Time to fess up ? what have YOU done...

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I did this just recently...

I drained the ATF in our 2010 Honda Element's transmission. I refilled one quart before realizing I hadn't yet put the drain plug back in. At least the drain pan was still there so I didn't make a big mess. The new ATF drained in with the old stuff.

Scott
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Installing a wiper blade on my wife's saturn, I was wrestling with the old blade and wiper arm and its little U-shaped hook went SMACK into the windscreen, cracking it with a nice bulls-eye.

Originally Posted By: morepwr
I hate a leaky thermostat housing in an old Nova with a small block Chevy in it and I decided to change it and put a new thermostat in. So after I had it all apart and I cleaned the surface of the manifold and thermostat housing up really good and glued the new gasket in place, cleaned the bolts and really was proud of my "detail" work. I had it all back together and turned around and there was my brand new thermostat sitting on the workbench! I put it all back together without a thermostat!
Of course I was mad so I didn't fix it right then and drove it for 2 days without a thermostat. Kind of redefined a cold blooded running engine!
Yup I've done both of these lol
 
A few years back I was working on a misfire issue on a 93' Nissan 240SX - with the KA24DE - found an injector that had a bad seal - dumping fuel in the cylinder. But in diagnosing , I had pulled the coil wire off the distributor and let it hang , still attached to the coil. I removed the spark plug to see what was going on and it sprayed gas all over the hood. I failed to tell my wife to stop cranking , when the gas lit due to the coil wire being close enough to a ground source. It lit the underside padding and half the engine on fire. Luckily the garden hose was close by and I put the fire out within a few seconds , but still wonder how it didn't blow up
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. Learned a valuable lesson in killing the coil now ,when checking for fuel leak issues.
 
Originally Posted By: Bud_One
A few years back I was working on a misfire issue on a 93' Nissan 240SX - with the KA24DE - found an injector that had a bad seal - dumping fuel in the cylinder. But in diagnosing , I had pulled the coil wire off the distributor and let it hang , still attached to the coil. I removed the spark plug to see what was going on and it sprayed gas all over the hood. I failed to tell my wife to stop cranking , when the gas lit due to the coil wire being close enough to a ground source. It lit the underside padding and half the engine on fire. Luckily the garden hose was close by and I put the fire out within a few seconds , but still wonder how it didn't blow up
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. Learned a valuable lesson in killing the coil now ,when checking for fuel leak issues.


I think this takes the cake! Can never beat accidental fires! Reminds me of This

A few weeks ago, I set a friend's Jeep on fire when I was welding a new floor pan in. It was expected so we dealt with it.
 
On a related note: My 1987 Camero Z28 developed a smell, and every single day for a week it got worse and worse. I must have put 10 pine tree air fresheners in it, used several cans of smell good spray, all manor of air fresheners to no avail ! I looked around for the offending odors source however I never found anything. After close to two weeks the smell was so rancid it could only be described as "Hot rotting garbage" it was unbearable and the car could not be driven with the windows up. I decided I was going to gut the entire car until the source was located. Then it happened, I got down on hands and knees to unbolt the drivers side seat and the smell was so fierce I couldn't breath through my nose. I reached under the seat only to find a warm wet object touching my hand. I instantly thought it was a dead animal however after getting a glove and scraping out a muddy red mess from under the seat did I realize what I was looking at. A rotten Tomato ! it was rotted mush ! one had rolled out of the bag my grandfather had given me of fresh veggies from his garden. After cleaning up the mess with the seat out of the car figured all would be well. Nope ! the smell was in the carpet and it lingered around. I had enough about a week later and I got a razer knife out and cut out that patch of carpet under the seat out. Talk about a smelly time consuming headache..
 
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I didn't set the parking brake on a 60's ish Econoline, left the door open, left it in neutral, and of course the first object it encountered snapped the door off.

Fortunately, it was just a couple of hinges (snapped in half ) and a cloth strap holding the door on, and it turned into an opportunity to learn rudimentary welding.
 
Let's see. When I was young and dumb, I used petroleum-based graphite anti-seize on bolts and brake slider pins. Used imperial sockets on an all-metric car. Didn't use a torque wrench on lugnuts, just tightened them as much as I could. Changed oil at 3k miles. Jacked the car on the side pinch welds instead of on the subframe cross-members.

