I was 15-16 yrs old, I asked my Dad, "why are women so crazy?" His reply was, "well kid, you need to figure, if you can live with em ,or without them". My reply was "DAMN daddy, I dont think I can live without that chit".....& the old man snickered crazyL

[WarBeard]

Originally Posted by Kidd-7

And more recently; my daughter about 2 or 3 years old wanted to help, so I had her put on the lug nuts. I then took her inside to feed her lunch planning on coming out to snug them up and forgot. We I drove the 71 to work the next day and blew off all the nuts and lost the wheel. That was scary, but thankfully no one was on the road. The funny thing; when the wheel shot off it bounced between 2 bridge pillars I was under and looked like a ping pong ball. Its funny now, but I always tighten them lug nuts down before I walk away.

Had this happen to me I had just left the freeway and got home and when I pulled into the parking lot I started to feel the rear of my truck swaying. I looked in the side mirror to see my wheel going in and out of the fender. I stopped and this is what I saw. It's a 37'' tire and if that thing would have come off on the freeway it could of done some major damage!

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by crazy longhorn

Dude....didnt you know? All of them women are crazy

Yeah I know but......well what are you gonna do I still love em!

[fastwillie 696969]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

Does getting married to crazy women count? but seriously I think the biggest brain fart I've done was when I was about 16 and changing the oil on my 68 Charger and forgot to put the drain plug back in the pan and poured about 5 quarts of oil into the motor before I realized it was pouring out on to the driveway...what a mess.

u2 crazy women

[elf w/capital T]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

".... changing the oil on my 68 Charger and forgot to put the drain plug back in the pan and poured about 5 quarts of oil into the motor before I realized it was pouring out on to the driveway...what a mess.

hahaha done that one

[rpmerf]

Don't think I have any of these with the truck yet since I haven't had to do too much work on it. Here's a couple from my other cars....

My father's done the lug nut thing on his suburban. We were doing some patchwork on the rear quarter panel. For some reason he thought the torque on the lug nuts should be 75. a could hundred miles later, he's getting on the highway, the rear tire comes off, he drives of it, it bounces up and hits the back sending the truck sideways. Mind you this is on the highway going at least 60mph. It felt like we were going sideways forever. The truck then starts doing 360's across the road and lands in the emergency lane. Amazingly he didn't hit anything.

after rebuilding the engine in my daytona, I forgot to tighten down the oil line to the turbo. Has a nice oil fire on the break in. Didn't destroy anything, but it was sure scary.

again on the daytona, learning to tune. Apparently my car is weird as in I have to disconnect the battery or the tune won't take, most people can flash the chip with the car running. Anyway, if I would tune it without disconnecting the battery, it wouldn't recognize going into boost. I got some detonation, aligned the piston rings, and wiped the crosshatchings off the cylinder walls.

again on the daytona, I put new exhaust on it. 3" downpipe, 3" cutout, 2.5" mandrel bend pipe out the back. The cutout hung kinda low so I could get to it and so it won't melt the body. I was driving on a road that was being repaved. I hit one manhole cover and it knocked the exhaust off the hangers, I hit another one and it folded the exhaust up like an accordion, ripping the wires out of my cutout and smashing the motor on the ground.

my lastest accident with the car was to not check the oil and spin a rod bearing on a WOT run. I replaced the bearing, without any machining. I had done this on a similar car and it lasted for years. Well it was doing fine at 7 psi of boost so I decided to try 16. that extra 9 pound of boost was enough to spin it again.

a couple months ago the front main seal went out in my spirit. I replaced it, and when I started it up it was making this weird knocking/ticking sound. I wasn't sure what it was, and I knew it wasn't actually knocking, so I took it for a couple drives to see if the noise would change. I drove it to school, and when I went to left it ran for a minute and died. Turns out I forgot to tension the timing belt and the timing jumped about 90*

Another time in the spirit, the springs jumped out of the clutch and I drove it about 20 miles that way. Including apartment parking lots that require 3 point turns.

[cleanfreak]

Wow , where do we start!. The most notable I (don't) want to remember is with my 300000 mile suburban tow vehicle , about 500 miles from home, towing trailer. I had front bearing problems 6 months earlier (buddy helping out overtightened). I changed everything myself , thought was ok. Truck starts making wheel bearing like noise , my first thought is my mistake changing . So I keep going. 800 miles later , 6 hours from home , noise gets worse quickly. I pull int rest area in ohio , check front , only to find all is well. - Go to rear , the right rear is only held on by 2 loose nuts (3/4 sub/with 8 bolt) , all the rest of studs were broken and gone. How that wheel stayed on , I'll never know.

[Andy4639]

I changed the oil in my truck long ago the night before I was leaving to work out of town. I didn't notice the oil filter o-ring stayed on the motor. I put the new one on snuged it. Filled it ran it in the drive way cut it off. Everything checked good.
Got up early and started out. Got about 3 miles when I saw my oil gauge just stop working. I pulled over in a parking lot and oil was everywhere. I walked home, no cell back then and everything was closed. I got my tools and changed the oil again. This is when I found the double o-ring.
Still driving it.

[turbostang7]

i just remembered a few that weren't me but i was there for
my uncle was changing his oil in his 86 chev, drained it all out took the filter off and fired her up, came over and was chatting with us, i looked back and noticed it was still dripping oil and said "hey you didn't tighten the plug enough!" he replied "oh im running it to drain all the oil out" we definetly set him straight and about 2k miles later the motor decided it had enough of him lol.

the other one was a co-worker at a construction company i worked for, he spoke broken english, and asked us how to change his oil, we all told him the same thing. show up in the morning and his car is still at the shop, we ask him whats going on and he said he drained it, filled it up and it cranked over for a second and quit cranking. we checked it over for him and when i noticed oil comeing out of the dipstick tube is when he said "it took a lot more oil than you guys said though"
he filled the entire engine clear up to the brim in the valve cover!!

[gearheads78]

Thought of another one.

I was at the track with my 98 street / strip TA. I had just ran the best pass ever of 7.1 in the 1/8 straight motor. I let it cool off a few minutes and went back around for another pass. I am in the staging lanes at idle and out of the corner of my eye the oil pressure gauge dips real low for a split second them back to normal. Hmm.. rev it a couple times sounds ok and oil pressure stays steady. Must for been a glitch lets make one more pass.

Well I should have headed home. The car launches with the best 60ft ever. I shift at 7200 and just as the shift light flashes there is some ugly noise and it shuts down quick. I pull over and look under the car expecting to see all kinds of fluids puking but there is nothing. I was thinking well maybe it no to bad.

I few months later it was time to see what I did. I started with the air cleaner lid and there was pieces of piston and ring in the air cleaner tube. It only got worse from there. Not anything in the short block was savable.