1) Forgot to fully tighten lug nuts when rotating Mom's tires. One wheel came off while she was driving and passed her on the road when she slowed down.

2) Borrowed friend's Dad's Buick for a trip from NY to Virginia Beach. Smart enough to check the oil on the way back. Dumb enough to not fully close the hood when I finished.

The hood tried to stay back in Virginia Beach when I hit 65mph leaving town.

Both happened when I was 17 (many years ago).

I still keep my wrenching to a minimum if possible.

I fell asleep under my Falcon while watching the oil drain into a pan. Slept a good 4 hours.

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Satan creates nothing: he only ruins everything. He does not invent: he tampers. And his followers are no different ~ Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigaṇ

i will skip the dumbest thing.

but i have more than once forgotten to replace the oil drain plug. and watched the oil run down next to my feet!

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

C'mon. Don't be shy.

How's the hip doing? My incision's still a pain in the a** (which is where it's located), especially in this cold.

Only time I did something like that was on my '59 International Travelall panel truck, the oil filter had a thick gasket, thicker than normal, and I didn't realize the old one was still stuck in place. Somehow it didn't work with two of them and my dad instructed me that I would need to get the oil off of the garage floor with old newspapers and rags.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

LOL. I am sure the oil had all drained out. lol. You must have been dead tired.

I often fall asleep here at my computer desk.

Put it on ramps (rear wheels) then put two spare wheels under the rear differential for added safety. Changer the muffler all day, cleaned up, hoped in and drove it off the ramps onto the wheels with tires mounted... the best of them was punctured through the sidewall by the brand new muffler clamp.

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-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831799-post13.html
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/831807-post14.html

I was startled awake and didnt know where I was for a few.

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Satan creates nothing: he only ruins everything. He does not invent: he tampers. And his followers are no different ~ Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigaṇ

^I fell asleep under a peterbuilt while servicing it. everyone else was at lunch. woke up to the boss firing her up to pull out.
Now That was a rude awakening. a 3406 cat rumbling to life right overhead. my head still hurts from where i hit the under carriage when i think of that.

from then on, if I got sleepy, I'd stick my legs out the side so they'd see me and wake me up!

now other than that, Ive never done anything stoopid

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1984 123.193 372,xxx miles, room for Seven.

1999 Dodge Durango Cummins 4BTAA 47RE 5k lb 4x4 getting 25+mpgs, room for Seven.

Took the last bolt out of a halfshaft and it came crashing down on my face. Good thing the other half was still attached.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

ok, here is the second stupidist thing.

i used to have a 51 caddy hearse. 144" wheelbase 6100#. i was once doing some things under the car. to get it up where i wanted it i pulled it all the way forward in the garage and put some ramps on the rear wheels and backed up onto the ramps. then i set the brake and got out. it still wasn't high enough so i then jacked up the front with a screw jack. so i did whatever it was that i wanted to do to it and somewhere along the line i released the parking brake, i suppose. so i went around in front of the car and started to let the jack down.

now mind you there was about 4' between the car and the end of the garage. and i was crouched there cranking the screw jack down. as soon as the jack let the weight off of itself the car started rolling down the ramp.

now mind you i am in between the car and the end of the garage and the 6100 # caddy is rolling down the infernal ramp and gathering speed. so i jumped sideways and missed being trapped between the car and the end of the garage by a cat whisker.

headlines:....."local architect found squished between his 51 caddy hearse and the end of the garage"....

oh my yes that would have been a good one!

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

My father loaned me his homebuilt battery charger to charge up the dead battery on my '64 Chevelle. I balanced it on top of the radiator support, and hooked it up. After a while I simply came back out, got in the car and started it up. So the battery charger toppled off the radiator and into the running fan. OOPS. Big mess. My dad didn't appreciate that, and let me know.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

I got so pissed at something that wasn't going right on the car I was working on that I whipped a 3/4 impact socket at the floor. it bounced and cracked the windsheild. The real bad thing is that it was a customers 79 regal! In those days the cutlasses and regals had the radio antenna in the windsheild. Mine on my cutlass was already broke and I had one that was like new with the tinting on the top. Without saying a word that one went into the customers car. 2 weeks later I see him and he says "By the way, thanks for tinting my windsheild"

2nd stupidest?
I was driving a 84 GMC tow truck with a 454 and decided to challenge a similar year Monte Carlo SS to see who would cross the intersection first. Rev to 3000 and dump the clutch and drop the 2 piece drive shaft center support to the ground! The truck was 1 year old and it tore the metal out of the floor! I was 16 in both.

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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

I've done some dumb mechanical things, but here's a dumb thing I did while working on a car...

I'm 18, working on my bud's 1972 442. He asked me to put on a tri-power set-up, cam kit, and headers. Everything was going fine. Me working, and about 6 smart ass non-mechanics "helping". Nobody else was there. I could not get the lower power steering bracket bolt started into its threads in the block. I played around with this thing from the top, the bottom, the wheel well, and was getting pizzed. Then my "helpers" started needling me. Now I am hot, getting hotter, and ready to punch somebody out.

So now I'm up on top, leaning way over into the engine compartment, my buddy says something smartass, pokes my sides, I literally jump out of the engine compartment, spinning around to punch his friggin nose, while turning yelling something very obscene, pulled back with my arm to lay it on him as I spun around ......... it was my girlfriend that poked my sides.

They all died laughing. I had to find another girl.

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Thank You!
Fred
2009 ML350
2004 SL600
2004 SL500
1996 SL600
2002 SLK32
2005 CLK320 cabrio
2003 ML350
1997 C280 Sport

Nothing while working on the car , but once came out of the bagel store on an early Sunday morning with a big bag of bagels & juice / milk; put the bag on the roof to open the door.

Got in - Drove home about 4 blocks

Got out and still had the whole bag sitting on top of the roof intact.


....

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'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."