embarrassing moments

[nvrdone]

So Sunday I had the truck out for a drive and I hear a loud bang under the truck and see something passing me going down the street. Turns out it was my harmonic balancer and lower pulley.
Come to find out that Chevy did not use a crankshaft bolt to hold the balancer on until about 1972 and I've got a 65 - 327.
Any way, after getting the truck home, finding a new balancer and pulley I drilled and tapped the nose end of the crank shaft.
With a new balancer bolted on and replacing the water pump - it was making noise. I'm back to enjoying the drive.
Anyone else have things like this happen ?

[Zach B]

I can't say I hav had anything just come off any truck like that but I had a moment that could have gotten me killed a few years back. On my grandfather 55 he did a disc brake conversion and rebilt the front end. We got everything together only to remember that we had left something off. We took the rotter off and finished everything up and put the doted back on. We went for a spin in the truck and had no problems. About 3 days latter I was looking at the truck and noticed the tie rod was loose. We had only just got the nut on there with our hands and forgot to tighten it down all the way. Ontop of that somebody got some weather striping because we had axitently left that on the cab.
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[oldcouple]

Old six in the 57, the rubber that held the dampner gave up. I was near a welding shop, drove in, guy welded it back on. Would hate to be the guy years later that tried to take it off.

Also had the passenger door fly open while turning left, dumped the ex and the baby out in the street. She would never ride in it after that.

[1project2many]

many years ago, second engine I'd ever rebuilt, did nearly the same thing. It was a Buick 455 and the balancer slides on the crank, no press fit. A big washer and large bolt torqued to 114 ft/lbs holds it on. I put the bolt in an torqued it to exactly 114. Exactly! Too bad I forgot the washer. Out on the initial road test, about 10:30 at night, shaky, shaky, shaky then thump! The lights get dim and power steering stops working. No lights, no tools, somehow I figured out what happened. I hiked back to the garage where the work was done and tell the owner I'd screwed up. He replied "I meant to ask about that washer." Couldn't be mad though, he was strictly Chevrolet and hoestly didn't know. I went back out with a breaker bar, pipe, socket, hammer, 12V drop light, and the washer and reassembled it beside the road. It's still on there today.

Also had the passenger door fly open while turning left, dumped the ex and the baby out in the street. She would never ride in it after that.

Yikes! Is that part of the reason she's the ex?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by oldcouple

Also had the passenger door fly open while turning left, dumped the ex and the baby out in the street. She would never ride in it after that.

Not me, but reminds me of something my dad told me:

He was driving along and had to sneeze; he turned his head (sneezed) and accidentally blew his dentures out into the intersection of Woodward and 14 mile....

I always laugh picturing him doing a little jig as he dodged traffic trying to retrieve them.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Same dad (...and same teeth...):

Dad was a diemaker for Chevrolet, so he was at work one time up inside one of the sheetmetal dies, working with a die grinder (a hand tool, like an oversize dremel).

His teeth were bothering him, so he took them out while he was still up in that die....hit a couple problem areas on his dentures with the die grinder.....and then popped his teeth back in his mouth and went back to work.

About that time he looked up and saw the plant manager standing there, watching.

Dad smiled sheepishly while the PM shook his head. He must have been thinking "...did I just see what I thought I just saw?"

K

[Keith Seymore]

Ok - one more (lol)

I had just put a new engine together for my Chevelle and we (me and my buddy Scott) were at the drag strip in Atlanta trying to get it tuned up.

It was starting kinda hard, and the idle was a bit balky, so Scott was gonna do a little tuning under the hood while I was in the driver's seat. He asked me to start it up, so I pumped the accelerator a couple times and gave it a crank....just as he leaned in over the carburetor.

Naturally - it backfired right then. Singed his right eyebrow, hair and part of his beard. Fortunately, he was fine (...and didn't take it out on me!).

He never lets me forget that. In fact, he had his helmet re-painted after that, just to rub it in.

K

[dwcsr]

Originally Posted by nvrdone

So Sunday I had the truck out for a drive and I hear a loud bang under the truck and see something passing me going down the street. Turns out it was my harmonic balancer and lower pulley.
Come to find out that Chevy did not use a crankshaft bolt to hold the balancer on until about 1972 and I've got a 65 - 327.
Any way, after getting the truck home, finding a new balancer and pulley I drilled and tapped the nose end of the crank shaft.
With a new balancer bolted on and replacing the water pump - it was making noise. I'm back to enjoying the drive.
Anyone else have things like this happen ?

I had a 283 that weekly the balancer would come off. I'd bang it back on and it would last a week. I finally drilled the crank after about 20 or so times it fell off.
I will say one thing a 283 will take some heat I must have run that up to 280 at least 4 times and it still kept running.

[mr48chev]

In the mid 70's I had a 57 Panel truck (ex drycleaner truck) with an extremely stout 327 in it that I ran pretty hard at times. I had left work for lunch and got in a stoplight grand prix with a 500 series Mercedes coupe and was pulling him pretty good in first and went for second and the clutch exploded taking the input shaft off the trans and pretty well mangling the bellhousing. I coasted to the side of the street and a couple of minutes later our company wrecker shows up to tow me back to the shop. It took a bit of time to live that one down.

