Stupid things you've done while working on your vehicle

Here's another good one. Anyone ever made your own carb gasket? Sure you have. It's easy. Or at least it should be. Just remember to cut out the holes in the middle. That's the step I forgot and it took me quite a while to figure out what was wrong. Let's just say I stick to buying gaskets now.
 
Well add another one to my list for tonight.
After some issues with parts/control arms, I'm annoyed, but I figure I'll at least get the tcase done.
Take lots of time, make sure everything is right.
Read online, make sure I'm not missing anything, etc etc.
Put the pieces in,
bolt the halves together,
start putting the tail cone on.
stick a socket over the bolts for it, (not a ratchet, just the socket)
tighten em down by hand using the socket.
Get to the last bolt, start tighting
POP.
WTF?
pull off the socket and the bolt head comes with it.
I just snapped the *()()*@$)(()$@)($()@%%@ bolt off.
No worries, just pop it off,
If it's sticking up a bit I can use some pliers to get it out.
Or if it's down in the hole a bit I can use a bolt extractor with my drill.
Nope.
Perfectly flush with a tiny bit raised in the center, so no way is that drill bit going to go into it and NOT into the sides of the tcase.

BLEH.

(not really "stupid" just sucky. and shows I'm stupid. Jeeps been apart since Sat, and I've managed to halfway rebuild the transfer case.)
 
i accidently built a ratcheting wrench into my suspension, used it to hold a nut in place, and then once everything was together a few hours later, the wrench stayed, It lived there for a few weeks until i got a chance to tear my suspension back out and remove the said wrench.
 
This is possibly the best thread ever.

I can't top any of these but,

I can't recall how many times I've done the following, but I should have learned by now. I have a hard top hoist in my garage. I park the front of my Jeep slightly under the overhanging hard top (cramped for space). Now... Hold a wrench (any wrench, lets say a 5/8" or so) and hold it shoulder height and drop it on a concrete floor. When I hear that same "PING" sound it means I just dropped what was in my hands because I hit my damn head on the hardtop... AGAIN! My right temple has a knack to find the passenger door corner. It's damn near knocked me out a couple of times.
 
rbo1577186 said:
This is possibly the best thread ever.
I can't top any of these but,
I can't recall how many times I've done the following, but I should have learned by now. I have a hard top hoist in my garage. I park the front of my Jeep slightly under the overhanging hard top (cramped for space). Now... Hold a wrench (any wrench, lets say a 5/8" or so) and hold it shoulder height and drop it on a concrete floor. When I hear that same "PING" sound it means I just dropped what was in my hands because I hit my damn head on the hardtop... AGAIN! My right temple has a knack to find the passenger door corner. It's damn near knocked me out a couple of times.
Click to expand...

Bwahaha
I started putting wads of foam padding on the corners of the 4Runenr top, which is suspended in a similar fashion, for the exact same reason.
After about the 6th time, I had had enough and just moved the damn thing out into the driveway.
 
'84 Ford Crown Vic wagon, $400 POS spare car used primarily to drive 5 miles to and from work, purchased just after we moved to NC.

Blew brake caliper, decided that the rest of the front brake system needed to be replaced as well ( brake hoses were actually peeling) Calipers were $30ish a piece, cheap enough to do it all. Go to Napa, WITH the old calipers, don't wanna pay a core it a don't have too. one in stock, the other has to come from another store, they will deliver it too me at home. (frequent fliers get perks like this ).

INstalled calipers, made sure bleeder was up, yup sure did, pointing up and too the rear. I can't get pedal to save my life, bled 2 pints thru. I'm running out of time, I have to be at work, and then first thing next morning I have to drive 6.5 hrs to Ashville, can't be late (traffic court).

Took it to the shop down the road, they called me an hour later, it was done. $60

I had mounted the calipers on the wrong sides in my haste to get it done. yep, bleeder were pointing up, but they we NOT at the top of the caliper. Had I had not removed the calipers till needed, I wouldn't have done that. DUMBASS !

Blew the distributor cap off a fork lift a few months ago, cleaned off the area around dizzy with brake cleaner while doing other work, had cap off to gain clearance.

Reassembled, hit the key POP !! dizzy cap exploded, Whoops.

