Admit your Garage Mistakes - Page 2

InitialD · 08-01-2005, 01:28 AM

Ohhh Sooo many to list

1. John_xr6, a friend of his and I were cutting the TBAR mound out of a EA wreck in my garage, hit a fuel line, managed to set my concrete floor on fire. they laughed, I had a small heartattack!

2. Trying to start my old XE for 2hrs after changing my leads, thinking it was them! Turned out to be i forgot to flick the kill switch off

3. Leaving my EA Wagon parts car's LHS sitting on stock Car jacks cause i was too lazy to put wheels on it, then leaning on it, watching it Fall off the jacks and it crash to the floor

4. Stupidly Connecting the battery around the wrong way and frying 1/2 the enginebay electrics on my XD parts car

5. Chasing my 14" Spare tyre down the road as i left it leaning on my XE in the carport and watching it roll down the driveway and down the road

6. Calling my Clutch fan a "Propellor" at a EAFALCON club meet, ahh I still get crap for that

7. Dropping many Bonnets and Bootlids on my head because they couldnt stay up!

8. Leaving a 14"mm Socket and breakerbar attached to the inlet manafold of my EA and driving around for 1hr before hearing "ding ding ding" on the ground

9. While removing springs from a EA, slicing about 2mm off my finger cause it got caught on the LHS Guard

09-01-2005, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InitialD

5. Chasing my 14" Spare tyre down the road as i left it leaning on my XE in the carport and watching it roll down the driveway and down the road

I did something similar to that 2 years ago, when changine the tyre on my first car (a 1982 KA Laser)....

Except it went across the road, and through someone's window. Fortunately they saw the light side of it, but I still had to pay for it :tosser1:

Mind you, I did get a Linkin Park album out of it when I entered that story into a competition for most embarrassing moments!

neb · 08-01-2005, 02:20 AM

i had to use a jimmy bar to move my alternator to get the alternator belt tight. the thread on the adjusting thing is stuffed. anyway without realising i left the bar sitting under the bonnet on the side next to the overflow bottle and battery. after driving around for a while i noticed a clunking sound coming from the engine bay.. and found out it was that. it left a very small dent in the bonnet.. not that noticable but enough to be annoying.

Also I bought a car stereo amplifier a while ago and one day it just stopped working.. so I checked the amp fuse, all the wires were hooked up fine, but it just wouldn't turn on. I took it back to the shop waited about 4 weeks for it to come back only to find out that they said there is nothing wrong with it works fine. So i put it back in the car and worked out that the fuse in the power wire near the battery had blown.. i had looked at it earlier but it looked ok. I felt pretty stupid!

SileNceR · 08-01-2005, 03:24 AM

Using some old crappy milk hose from my "donor car" for my cooling system when I converted the EA to MPI. got half way round the block after i'd let the car warm up, gave it hell and all of a sudden the coolant light came on...doh..

5l of brand new coolant and I needed to go get a new hose... glad I had my mobile handy.

Psycho Chicken · 08-01-2005, 03:34 AM

Dropping the diff to play with the rear suspension. Had the car on a hoist, shockers unbolted, diff wouldn't drop fully. Got in the back to find one of the shockers had a lip on the rod, it'd caught on the body. Easy enough, I'll just flick it out of the way. BIG MISTAKE! The weight of the diff pulled the shocker right down, and the nut on the end of it cleaned up my fingers on the way past. Lots of blood that day.

Over tightening my rocker cover bolts and busting the rocker pedestals.

When I put the BBM on the first time I put the fuel lines on with the manifold on the engine. The bastard leaked fuel when I turned it off. Looking under the car I saw it coming off the fuel hose to line connection. I put so many bloody hose clamps on it beyond FT but the bastard kepr leaking. Later on we had a decent look at saw the fuel leaking from the fuel hose to rail connection and running down the hose......

Crushed a spark plug lead getting said BBM on.

Exhaust leaks. I should of never pulled it apart.

