Dumbest thing you've done working on your vehicle

[farmer]

Where in Maine are you? I haven't seen an XR4Ti in a LONG TIME!

he's stuck up at sugarloaf!

Portland, huh? I'm going to school there next fall

 

[jhammel85]

How about a couple of weeks ago cussing and screaming at an engine to transmission bolt, while trying to take my tranny off, because the dang thing wouldn't come off or break. I forgot one rule of thumb, which made it even harder to break the bolt...

Hmmm... lefty loosey, righty tighty!

I did that the other week when I decided to drop my exhaust.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

while reinstalling my exhaust i got a little confused (ill admit it was getting drunk out) and when the bolts with the springs (the ones that hold the converter flange to the front pipe before the muffler) seemed too long i took out my angle grinder, cut about a1/2" out of them, then welded them back together. after they had cooled i went to put them back in and now they were wayyyy to short. at first i was putting the spring on the nut side, which just kept compressing until it hit the shoulder of the bolt. the second time i put the spring under the head of the bolt and then put it through the flanges but the nut wouldnt engage the threads (now that it was a 1/2" shorter). so in the end i had to buy new bolts and laugh at myself for seeing a problem and fixing it only to realize that I was the problem all along!

 

[LearjetMinako]

Not being careful with breaker bars in tight flat spaces. I was trying to break loose a bolt under the Ranger. So I held the breaker bar with both hands and used my legs to get the need torque. The bolt busted loose and the breaker bar busted my nuts. A couple of "f" words, along with some pain moning, and a lesson to never forget. Don't put the breaker bar down the center when busting nuts or bolts loose.

 

[The_Dealer]

ok mine was complete idiocracy. i was going to take the gkn shaft out of my b2 and replace it with a spicer one. my driveway is on a slight hill. i put the ebrake down and pulled the wheel chocks out and put them BEHIND the tire. yea dont work on cars after youve worked 12 hours in 100* weather outside. anyways last bolt to the driveshaft was kinda tight and when it come out the e-brake released(i guess it was in between clicks or something, and the fawker rolled onto my left side. luckily i was about to grab the tire and rotate myself where i could put my leg on the hitch and keep it from going all the way over me. i cursed for my g/f which was 7 months pregnant to get the fawker off of me, she pushed it uphill and i couldnt slide out because the dam tire was on my shirt. ripped the shirt and crawled out. she said the ebrake kept popping up everytime she pushed it down. long story short, had a lacerated spleen, no broken bones, and a badly hurt pride and alot of pain meds. didnt have to have surgury or anything, and was released 3 days later. i got EXTREMELY lucky, the doctor said in 26years of trauma he has never seen anybody survive from something like that. when we dialed 911 about 10 firefighters showed up thinking i was still under it. i was on the couch waitin on them lol. funny part is i couldnt find anyone to put my new d-shaft in it while i was in the hospital. finally talked a buddy into it. when u tell someone about your ride running u over changing a shaft out they are reluctant to get under said ride. 2 months later i was back working and wrenching. and a month later my son was born

another thing was i was jacking up my jeep with my hilift in my aunts garage to change out an axleshaft. the jack started leaning sideways so i put a stand under the passenger side axle and proceeded to take the tire off

i got the tire off and couldnt get the jack out, started to lower and the hi lift kicked out and when it did it knocked the jack stand over and the brake disc landed on about 2500 dollers worth of trim work that was already cut and painted about to go into her house the next couple of days. o yea she was pissed lol. i kept having to jack with a bottle jack and put phone books under the disk till i got to where i could put the neighbors floorjack under the shock mount

 

[Boggin]

while removing the upper intake on my 2.9 in my driveway at 3am in a snowstorm and about -20, my fingers pretty much had all sense lost from holding the ice cold wrenches and shit. anyways i lift off the manifold and somehow dropped one of the bolts down in the lower intake, through the valves and whatnot. i ended up taking off the lower manifold along with it, using a magnet tied on to a string to try to get it out, and the string bust. so then i got one of those flexible 20" magnetic handle rigs and managed to pull out both the other magnet and the bolt. what a freakin pita that was

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

i decided to clean the rear brakes, took the drum out and started cleaning with a wire brush, suddenly a spring popped off. trying to put it back in i ended up with all the springs on the floor and one brake pad hanging lol, i had to call my cousin to help me fix it

 

[TheTopher]

Recently I was drilling holes in the bed to re-mount my toolbox. This time I decided to go with toggle bolts.

So the only large bit I had that'd go through metal was a 5/8th. I held it up to the toggle bolt, looked big enough so I drilled all 4 holes.

I got 1 in by wiggling it, got a 2nd in by hammering it, the other two just wouldn't go in.


So the next day I picked up a 3/4ths bit and went to enlarge the holes.

Now, this is my drill.

http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-0300-20-Amp-2-Inch-Drill/dp/B000051WRT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=industrial&qid=1293663125&sr=8-1

8 amps geared down to 850rpm, just a buttload or two of torque.


Instead of letting the drill get up to speed and THEN putting the bit into the hole I was trying to enlarge, I had the bright idea to put the drill bit dead center in the hole and squeezed the trigger. The bit grabbed and the drill threw me right over the side of the truck bed.

At least I know not to do that again

 

[nitrofan1]

Just this past Christmas Eve I finally had to put pads on. I jacked up the passenger side and while the jack was on the I-Beam and I was putting the jack stand under her the jack slipped and BOOM! It landed on the shock bolt! Luckily a friend was with me because while I was practically crapping my pants he shoved the stand under it so I could reset the jack and then start breathing again!

 

[JC 97]

Years ago when I was new to the wrenching world I had just got a new ingersol rand impact gun.Not knowing how much power it had I went to tighten the cam nut on a customers car and snapped the nut clean off the camshaft.Broke off flush with the cam gear.Ruined the camshaft.

 

[TheTopher]

Years ago when I was new to the wrenching world I had just got a new ingersol rand impact gun.Not knowing how much power it had I went to tighten the cam nut on a customers car and snapped the nut clean off the camshaft.Broke off flush with the cam gear.Ruined the camshaft.

Epic.

 

[The_Dealer]

and embarassing as shit prolly..."see what had happend wuz..."

 

[JC 97]

I had to explain what happened to my Boss.He was not to happy.He called the customer and then I had to replace the camshaft.I never used my impact on a cam again.

 

[shane96ranger]

My first job out of high school was working for the water company. One day I was the last one leaving the job site and it was my job to take a 18 foot long piece of 12 inch pipe (the blue plastic/fiberglass stuff) back to the shop. Well, one of the other guys put the thing on the back of the truck and I figured he had cinched it down. Wrong. All was fine until I turned the corner........I remember seeing the pipe go sliding in the rear view, and the next thing I know it slams into a car's open door on the side of the road. So I get out and find out I've just hit an undercover cop car. The cop was cool as hell about it, but holy piss was I embarrassed. And not checking my load.....that was a dumb idea.

 

[TheTopher]

My first job out of high school was working for the water company. One day I was the last one leaving the job site and it was my job to take a 18 foot long piece of 12 inch pipe (the blue plastic/fiberglass stuff) back to the shop. Well, one of the other guys put the thing on the back of the truck and I figured he had cinched it down. Wrong. All was fine until I turned the corner........I remember seeing the pipe go sliding in the rear view, and the next thing I know it slams into a car's open door on the side of the road. So I get out and find out I've just hit an undercover cop car. The cop was cool as hell about it, but holy piss was I embarrassed. And not checking my load.....that was a dumb idea.

Wait 'til Lil_Blue_Ford chimes in about that one.