142 volvo had leaky injector...was so happy the local Mcparts had a cheap replacement in stock that I decided to change it in their parking lot. Upon releasing a retaining bolt/nut I had fuel spray all over a hot engine...a couple bottles of extinguisher later I drove her home.

Here's a couple.
 

Re-built Ford 289 in a restored Mustang, engine builder routed the heater hose into an air intake port, instant hydrolock, broken piston, cracked block-time to start over.

I re-did the front brakes on my wifes car and she went for a drive to test. When she got back she said there was a weird noise out of one side-turns out I had left a coat hanger hangin on the spring to support the caliper.

JB

I replaced front pads on my 97 Ford van. Got a call to go pick up one of the kids at school. I got in my van and took off in the driveway. I forgot to pump up the brakes. I got to the end of the drive and no brakes the pedal went right to the floor. I made a VERY sharp turn just missing a car.

what plug
 

changing the oil on my 300d after doing my 300sdl. after 8 qrts i checked the dipstick only to remember instantaneously. what plug

I don't want to be associated with you people anymore ! :D

not while doing a repair but it resulted in a repair....

Racing home in need of the bathroom and pulling into the garage while forgetting that my bike rack and bicycle were on the roof... What a loud crash that was... it was years ago and with a Chevy Celebrity. and, yes, I did make it to the bathroom in time.

I have a sloped driveway so I park the 'to be raised' side low and drive it on to ramps. Then I put two mounted wheels under the differential or the oil pan to prevent the possibility of a falling car.

You can see where this is going.

I finished installing the center muffler at twilight and proceded to clean up all the tools: drills, torches monkey wrenches, hammers, grinders lights and extension cords... got in the car and drove it forward right on to the newest of my summer tires (the other three were done, but this one was brand new)... punctured through the sidewall, by the brand new muffler clamp threads pointing downward.

Only took about 15 minutes with the jack and some 2x4's to get the wheels out from under it. Helped a little by the smaller width of the uninflated wheel on top.

:silly:

Witnessed a good incident at a junk yard years ago.

I was interested in buying a really nice roadrunner at a junk yard and wanted to test drive it, but it was blocked in by a little chevy chevette or something like that, but the car had no gas tank in it, so the yardman got his buddy to crank the car while he sprayed starting fluid into the carb, it started and he yelled for him to drive it forward about thirty feet, so his buddy threw it in gear and proceeded strasight with the other guy dangling under the hood, then after about fifteen feet, the car hit a ditch and the guy under the hood flew out and rolled onto the ground.

He got up after he hollered "yippee, Now let's go drive that roadrunner."
Then we took a death ride in the road runner, had the strongest stock 440 I ever drove, needless to say ,I bought the roadrunner.
This guy was a real trip.

Years ago I had a '79 300CD. I really don't remember what I was doing, but I pulled the instrument cluster. This , of course, meant disconnecting the oil pressure line to the pressure guage. Something must have distracted me.
I started the car with that line disconnected. A significant amount of black oil merrily squirted all over the carpets . What a mess. What a fool!

Another time, at age 16 or so, I rebuilt the synchros in my '56 Ford overdrive transmission. Completed the job and reassembled the tranny, only to find 1 ball bearing from the planetary gear set left over in my parts washer. Had to take the whole thing apart and re-assemble.

Another one involved my wife's Ford Maverick, circa 1975'ish. Blown head gasket. My neighbor was a Mechanical Engineer. He volunteered to help .
When were putting the head back on, he place the head gasket on the block.
We bolted it up and then had to start over with a new gasket because he put it on either upsidedown or backwards. Very embarassing for him.

I stopped working on cars for many years. Now I only do fairly simple things. It's a way to calm the mind. Tough stuff, I pay to have done.

Steve

after 40 years of car hobbying
 

most of the above i have done at least once.

where to start.

about 15 years ago i had bought a 52 caddie that had set for about 20 years in a garage with a boat on the roof. but other than a large dent and a stuck motor it wasnt too bad, (compared to the other hobby cars i had had up til then). so right away i drained the gas tank. now i had maybe three gallons of seriously nasty stuff from that tank. i called the oil recycle places, the local fire department, and my brother in law the fire inspector (who suggested burning it).... and finally after maybe a week of calling around i in frustration decided to pour it down the storm sewer outside my garage. (i know this is very bad but i was out of options, i felt). so after doing the things i had to do that day i cleaned up and went in side. i was sitting in a chair by the window and suddenly there was this loud explosion outside. "yikes! i said, i have blown up the storm sewer" with visions of a collapsed storm sewer and a certain jail term in my mind i went out side to survey the damage.... no collapsed storm sewers... but there sitting on a seriously shredded tire was a fifteen year old impala. it had a stuck brake and it got so hot that when he parked it after a little while the heat built up and exploded the tire.
the next time i had bad gas i just filtered out the worst of it and fed a quart at a time into my gas suburban til it was gone.

tom w

Wow. Worst I've ever done that comes to mind is when trying to remove the flywheel from my Go-Kart (at age 12 or so) I chipped 3 fins. After reinstalling it, it immediatley sheered the key and gouged the crankshaft. Got a new flywheel but it would never run right because the crank's keyway was so chewed up.