Putting a hose clamp on the rear brake lines for some private road fun. Couldn't figure out why the rear brakes were locking on. After about 3 shots I remembered the EA-ED hand brake actually closed the calipers, it's not a drum hand brake. Put the hose clamp on with the hand brake off and boy did that set of tyres cop it.

Thanatos · 08-01-2005, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psycho Chicken

When I put the BBM on the first time I put the fuel lines on with the manifold on the engine. The bastard leaked fuel when I turned it off. Looking under the car I saw it coming off the fuel hose to line connection. I put so many bloody hose clamps on it beyond FT but the bastard kepr leaking. Later on we had a decent look at saw the fuel leaking from the fuel hose to rail connection and running down the hose......

WHO realised??? I seem to recall the words "Dude, this seriously looks like it's coming from up higher" being used. :P lol

As for my biggest mistake: Leaving a screwdriver on the shocktower of my EA, driving to the shop to get something, get halfway there and the throttle is suddenly stuck at 2500rpm! Luckily the car is a manual so i could just put it in neutral and coast to a stop. Pop the bonnet, only to see the screwdriver wedged into the throttle linkage, holding it open at exactly 2500rpm.

Psycho Chicken · 08-01-2005, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thanatos

WHO realised??? I seem to recall the words "Dude, this seriously looks like it's coming from up higher" being used. :P lol

I was the one who saw the fuel dripping off the heater tap :P

I've also got a dint in my compliance plate from a thermostat that was left on top of it when I closed the bonnet.

And the number of times I've had to machine the rear discs on a car at work. Get the caliper off, try to pull the disc off, won't budge. Screw the bolts into the little holes on the disc, still isn't coming. WTF?! CRAP! Subarus have a drum hand brakes! Wash my hands, lower the hoist, take the handbrake off, raise the hoist, disc pops off first shot.

Abacus · 03-01-2006, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thanatos

Leaving a screwdriver on the shocktower of my EA, driving to the shop to get something, get halfway there and the throttle is suddenly stuck at 2500rpm! Luckily the car is a manual so i could just put it in neutral and coast to a stop. Pop the bonnet, only to see the screwdriver wedged into the throttle linkage, holding it open at exactly 2500rpm.

Similar thing happened to me - but I didn't do it. Put my Alfa GTV6 in for a service, and the mechanic somehow left a rag in the airbox under the filter. Drove to a friends place for dinner later that night. Friend lived in a cul-de-sac. I gave the car a bootful coming into the street and the rag got sucked into the throttle, where it held the sucker WIDE OPEN. I was able to get the ignition turned off, stop the car, and avoid hitting the crash barrier at the end of the street, but jeez it was close. Mate thought it was hilarious...

jcxr · 03-01-2006, 07:11 PM

Started my new xa 351 fairmont GS up after a party at my mates house, only to the wost banging and clunking rotational noise you could imagine, shut it down,restarted it ,still clunkiing.only to find their cat stuck in the radiator shrould.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BIG LOL

Mike Gayner · 08-01-2005, 09:47 AM

Was under my car checking out the buggered diff about a week ago. I was in a hurry and no one was around to help me push the shitter so I had the car jacked up on the grass. Both of the stands collapsed into the grass at the same time and the car came down on me. Thank god the peice of shit is stock height and still had it's wheels on, or I would surely had been severely injured or possibly killed. It hurt like hell but I managed to get out from under the car (fuel tank landed on me, bent a little). Tell ya what though, the site of a car falling off the jack stands while you are under it is the scariest thing I have ever seen.

Other dumb mistakes, let's see.... Spent half an hour trying to get the center out of an old EA diff before realising it still had the axles in it.

When removing said diff from vehicle, left the brake pipes connected. Two very out of shape pipes. Some hand bending and a few cable ties fixed that.

Backed a fully restored Hillman Humber off the four post hoist - without realising the hoist was still a foot in the air. Thankfully the only damage was a very flat exhaust.

Drove my shitty EA onto a two post hoist going way too fast at a really funky angle and popped the LF tyre on one of the arms.