[Highsider]

Excellent thread. All of it is HOF material.
You guys are brave to share, especially "oldguy" and his door story!

[solidaxel]

In the mid 70's one of my Corvette buddies had a 59 with 283 and a 471 blower and the lower Gilmer pulley and H B would come off at high RPM's so to cure the problem we mixed up a batch of JBweld and pounded it back on, quick fix at the drags.

Yes JB weld has been around for a long time and still bails me out !!

[buggy5872]

I was at a friends party and it was 95% ford guys. Pulled out in my 59 short fleet and was going to do a big smokey burn out for the ford guys. Brake on...gas mashed...small churp...rpms went to the top. Blew the spider gears apart. Funning thing was it was a ford rear. My truck was just getting me back for putting a ford rear in it.

[oldcouple]

No, years later she found "jesus" in a bottle of booze and took off to be with him.


Yikes! Is that part of the reason she's the ex?[/QUOTE]

[S10Fan]

I worked in Nascar's "Weekly Racing Series" a few years ago (local tracks) as a race official. I show up at the track one Saturday morning and decide to do a nice long burnout on the back stretch. Power braked my stout V-8 S-10 and broke the accelerator cable. Had to get out and crank up the idle screw so I could coast back to the infield, never heard the end of that.

After dropping in the motor and transmission in my 50 a couple years ago I crawled under the truck to tighten everything up. Crawled back out, stood up and looked at the work bench, torque converter was sitting on the bench, called it a day.

[BLUE49]

I've been looking for the right time and place to tell this story. Over the winter I decided to do two things with my truck. 1) Put power steering in - this worked out great. 2) Remove the two - two barrel carbs and intake and replace with a Holley 390 4 barrel. I soon found out you had to "tune" the Holley, so many backfires thru the carb and $150.00 later I almost had it. Then, on my way to a show one nite, a huge backfire and almost complete loss of power. I'm running a 250 in line which was a NAPA rebuild I bought about 8 yrs. ago, but only has 500 miles on it. So, I have it towed from the show (with red face) and did extensive trouble shooting. Turns out the camshaft had started to pull out of the timing gear and #2 lifters were riding partially on the same cam lobe. Put new cam and lifters in and she's running fine. Love the four barrel.

[tttuba]

In my youth...16 years old...I had a 65 mustang convertible. Straight six and a three speed. Went and rebuilt the motor. Sent the crank and block to be cleaned etc. Put engine back together installed trans and about 50 miles later trans input shaft goes out, Bought another trans...cheep back then ..50.00 and put trans in. Blew trans again. another 50.00 and this time asked my friend's dad who owned the parts store what i could have done. He asked if I put the pilot bushing in the back of the crank. Pilot bushing??? 50 cents later put it in the crank and put trans in. no more problems.

[1project2many]

Pilot bushing??? 50 cents later put it in the crank and put trans in. no more problems.

Haha... I ran my '55 for about a year before I realized I'd never installed a pilot bushing when the junkyard 350 went in. That sure solved a bunch of clutch chatter.

[55dude]

Was looking at a 67 camaro back in the early 80, it was a 283,4spd and when I was gonna test drive it the guy says to rev it and give it hell! Went for it and next thing I knew the balancer was flying through the fiberglass hood! Guy says WOW every time that came off before it went down! Bought the car and fixed it in the guys driveway and guy couldn't believe what I did. Tells me all his buddies told him he had to change the engine because end of crank was worn out. Oil even let him do a major burnout before I drive off. Ended up selling the car to one of his buddies that was sure I had put different engine in car,no just had engine detailed.
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[N.T.Q]

this is not a old car/ truck moment but on a brand new 2003 1500 , went to the dealer ship to test drive it and was looking it over, the guy opens the hood and stats telling me about it, then says jump in and take it for a spin, ok so I and the wife jump in he shuts the hood and we pull out of the lot get going about 10mph and wham the hood fly's open and blows out the windshield. I told the wife it was ok to smoke now as I drove it in reverse back into the lot.

[Bierkan]

Originally Posted by N.T.Q

this is not a old car/ truck moment but on a brand new 2003 1500 , went to the dealer ship to test drive it and was looking it over, the guy opens the hood and stats telling me about it, then says jump in and take it for a spin, ok so I and the wife jump in he shuts the hood and we pull out of the lot get going about 10mph and wham the hood fly's open and blows out the windshield. I told the wife it was ok to smoke now as I drove it in reverse back into the lot.

This happens a lot after used car auto auctions. Bidder 1 opens the hood to examine an engine, only closes it to the safety latch for the convenience of all the other bidders. After the auction, the winner fails to properly close the hood and pretty soon... WHAM.

As an engineer for Dura Automotive (we made hinges) I was trying to find examples of early Ram truck hood hinges from around 94. Every one I found had been replaced. About 10 trucks or so in a 50 mile area. Seems there was an issue with the safety latch not holding on Dodge trucks. Every truck had new hinges, a new windshield and fresh paint on the hood and roof.