I'm not proud to admit it, but I turned a wrench the wrong way a few weeks ago and broke a stud on a transmission mount when I was dropping the subframe to change the oil pan gasket.
 
My friend won't let me forget the time he helped me change the clutch in the Midget. I had bought an inexpensive come-along made in a large, far-eastern country sold through a well-known department store chain, thinking I'll just hoist the engine using the roof truss. Coming out was okay, pushed the car out of the way, then my buddy was ratcheting the engine down, click, click, click, click - WHAM! The ratchets jammed and dropped the engine on the garage floor from about 3 feet up, narrowly missing my foot. Fortunately, no damage except for a flattened corner of the oil pan.

In hindsight, the cost of the come-along and the replacement oil pan from a junkyard would have paid for renting an engine hoist.
 
Changing the.serpentine and supercharger belts on the BPAU.

It was convenient to remove the alternator but not noticing one of the two top mounting bolts was shorter than the other gave one the pleasure of using the longer one in the wrong mount and tightening it right through the rear valve cover.

Many mule kicks.

Trav just reminded me in a prior post.
 
I carried (carry?) on the family tradition of hurting oneself by getting in motorcycle accidents.


In a different thought, this is an excerpt from an employee of the month award of my recently-deceased uncle who grew up on the farm:

...Note the fifth wheel attachment for towing aircraft. That was when the front wheel housing fell off an airplane and it landed without its front wheel. Dad went out measured the round stub, found a steel tube welded it to a plate, bolted it to a truck and they lifted the plane with a crane and set it on the invention and drove it away. It was done quick and worked like a charm!...

Me, I can't imagine doing that.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: morepwr
I hate a leaky thermostat housing in an old Nova with a small block Chevy in it and I decided to change it and put a new thermostat in. So after I had it all apart and I cleaned the surface of the manifold and thermostat housing up really good and glued the new gasket in place, cleaned the bolts and really was proud of my "detail" work. I had it all back together and turned around and there was my brand new thermostat sitting on the workbench!


Replace "thermostat" with "brake line tube nut" and that's me half the time.

Wow, nice flare. Hey, where's the nut?


Replace "nut" with shrink tubing, and that is me most the time...

Wow, nice job on that solder joint. Where is the shrink tube?
 
A couple years ago I was changing the ATF and filter in my Nissan. After I got home with the new filter/gasket and a couple gallons of ATF, I pull into the garage, put the car up on jackstands, crawled under, drained the transmission, and dropped the pan. Carefully removed the bolts that hold the filter to the valve body and lowered that out of the way.

Spent an hour cleaning up the pan, removing the old gasket material, cleaning the magnet, etc. Hop back into the car, grab the new pan gasket out of the box, carefully lay it onto the pan flange, got it all lined up, hop back under the car where I carefully put the pan back on, and torqued all 20 or so bolts just right.

Went around front and under the hood, popped the dipstick out, and poured four quarts of ATF into the transmission.

Cleaned up all my tools, put them away, went inside, washed up, put on a new jacket, and went back into the garage.

Glad that this dirty, smelly job was behind me and I was good to go for another couple years, I cheerfully hop into the drivers seat, and started her up. I reach over to the shifter to row it through reverse, neutral, drive, etc before I confirm the ATF level on the dipstick, and with the engine running and foot on the brake pedal, as I look down toward the shifter, it catches my eye......

The Autozone bag, with the open filter box sitting on top of it... and my brand new filter sitting on top of the opened box, neatly wrapped in its clear bag, waiting for me to put it on. Not only did I forget the new filter, I forgot to put ANY filter back on. I shut the car off, sat there for a minute, gazing expressionless into space, uttered a few expletives, and started all over.

My two hour job turned into a four hour job.

That job out of the way finally, I figured I'd change the oil in the Sequoia while I was out there. Pulled her in, dropped the big metal skidplate, and drained the oil and removed the filter. New filter on, drain bolt torqued, and reinstalled the skid plate. Filled it with new oil, started it up, oil pressure good. A quick check underneath... no leaks.... good to go. I back out of the garage and take a short hop around the neighborhood. I pull back in the driveway and slowly approach the garage. I figured I'd just pull back in and check the dipstick and top up if necessary. I creep in and the truck comes to a sudden stop. Must be rolling over a stray socket or something, so I give it a tiny bit of gas. The truck strains a little and goes nowhere. I'm about 3/4 of the way in, so figuring I had room I give it a tiny bit more gas this time. Finally it lurches forward and as it does that... KA-BLUMP..I hear a slurpy thud. I throw it in park, mutter out a loud "what the censored did I just do??" and take a peak under the truck. There was my flattened drain pan, sitting under my right front tire, and seven quarts of used oil are quickly flowing toward my shoe, dripping off the tire, the underside of the truck, dripping down the garage wall, and drowning the tools on the garage floor.