After about an hour of mig welding, realised I hadn't disconnected the battery on the 1999 Nissan Primera - thankfully there was no damage.

That's all I can think of right now. Man, looking back at some of the dumb shit I've done really makes me feel like an idiot.

AlbertM · 08-01-2005, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Gayner

Was under my car checking out the buggered diff about a week ago. I was in a hurry and no one was around to help me push the shitter so I had the car jacked up on the grass. Both of the stands collapsed into the grass at the same time and the car came down on me. Thank god the peice of shit is stock height and still had it's wheels on, or I would surely had been severely injured or possibly killed. It hurt like hell but I managed to get out from under the car (fuel tank landed on me, bent a little). Tell ya what though, the site of a car falling off the jack stands while you are under it is the scariest thing I have ever seen.

Go out and buy a lotto ticket!

Only have one slip up. Just got my P's and had the XD for about a 1month it needed and engine overhaul, new bearings, pistons, cam, lifters head re done and so on. Anyhow to cut cost I went for a second hand cam shaft, $50 and near brand new, how could I loose. After 3 hrs of putting the engine back in the car(I was so proud I did it all by myself and I was only 17).

While trying to start the car it was hard to crank over, flames shot out the carby and a big clunk. Took the tappet cover off and 2 push rods are bent.

Point is, don't put a 250 side flow cam into a 4.1l cross flow engine.

Blue Oval Mopar Man · 03-01-2006, 12:35 PM

My god there are a few people on here who have been close to receiving a Darwin Award !

One of my mates was rebuilding the carby on his 6cyl VB commodoore and found the carby kit he bought that arfternoon was the wrong one and the shops were now closed , so he decided to do some other things to the car while it was in bits ! Fixed his tacho, not thinking tried to start the car to see the tacho work. the steel fuel line went to nothing just above a gapping hole in the intake manifold where the carby used to sit ! LOTS OF FUEL, WIDE OPEN THROTTLE ! Yep , that tacho surely worked ! After about 5 seconds of full revs , he switched the ignition off , big backfire , fuel everywhere , needed 2 X 1.5 kg BCF fire extinguishers to kill the flames! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Now that was funny!

OzJavelin · 03-01-2006, 05:25 PM

Having to hotwire my '68 Pontiac Safari wagon (400Chev and PG) to start 'cos of faulty ignition switch .. forgetting it was actually in drive and that I had removed the throttle return spring. Standing on the brakes with it in Drive (didn't want it over reving in neutral), trying to stop it punching thru the shed wall and desperately trying to pull wires out from under dashboard to stop it!

Redrum · 03-01-2006, 07:51 PM

After big stereo install job on AU XR8 ute which included moving engine management unit I went to start car and it wouldn't go. Forgot to ground the EMU...........

Casper · 08-01-2005, 10:02 AM

Ok, I havent had too many apart from the usual throwing of tools when a nut/bolt/screw refused to budge.

The one really stupid one I did was:

Replacing the diff in the XD after blowing it I had undone and removed all the U bolts holding it to the leaf springs. I then undid the unijoint at the tail end of the tailshaft so the diff was free to come out. Problem was it wouldnt budge. So after much cursing and tugging I climbed under the car and lay down under it to give the diff a big kick to move it. I kicked, it moved, the tailshaft cam free and dropped hitting me across one knee and also inbetween my legs.....PAIN. I shot straight up and headbutted a u bolt holding my muffler on. So one very sore knee, sorer private parts and bleeding forhead later I got the diff out.

Thanatos · 08-01-2005, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casper

Ok, I havent had too many apart from the usual throwing of tools when a nut/bolt/screw refused to budge.

The one really stupid one I did was:

Replacing the diff in the XD after blowing it I had undone and removed all the U bolts holding it to the leaf springs. I then undid the unijoint at the tail end of the tailshaft so the diff was free to come out. Problem was it wouldnt budge. So after much cursing and tugging I climbed under the car and lay down under it to give the diff a big kick to move it. I kicked, it moved, the tailshaft cam free and dropped hitting me across one knee and also inbetween my legs.....PAIN. I shot straight up and headbutted a u bolt holding my muffler on. So one very sore knee, sorer private parts and bleeding forhead later I got the diff out.

