MOST RECENT OOPS...
 

Ran over my Battery Charger this weekend!!!! Thought I'd moved it out of the way.... rear wheel flattened it... not covered by Sears Craftsman warranty. Lucky for me my voltage regulator arrived today! Thank you Fastlane!!!

My usual ratio is fix one, break two, but am getting better. Was much higher last year. Am still learning!

almost F.U.B.A.R
 

i can't rember why now but i wanted to look under the front of my friends 300zx
so i had him drive up my ramps

this was his first stick and i was trusting
that he would know when to stop but
guss what he didn't i yelled stop just in time sort of .... he was on the edge about
to go over it took a 2 to 3 hours with my
tiny floor jack to get things right

:rolleyes: ;)

welding caution
 

I didn't witness this but the perpetrator(s) can't tell the tale. There have been fatalities resulting from welding sparks jumping into shirt pockets containing Bic-type lighters.

I've been so fortunate to have some spatter fall down inside my shoes before, burnt some nice holes in my socks and had a great feeling as it burned my foot but at least the socks seemed to have cooled it down a little. I think using the diegrinder at 120psi with a mean double cut bit going through cast iron with a short sleever shirt hurt worse though, it can really get those chunks of metal flying!!

My grand prix (car before the 84 MB, which was before the 83MB I have now) almost fell on me before, I was following the manuals instructions on swapping out the rear struts, pulling on something and the car fell off the jack and landed on my coggled up safety jack (cement block with wood on it). :eek: I called it a day right then and there, since I've bought at least 4 safety jacks which between my dad and I makes 6 safety jacks, 3 floor jacks, and about 5 bottle jacks. Shouldn't have any more of those problems!

This post is not related to anything I did, but last night, my indy was trying to adjust the timing on my SDL as he had removed and resealed the inj pump and thought it was sluggish.

Anyway, he tried to adjust the timing and was using a hammer and screwdriver and cracked the casing of the injection pump.

Ouch!

Luckily he has an extra one.:(

That guy was a mechanic?!?!?!

I was able to adjust my IP by wedging a huge chipping bar down between the IP and engine block. I did make sure that all the bolts were loosened suffuciently. No problems here.

German mechanic. Lot's of Beck's in him after hours.:)

Liet,

Did you remove the injector lines at the injectors before you moved the pump so you can readjust them one at a time? I think that's the way it should be done instead of the brute force method.

P E H

PEH, I know removing the lines is the right way to do it but no I didn't. I only removed the "blocks" that tie the lines together. I figure it saved me some time needing to rebend the injector lines later. Doing it by my "brute force" method also allowed me to "fine tune" my idle while it was running. I also put a piece of wood between my iron bar and the IP to prevent any damage to the IP housing.

Painful
 

Oh, this thread was just to painfully funny to read.. :D
My chest hurts from laughing..

One cell phone was Accidently run over, the other 6 pissed me off so bad I got my bus out and they met their end....

another oops was, I fixed my wood for my car and Was not informed that laquer I got was black. One chunk of ruined wood later....

Oops!
 

About 5 years ago, I was trying to replace the motor mounts in my 240D. I needed to jack the motor slightly to the right. I was in a hurry and put a bottle jack next to the injection pump. Well, an inch or two into the jacking process, I heard a loud pop and then the sound of something gushing. I put a hole in my injection pump and the gushing was the sound of fuel leaking. The car left my friend's garage on the back of a flatbed. Of course, I have learned a lot since then. :D

Last year while trying to figure out while my 300E wouldn't start I was doing the starter fluid check. I was thinking maybe if I kept the throttle plate open with my hand I could give a continuous spray of starting fluid and try to persuade my car to start. Needless to say I told my mother to crank it over and a fireball came out and burnt off all the hair on my right arm and my left eyebrow...Later that day I found out it wouldn't start because a vacuum line was missing.

OK,
biggest oops I can remember is driving my grandma's 70 something pinto somewhere.... not sure where at the time, but it had the 4cyl carbed motor in it, and I'd had it apart recently cleaning it up and working on it etc... anyway, a few miles down the road it stalls, and coasts to a stop, I smell raw gas , and figure something came loose from the tuneup I just did...
pop the hood, and find that the fuel fitting feeding the carb had a press in fuel line attachment to it, had wriggled loose... so I pushed it back into place, everything looked good, so I started the car and went on my way wherever I was going...



... apparently quite a bit of RAW gasoline had sprayed all over the engine, exhaust manifold, distributer, etc... the THICK BLACK SMOKE POURING OUT OF THE HOOD was my first sign of trouble... I immediately pulled over, and attempted to pop the hood... couldn't get near the hood release lever due to the heat and smoke...
I just stood back, and waited for the explosion we all see in the movies... it never came, but the fire department finally did and they got there, and asked me if I minded them putting out the trees around my car, and just let my car burn to the ground...
a pinto does not leave much left to haul away after a fire...


hey, in my defense I was only 16 at the time....

OOPSES

Mine: sometimes I think I am Tim the Toolman!

Drank about a quart of stale gas trying to siphon out a snow blower using a length of GARDEN HOSE! I burped gasoline for a month! Poison control laughed and said to keep me away from sparks and open flames!

Ran a brand new crate lawnmower engine without oil - got distracted while bolting it in and forgot to fill it - lucky no damage done as I shut her down pretty quickly

Changed all the plug wires on my old Chevy Impala and got the wiring order wrong! Taught me to do them one at a time!

Flushed the brake fluid on the Suburban, got called away, then closed the hood. Started her up and took her for a drive. Got home and opened the hood to find that I had left the cover off the reservoir! Got brake fluid all over the engine compartment and lost the damn cover!

Had a brand new top put on the '70 Buick GS convertible. Second or third time I retracted it I did not pull it far enough out of the top bows and ripped it!

NOT MINE:

Let my brother help clean the engine compartment of my Corvair Monza convertible while I was away in college. He got it apart, but could not get it back together again! Took me weeks to find all the bits he had misplaced!

Had head work done on the '67 GTO convertible. While driving it home it caught on fire! Lucky for me I carry an extinguisher! I did have to rewire the entire engine compartment! They had replaced the positive battery cable with one that got too close to the headers and the insulation melted causing a short and a fire! The crappy shop (one with a good rep BTW) would not own up to it!

Had the engine rebuilt on the '57 Nomad. The shop (as a favor) removed the canister oil filter and put on an adapter for a spin on filter. Well the F*cked it up and less then 500 miles later the engine was shot! Metal filings had torn up the bearings! THEY rebuilt it again for free and this time put back the original canister set up!

I am sure there are more but funny enough none are Mercedes related!
The more I think about it the more I am lucky to be alive!