ouch. but it's true, a pinto dosnt leave much to haul away

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

Many years ago I was adjusting duel Webbers on my 914/4 and I managed to turn the adjustment screws the opposite direction on one side. Of course, when I started it the backfire lit the foam/oil air filter on fire and trashed the carb. Luckily I had an extinguisher and managed to put the silly thing out. Oops.

A long time ago, I drove my 66 Valiant into the back block garage wall punching a hole in the wall. Then the Valiant partly fell into the grease pit.

Reason I was putting the car in the garage: To fix the brakes.

P E H

Got one more! This one is shared blame

When I went to pick you the CJ plow Jeep, I took my son with me to help load her on the trailer I was pulling behind the Suburban. Well I had to back the thing onto the trailer in order to get the plow to fit - front wise the plow would hit the hitch.

I asked my son to guide me as the rear visibility stank with the full cab on the Jeep and the trailer is just two long channels for the wheels and not a full flatbed.
Well he kept saying I was OK until I fell off the damn trailer! One second I was going back and the next the right rear tire was hanging off the side! I yelled weren't you looking? and he came around into view still saying OK BUT INTO HIS CELL PHONE! He was talking to his buddy and not even paying a bit of attention to the job! Lucky the seller had a winch and we got the poor thing on the trailer and tied down. Or at least we THOUGHT it was tied down. The second we hit 30mph the doors, which were facing backwards popped open and started flapping like wings! We got over to the side of the road and ran some ratchet ties around the whole Jeep to secure the doors!

What a fun trip that was!

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"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

My brother's preferred method of auto repair.

I can think of several of my own oops, however one of the less painfull, but more entertaining ones happened many years ago, when me and my best friend from high-school volunteered to flush the cooling system on his older brother's '74 Peugeot 504 sedan.
I carefully attached the flush-tee to a convenient 'heater-hose', connected the garden-hose, turned on the water, then proceeded to wait awhile, wondering why the old antifreeze wasn't gushing from the radiator. After about 5 minutes, we noticed a stream of fresh water pouring from the tailpipe!
That's when we learned something about air-injection emissions equipment, and how it was somehow connected to the exhaust system.
After splicing that 'heater-hose', we tried to start the car. It first cranked very slowly, then sped up and eventually fired, blowing a 5-gallon torrent of water out the tailpipe like a fire-hose.
We finally got the antifreeze changed, and there was no extra charge for flushing the exhaust system!

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

AWESOME!!!!!

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

^^ I agree!

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"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

I left a 19mm 12 point socket, extension, and 1/2 drive ratchet attached to the crank bolt of a TDI I put a timing belt on. It didn't stay on long but it made a hell of a racket when it departed the bolt. Surprisingly, I hadn't had any beer. It was just about 2am. There have been many other minor ones and many, many, many narrow escapes. I am living proof that it's better to be lucky than good.

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-----------------
1984 300D 193.5k miles
ASTM-certified B100 bio when able

again waaay back when I was a kid, my new car to me was a 72 celica. it did not run, had a big dent in the fender, but it was $50! I dragged it home and began the diagnosis. found the distributor not turning, so tracked down the balance shaft that drove it, and went parts yard digging. anyway, when I pulled the TC cover to change the shaft, I did not pull the pan... just pulled off the timing case cover, and changed the parts, and put it all back together... car ran perfect, drove it around and all was good in my teenage life. until I realized the error of my ways...
that car had to have the oil filled every day, (a quart was only like .50 or something then in the gas stations...) but I had the only car at the garage that needed a fillup on oil and a check of the gas after each drive... (oh yeah, the fuel gauge sender did not work in the car, so I carried a yard stick for checking the gas level!)

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I can think of one or two oopses that I have had, but I cannot compete with you guys... sorry

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[/SIGPIC]~cirrusman

1983 Mercedes Benz 300SD - Wife calls him "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
[SIGPIC]




1983 Toyota Tercel (Tommy, The little Toyota that could)
1965 Ford F100 (Grandma Ford)
2005 Toyota Sienna (Elsa, Wife's ride)


Gone:
1988 Toyota Pickup
2004 Subaru Outback

1987 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham
1986 Volvo 740 GL Station Wagon - Piece of junk.
1981 Volvo 242 DL 2 Door - Hated to see it go. R.I.P.
1987 Pontiac Fiero GT

I've got many, here's the top two...