HAHAHAHA! That's GOLD! The mental picture created by that is priceless! roflmao

Casper · 08-01-2005, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thanatos

HAHAHAHA! That's GOLD! The mental picture created by that is priceless! roflmao

Thanks....my limp thanks you too.
Even worse was that the driveway hadnt been concreted yet so I was doing it all on crushed rock...in the middle of winter....at about 10pm......and I needed the car for work the next day.

Some of you know I dont work on my car any more...now your getting an idea of WHY!

RESPEC6 · 17-06-2010, 02:49 PM

ahhhhh this is an interesting thread lol

I have accidentally drilled into a heater fan in my old VR SS commodore = removal of dash and heater box = no fun..

Racecraft · 08-01-2005, 11:20 AM

my sneakiest failure:-
Reversing a car onto the 4 post hoist at work, (we cut the safety stops off the ramps to get low cars up and down<-- important factor in the unfolding events) Left the car in neutral and hand brake off. THru it up in the air and dragged the sissor lift to the tow bar to lift the body of the car up so i could roll the rear guards..Well, I didnt allow for the change of angle as i raised it, then TWAck the car bounced off the lift and started to gradually roll forwards.. Bam! rolled nose first off the front of the 6 foot high hoist... The front end was butted into the ground and the rear was beached on the edge of the hoist.
By this time I was 20 metres away white as a sheet just spectating.. Dropped the hoist and replaced the front bar cover with a spare and no one ever found out.

Des · 03-01-2006, 06:06 PM

1. My uncle gave me the lead to a Hillman Hunter he owned years ago and asked me to stick my finger over the end and tell him if it was sucking in air when he kicked it over....Him and my old-man were in tears with the results.
2. Off topic slightly. I was firing up the power to the 4.5 inch gun turret at the Naval Gunnery Range when the main switch (440 volt 60Hz) distribution box door wouldn't stay open. So I held it with one hand and flicked the switch. So what? The power is grounded through the distribution board. You wouldn't believe how much adrenalin flows through after that "little" shock!
3. When I was 15, an older mate and I put some oil into his HQ. The level kept dropping, so we filled it up until you could see it from the rocker cover. It was blowing some smoke, so we took it back to his old-man to ask what he thought the problem was....
4. Opening the bonnet on the BA with the wipers "up". Nice little scratch that really impressed me.

Hitman · 08-01-2005, 11:46 AM

I have a few, but I'll only list the ones that have cost me money to rectify..

When I had my XD 302c I decided it would be a good idea to fit a bigger cam to get some more grunt, didn't matter that the motor was bone stock. So I went out and bought a TQ30 cam, which from memory has about .520 thou lift. The next day I headed off for Monkey Mia, in northern W.A, only to break a valve spring 400k's up the road and drop a valve and destroy the motor. ended up costing me about $2200 for a new motor and to get the car home.

Destroying the C4 Auto in the same car with the recently fitted motor, running late for work and living in Somers at the time, there is a long straight road leading out of Somers that I thought would be a good place to make up some time, and being early in the morning decided to give it a bit. So I'm doing 196k/ph (thats what the speed said anyway) and when I lift off to slow down there is a horrible vibration then an almighty bang. I looked in the rearview mirror to see if anything had fallen off only to see a cloud of white smoke and a largish peice of metal flying through the air about 30ft off the ground.....shit I think.....stand on the brakes and pull it to a stop, get out and have a look around, can't see anything obviously wrong, apart from the car idling very rough, have alook under the car, and see what the problem is.....The C4 has lunched itself. The bellhousing had broken into 4 peices, it snapped the starter motor off, broke the input shaft, bent the output shaft, broke the extension housing clean off, and the peice of metal exiting out the rear of the car, was half of the driveshaft, I never found the other half. that episode only cost me $500 or so, and 2 taillights, coz I kicked them in out of frustration.