Got the full charge from an igniton coil a few weeks ago, pulled dizzy cap off while checking for rotor rotation, hit the key, still had cap in hand, coil wire connected. Lit my ass up good, nice ground path since my hand was on the metal key switch. That was "exciting"

Most fun wasn't actually a stupid, but something most would find very un-natural. I used to work on a lot of GM 6.2-6.5 diesels, would never fail, if you installed the intake before you checked for leaks from the injection pump, (injection pump hides under intkae) you would have a fuel leak. SO I got in the habit of starting the enigne without the intake in place. Also made timing the pump a shit load eaiser.

That is a very un-natural thing to see, but in reality, most diesels don't need the intake for anything other than air direction after a filter or intercooler.

Sounds pretty neat too.

DO NOT have any rags or other loose items any where close while doing this. they WILL be ingested, and it WILL cause damage.
 
ive got one for yaw, i work at a lube, my boss drives a 65000$ duramax, southern coach edition, i didnt tighten the oil plug, luckily it had about one more turn before it came out.... yea, big oooops
 
aight i'll add to the mix....

So I was at my buddy's shop late one night putting some rock rails on my xj. I was getting my tubing all cleaned up ready to weld. One hand on a tube and one hand on a grinder w/ a wire brush don't mix. Let's just say trying to grind the edge of any tubing one handed its a BAAAAAD idea. Needless to say the the grinder decided to exit my hand and head directly to my face. Luckly the fast spinning course heavy gauge wire brush missed my lower lip by only millimeters and rolled down my chin leaving a nice size wound. But what beats all...I'm completely covered in grinding crap, I cleanup and head for home. The guys at the shop where like...dude that sucks, hahaha. It was sometime like 3am and that my was sign to go to bed. I get back to my fiances apt.... crawl into bed without waking her up. Get up the next morning to get ready for classes and she see's my face and was like....What the hell happened to you!!! I said...baby you don't remember last night??....you got entirely too rough!!!

So let that be a lesson to all who have not had the experience of wire brushing one handed. Also for the record, i've become the poster child of wearing those full face shield thingy's doing anything that involves fast spinning objects.
 
1st clutch job

18 years old, I removed the A-833 manual gearbox, from my "69" Plymouth roadrunner. I had the sense to use jack stands! No floor jack, used a bottle jack,& a pile of wood blocks. Slid the box back, onto the wood block cradle. Now what? Using two lengths of 1-1/4" pipe, one end of each on top of torsion bar, I lifted the trans up off the blocks. After removing the blocks, I figured I would lower the free end, of the pipes. This would allow the trans to gracefully slide down the pipes. WRONG, this allowed the trans to gracefully slide down my left arm.:fuck-you: Thankfully my left armpit, was there to slow the transmission's progress towards my face.
 
yesterday spent about 3 hours straight on my back. My wife brings me out a bottle of water and I sit straight up under the jeep without thinking. Caught an exposed screw right to the top of my dome. Evidently even small headwounds don't stop bleeding for a very long time.
 
BRUISER said:
Here is what you ment to type:

..I know a "guy" that got his inj pump built by a fellow board member that said he knew how to.. then the "guy" tries to install it .. breaks THREE banjo bolts in the process, kills two batteries, then leaves dead truck blocking shared garage for 3 weeeks while he is away on honeymoon to only come back and find out pump was built WRONG.. PRICELESS

Post to prove it :)
http://www.nc4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14032
Click to expand...

Ther was also this guy who swore that he had put his Spark plug wires on his blue Chevy in the correct order but it still would not run right:)
 
Had a jack drop one time.... learned keep legs out from under tires while jack in use!. Grabed the spark plug wires on my yota while it was running.... damn now I know how a stun gun feels...:shaking:
 
I decide once when I was about 20 to try and figure out what the noise was in my t-case. so since there were only a few bolts I figured it would not take long to R&R it but I did not have a trans Jack. so At the time in my life I thought I was i pretty good shape so I decide to just lift off and back on. hell ot was only a NP205 bolted to a SM465. Getting it off was not so bad but tryin to bench press it back in and get it back in with out droping on my face was another story :shaking:
 
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