Back in the day, I bought a 70VW Kombi (a van with a back seat by the engine as well as center bench seat). My girlfriend, her sister and I were planning to drive to see their folks for Christmas, about a 750 mile trip from SoCal to Oregon. I'd owned bugs, never a van, but felt confident working on it. Tune-up, brakes, even adjusted the torsion tube rear suspension since it was sagging. Put a 009 distributor in it for better performance. Finished up everything just in time to leave on that long trip. Got about 450 miles when my girlfriend, who was driving, said that the engine was losing power! We pulled over, called AAA. There was a 20 car pileup somewhere and no tow trucks would be available for hours. Some very nice people took pity on us and got us off the highway. My future mother-in-law drove down 300 miles, picked us up and drove us up to OR. I came back on a Greyhound bus and met my brother, the master mechanic, with a trailer and an old Land Cruiser to tow it over the mountains to his home in Reno where we rebuilt the engine. I had burned a hole in the pistons from not having the distributor adjusted properly. That engine lasted a good long time with the stock distributor after that. Side note: The parking brake release on VW Van is a handle under the dash to the left of the steering wheel.

Page 2.

My wife (same lovely patient lady as earlier) and I bought a brand new Dodge 2500 4wd with a Cummins Diesel, and guess where we drove it a week after we brought it home... If you said Oregon give yourself a star. We needed such a beast to haul her horse trailer and we planned to have a gooseneck hitch installed once we got there. My father-in-law owns about 20 acres with gently sloping terrain. His house sits near the top of the property with a fairly long driveway running next to a fenced-in field. When we arrived and unloaded, the truck was parked in a spot near the house at the top of the driveway. The dogs were still inside the cab and my wife was using the privy giving her full view of the field. I wanted to check the fluids after such a long trip so I popped the hood. I thought. I had actually and unwittingly released the parking brake. (The hood latch on the truck is where the brake release is on the VW van. I instinctively reached for the lever that was not the brake release on the van.) I had done this standing outside the truck and already closed the door when I noticed that the front of the truck was moving towards me faster than I was walking towards it. I realized my mistake, but it was too late to catch the truck and I watched as it rolled backwards, through a barbed wire fence, missing two trees and a telephone pole before center punching a young pine tree with the rear hitch. And I do mean center punch. I couldn't have steered it and hit it so square had I tried. The bumper and hitch were trashed, and the side was scratched by barbed wire, but the frame, bed and even tailgate were untouched. The hitch took the brunt of the force and if it had hit a couple inches left or right I know the bed and/or frame would have been damaged. My wife witnessed all this from her perch on the privy and immediately (almost) came screaming out to the field. The dogs took it all in stride, but it took a long while for the sting to go away.

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mjk

'84 300SD 119KMi (Liesl der Diesel)
'84 300D 326KMi when the oil left (former parts car)
'82 300SD 253KMi (new parts car)

Last winter I plugged in my 190d block heater draping the cord over the hood the better to see it to remind myself to unplug before driving off. Came out at night forgot the cord , drove off which snapped off my hood star. This same hood star that I had just obtained with great difficulty the week before. Bad language ensued. Now I drape the extension cord over the drivers mirror so I can't get into the car without unplugging it. Many other oopses but not too many MB related. Cheers Dan

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It's always something simple
91 300D 603.960 (from japan) 194K
92 Toyota Diesel Landcruiser HDJ81-t 116K
02 Golf TDI new head courtesy of PO
87 300D
97 BMW 525 TDS Wagon 5spd
bunch of Onan and other diesel generators

I have many oopses over the years. Perhaps the stupidist was when I filled my Dodge with cummins up with regular......for the third time!

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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.

I couldn't figure out why, when I fired up my freshly rebuilt 240D engine, the oil pressure wouldn't come up...I had neglected to install the main oil gallery end plug DOH

OH, and this one. I was redoing the interior of our 64 VW bug, Had the new carpeting for the storage area below the rear windshield spread out on my workbench. I had applied the contact cement and since I had to wait a little while, decided to light up a smoke, In a split second after striking the kitchen match under the workbench, the flames shot up to the shop rafters. If there hadn't been a fire extinguisher handy I would have been replacing more than the carpet.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

First that comes to mind for me occurred while installing a new wheel bearing on a VW Caddy. I had the truck jacked up with two jackstands under the frame; when I finished, I reinstalled the wheel, jacked it back up, pulled one stand out, and pushed the other off the frame. I got up to move a few things around, and down-jacked without realizing one stand was still under the truck. That stand ruptured my fuel tank and put about 8 gallons of diesel down my driveway. I knew immediately what I had done when the truck hit the ground. All i could do as I listened to the fuel run out was walk away, straight into the house. If I'd stayed out there I would have lost my mind!

To this day, the driveway is still soft in that area. That was a good running, rust-free truck too. Wish I still had it!

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1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)