Changing a cam again.....
Took a week off work so I could muck around with the car and do a cam change.
All went smoothly until it came time to fire up the car with the new cam in it.
My Dad and myself tried for 3-4 days to get it going, adjusting the dizzy recharging batteries overnight coz they had been flattened trying to get it going, pulling it apart TWICE because the oil pump drive fell into the sump, we finally gave up and organised to have a friend of my dad's who has his own workshop to look at it, thing was he was in Clayton, and I was in Glen Forbes, about 100k's away, so I Borrow a car, Hire a trailer and get the car up to him, he looks at it for 2 minutes and says the distributor is buggered......It seems when I was puttign it back together I broke the hall sensor.
So that one cost me about $300. Second hand dissy, trailer hire andd fuel.

Sunburst50 · 08-01-2005, 11:30 PM

I too have done a few of the things mentioned above . I can add the following.

I just finished changing the rear brake pads and tightening the wheels then i placed the mag wheel lock nut on the roof of the car so I would remember to put it in the glove box when I got in the car. Sure enough I forgot and went for a drive to bed in the brake pads with the wheel lock nut on the roof. I spent many hours with a punch and hammer getting those lock nuts off!

First time I did a oil change in my new garage I had the car up on ramps , removed the sump plug walked away to have a cuppa while the oil drained and came back to see about half the oil all over the floor . It was a windy day and the garage is a drive through and I had both doors opened to give me good ventilation while I worked. What a mess!

AUIIISR · 09-02-2007, 02:35 AM

[QUOTE=AU Man]I too have done a few of the things mentioned above . I can add the following.

I just finished changing the rear brake pads and tightening the wheels then i placed the mag wheel lock nut on the roof of the car so I would remember to put it in the glove box when I got in the car. Sure enough I forgot and went for a drive to bed in the brake pads with the wheel lock nut on the roof. I spent many hours with a punch and hammer getting those lock nuts off!QUOTE]

Cut the end off a spark plug and belt it on with a mallet :evil3:

OzJavelin · 09-02-2007, 08:15 AM

Threw an power extension lead over the top of a car (work in progress). When I walked around the other side I realised it had landed in a 44-gallon drum of water (from the washing machine in the shed). I stuck my hand in the drum of water and retrieved the end of the lead .. walked back to where it was plugged in an realised it was still turned on?! Don't know why I didn't get a shock?

Kryton · 08-01-2005, 11:49 PM

my dumbest mistake was when i had the VL (mistake 1) reversed into the shed. the enterance to the shed slopes downwards, and the front wheels were on this slope. i was going to change the rear shocks so i put it in gear and applied the handbrake to stop it rolling. this was all good till i was laying on the ground, positioning the jack underneath, when i decided that if i jack it up from the centre of the diff i could get to both side at the same time instead of jacking it up again.
well there i was, laying on my back, jacking the car up and BOTH the rear wheels have left the ground. naturally being a trolley jack, the car has decided that it would like to start rolling out of the shed and there wasnt much i could do about it except for trying to reach a screw driver to release the jack back down. there i was, holding a whole car with one hand stopping it rolling away and trying to let it down at the same time....and there was no one else home either so i was Fu%ked!!
managed to let it down before it got away but that was adumb lesson learned VERY quickly!!

svo347 · 05-01-2006, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davway

my dumbest mistake was when i had the VL (mistake 1) reversed into the shed. the enterance to the shed slopes downwards, and the front wheels were on this slope. i was going to change the rear shocks so i put it in gear and applied the handbrake to stop it rolling. this was all good till i was laying on the ground, positioning the jack underneath, when i decided that if i jack it up from the centre of the diff i could get to both side at the same time instead of jacking it up again.
well there i was, laying on my back, jacking the car up and BOTH the rear wheels have left the ground. naturally being a trolley jack, the car has decided that it would like to start rolling out of the shed and there wasnt much i could do about it except for trying to reach a screw driver to release the jack back down. there i was, holding a whole car with one hand stopping it rolling away and trying to let it down at the same time....and there was no one else home either so i was Fu%ked!!
managed to let it down before it got away but that was adumb lesson learned VERY quickly!!