I'll probably think of something later on, but I can't! I take that as a good sign.

I replaced a cam in a small block with a fairly lumpy hydraulic, I could have sworn I got the timing right as I installed the high perf gear set. I bought "high-perf" very high strength pushrods for it. I cranked it over with the valve covers off...POW POW POW!! the pushrods snapped - well, they exploded - it sounded like gunshots. I was sure that I wrecked the engine, but I redid the timing, used the "old-fashioned" pushrods, and it was just fine. I never did find all the pieces of the pushrods, maybe some were embedded in a nearby tree. This mistake cost me only about $30 1983 dollars...a mistake like this would cost several thousand on a modern engine.

- hood up and opened the garage door...catching the hood and bending the struts

- yup, poured in fresh oil and stood back to admire my handiwork.....all over
the garage floor. fast trip to grocery store for kitty litter

- read too quickly and torqued an inch-pound as foot-pounds. i know you know
what happened

- car broken into. ignition in column busted. steering lock is spring loaded,
hardened steel pin which mates into the steering column. next morning, late for
work, I find the perfect socket out of the toolbox to jamb the spring piece open.
steering is now unlocked and I tape socket to keep the spring pin from locking
column. cool, i get to work on time. 8 hrs later, I am off work and jump back
in the truck. heading home on I-5. warm day. duct tape loosens and the
socket pops out....releasing the pin.....which locks the steering.....at 55mph.

steering is locked off center.....and I'm heading towards the guardrail. I'm
trying to steer, find the socket, flip the turn signal, keep from panicking and
slamming on the brakes.....while my heart and head are speeding at 200mph.

i hit the guard rail at just the perfect angle. there was a tall curb and my
tire's sidewall took nearly all the impact. car unscratched. car horns blaring.
i find the socket and hold it in the recess to keep steering unlocked. I steer
the truck to the offramp (horn still blaring) and coast to a stop.

get out to inspect damage. no sheet metal damage at all! tire sidewall had
white lettering and missing some letters.

managed to limp home....another miracle as I had my eyes closed and prayed
the rest of the way that I was still alive. parked the truck and left it for a
week untouched.

Back when I would wrench for money I was working at an indy changing the oil on a Porsche 944. The oil filter is upside-down on those engines, like on a Merc 103. The difference is that it is at an angle, sort of pointing the bottom of the filter towards the front of the car, and the filter is towards the front of the engine.
One of my fellow techs suggested that punching a hole in the bottom of the filter would let oil run out of the filter back into the engine so I wouldn't get such an oily mess when I unscrewed and changed the filter. I thanked him, got out the philips screwdriver and hammer, and made a hole in that filter. I figured it needed time to drain so I left it alone and lifted the car so I could drain the engine oil. Lowering the car again I filled the engine with oil, and started 'er up to check for pressure. What I heard was a whole lot of shouting and yelling. I couldn't see anything, the hood of the car was up and I had my head in the car to start it. When I shut it off and pulled my head out (literally and figuratively) I was kind of sorry I didn't get to see the oil geyser that had just been shooting out of the front of this car just seconds prior. I'm sure it had been quite a spectacle. It was not a lot of fun to clean several quarts of 20-50 Kendall off a cinder block wall.

Love this thread..Another one...
 

I bought one of those bike in a box kits a few years ago, nice kit. 100 CI, 115 hp at rear wheel, need it to haul my fat butt around. Took me a couple of months to get it powder coated, painted and assembled. FINALLY comes the big day to fire it up. After switching the plug wires to get it stop backfiring, fired right up. Sat there in amazement watching it run, walked it out of the garage, drove it around the block:o , pulled it back in and it quit running.:( Checked everything I could think of, pulled off the carb, cleaned it (although it was new) convinced there must a small piece of what ever was in it, put it back together, nothing. Neighbor comes over. He really doesn't know which end of a screwdriver to hold, says "any gas in it"? YEP, I only poured about a quart and a half of gas in it and there wasn't enough to feed the carb after I had run it for the short period of time.

I was looking at that V-twin and wondering if it would fit in the MB:D :D :D