Some days you just shouldnt be working on cars.
 
My first oil change on the W126 Mercedes. I was all ready to go with oil and filter when I discovered I didn't have the right socket to undo the cartridge filter's cap. So I drove 1/2 mile to the parts store, got the socket, came back, drained and refilled the oil and changed the filter . . . and found I'd left the oil filler cap off earlier before taking off for the parts store. The M116 engine hadn't shot oil everywhere, but the cap was nowhere to be found.

I guess I could have driven back, but I wanted to see if I could find the cap. So I walked the half mile back to the parts store, examining the ground as I went. No cap. So I bought an aftermarket cap and walked back, on a hot sunny Denver morning.
 
haha, great thread.

Many stories like this in 40 years of fleet and personal work.

One time a 1963 Tbird I owned needed an oil change. Quick as a wink I had it done. Then I roared out on the street for a couple of passes on that big 390.

There was a gasket stuck to the oil filter mount and I pumped almost every drop out of the engine in just a couple minutes. Thank goodness I didn't go for a real cruise somewhere!

Engine was fine, but ever since I am a stickler about checking for leaks...
 
I forgot to put the fill cap back on my Omega once too. I drove around for a few days and then noticed this odd little ridge growing out of the middle of the hood....
I had put the fill cap on the air cleaner and it was still there, but it had rolled a dent from the inside with the engine movement over the last 100km.
There was a little oil sprayed out, but not too much.
 
Siphoned PSF in LS400 reservoir some years ago, instead of pouring in PSF I poured brake fluid into reservoir, as soon as I started I recognized that the bottle was brake fluid, the PSF had the same shape and size.

Siphon the PS reservoir 3 times with PSF, luckily power steering system didn't damage.
 
Originally Posted By: DriveHard
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: morepwr
I hate a leaky thermostat housing in an old Nova with a small block Chevy in it and I decided to change it and put a new thermostat in. So after I had it all apart and I cleaned the surface of the manifold and thermostat housing up really good and glued the new gasket in place, cleaned the bolts and really was proud of my "detail" work. I had it all back together and turned around and there was my brand new thermostat sitting on the workbench!


Replace "thermostat" with "brake line tube nut" and that's me half the time.

Wow, nice flare. Hey, where's the nut?


Replace "nut" with shrink tubing, and that is me most the time...

Wow, nice job on that solder joint. Where is the shrink tube?
Ring for the nicely soldered PL 259? Still in the package.
frown.gif
 
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I was rebuilding a bike motor and swapped the caps on #2 and #3 rods. Ended up spinning a bearing at about 14k RPM at the very end of an otherwise successful race weekend. Didn't see the mistake until I was pulling it apart and saw my mismatched marks. I had to send the crank out to Falicon to be repaired and ended up replacing all the rods and bearings.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Siphoned PSF in LS400 reservoir some years ago, instead of pouring in PSF I poured brake fluid into reservoir, as soon as I started I recognized that the bottle was brake fluid, the PSF had the same shape and size.

Siphon the PS reservoir 3 times with PSF, luckily power steering system didn't damage.
I thought they took ATF in the power steering?
 
Installed a rebuilt TH700 in a GMC conversion van, got it in, was going to get a funnel to fill the ATF, when I noticed the torque converter on the workbench.
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Got to do that again.

Helping install a junkyard TH350 in a 70's Chevelle (with a 305, IIRC), I managed to drop it on myself.
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First drum brake job, my grandmother's 1971 Chrysler T&C...didn't have drum brake tools, was using my uncle's screwdriver method. While removing the front shoes, I got the springs off. The first was no problem...the second one shot right into my crotch.
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I then jumped forward and cracked my melon on the fender.

I then went to Sears and bought drum brake spring tools.
 
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