Sounds worse than that Hot Donut mate hehehehehe

**Captain Stubing** · 09-01-2005, 12:45 AM

Most recent, was when I bought a road bike (not running), piece of cake! No spark on 2 cylinders, so I bought a couple of coils for it... still no spark! It's gotta be the pickups! Bought a set of pickups for it... still no spark! 120 bucks down, and a week of scratching my head... I tried swapping the sparkplugs... it's sparking??? Set of new sparkplugs... and it's on the road!

Most stupid... bought an XY falcon, found some reconditioned doors and guards, had been sitting in a Longreach Ford dealership for 20 years, but before I set off on the road to restoration, I set off on a 6week journey, travelling 5,500 k's chasing a skirt. Problem was, before I left, I checked the oil, water, fluids, etc... and left Longreach without putting the radiator cap back on. Good old Falcon made it 400 k's before she let me know. In 6 weeks of travelling, I had 6 new head gaskets, and ended up doing the restoration when I got home, throwing out the motor in favour of a 302.

blue fairy · 09-01-2005, 01:06 AM

Engine oil in Power steering...
Not my proudest moment.

JC · 09-01-2005, 01:25 AM

Too mnay little dumb things but fixing them has only ever really cost me time.

But the dumbest thing I did in the garage that nearly cost me a lot was when I fitted accelerator and brake pedal covers (the ones helds on with screws & metal tabs) to my AU2 Forte V8 auto. They were fine until I went to a track day at Wakefield Park. Coming off the back straight into the hairpin, I had just overtaken someone and it was time to step on the brakes. Step I did, STOP the car did NOT! I ended up going off sideways at around 130km/h, through the edge of the gravel trap and only stopped when I chucked the car into neutral and ripped the handbrake on. Of course this spun me 180 degrees, so I nearly backed into the wall - in the end, I missed the wall by the width of the car.

The cause of this? The screws holding the pedal cover on to the accelarator pedal embedded themselves in the carpet (obviously I was flat to the floor coming out of the kink!), causing the throttle to stick from INSIDE the car! Solution - angle grind those screws down!

To say I thought I was going to have a big stack would be an understatement - to walk away from it with only two sand blasted rims, and a few stones caught between the front tyre and the rim was miraculous.

james22 · 31-01-2007, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JC

Too mnay little dumb things but fixing them has only ever really cost me time.

But the dumbest thing I did in the garage that nearly cost me a lot was when I fitted accelerator and brake pedal covers (the ones helds on with screws & metal tabs) to my AU2 Forte V8 auto. They were fine until I went to a track day at Wakefield Park. Coming off the back straight into the hairpin, I had just overtaken someone and it was time to step on the brakes. Step I did, STOP the car did NOT! I ended up going off sideways at around 130km/h, through the edge of the gravel trap and only stopped when I chucked the car into neutral and ripped the handbrake on. Of course this spun me 180 degrees, so I nearly backed into the wall - in the end, I missed the wall by the width of the car.

The cause of this? The screws holding the pedal cover on to the accelarator pedal embedded themselves in the carpet (obviously I was flat to the floor coming out of the kink!), causing the throttle to stick from INSIDE the car! Solution - angle grind those screws down!

To say I thought I was going to have a big stack would be an understatement - to walk away from it with only two sand blasted rims, and a few stones caught between the front tyre and the rim was miraculous.

Been there done that, except it caused me to run up the *** of a truck between orange and bathurst in the EA.

I was accelerating to overtake the truck, pulled out into the opposing lane, seen a car heading towards me, so i pulled back in and backed off. Unfortunately when i took my foot off the accelerator nothing happened, and I ploughed into the semi at about 125-130. Scared the **** outta me, I'll never buy those crap pedals ever again.