Ever do anything stupid like this?

[Cliffman]

Got Milk

Hey WOWZY, A "Got Milk?" Sticker would have been perfect for your grandmothers bumper. LOL.

 

[o_mccarroll]

Just because it takes a breaker bar to get the bolt loose, does not mean that you should torque it down with the breaker bar.



Learned that lesson the hard way on an old Honda dirtbike with rusty head bolts when I was new to wrenching.



(Wow, that's embarrasing)

 

[Doc Tinker]

I had a friend who decided to rebuild the engine in his MGB. I give him credit for tackling a job like that, but he was inexperienced and wouldn't take any suggestions. Evidently he broke several head bolts, trying to torque them with a breaker-bar . You'd think he'd learn after one bolt, but noooo.



Doc

 

[KWIKKURT]

Originally posted by o_mccarroll

Just because it takes a breaker bar to get the bolt loose, does not mean that you should torque it down with the breaker bar.



Learned that lesson the hard way on an old Honda dirtbike with rusty head bolts when I was new to wrenching.



(Wow, that's embarrasing)

BEEN THERE done that!!!



Yamaha 60. . Head bolts I "kwikly" learned there is a difference between FT Lbs and IN lbs

 

[Rebel Ram]

Wrong thread.

 

[donnier]

Years ago I got a call from a friend that wanted a cb antenna installed on his camper before he left on vacation.

I go up to his place, and get the antenna installed, matched and working great.

When he gets back, he comes by and says"I want to show you something".

We walk out to the truck and dead center on the hood is a small dent.

I asked' What happened?'

HE was in the middle of Yellowstone and came around a curve. In the middle of the road was a buffalo. He hits the brakes and a 6" cresent wrench slides off the camper and hits the hood. :--)

He and I were amazed that the wrench had stayed on the roof that far.

Since then, I always double check and make sure NOTHING is forgotten or left where it shouldnt be.

 

[GDMRTN]

Am I the only guy that forgot to take out the little gear thingy that is used to turn the engine over? I almost started the truck but when it made weird noises I left off the starter.
Also have left ratchets hooked to crank bolts. Hit the starter and they leave the local zip code... or take out anything nearby.

 

[JesseJ]

I had tools w/ me, stopped at my wifes work to trade vehicles before heading to my sisters to work on her car. Got to her house and realized I had left stuff on the roof and it wasn't there any more. What did I leave? My $400 Fluke 87III multimeter. Retraced my path, found it on the 4-lane busy roadway, it was crunched by a semi. Learned my lesson the hard way.

 

[AlaskaDog]

My Dad's old sheep dog has the rest of our family beat. Dad used to tie him in the back of his old Nissan PU and take him up to the hills near our house to chase anything that moved.



Dad would leave the tailgate down as it was only a mile or two drive up a hill past all the neighbors. Dog and Dad loved the drive 'cause the dog would bark dog threats at all the neighbors dogs on the way up, we were never sure if he was bragging to 'em about going to chase rabbits or cussing them all out about how he could kick all their behinds.



Neighbors dogs would all cuss right back at him as he drove by, run out in the road and tell him off.



Well, Dad's sheepdog was really letting them have it one day when the snap on his harness broke! Dad was only doing about 10 or 15 as he enjoyed making all the ruckess as much as the dog but out the back of that truck came one surprised sheepdog, rolled once or twice and then shot back into the now stopped Nissan.



Dad said every single dog on the block including his shut completely up and just stood there stairing.



Dad checked his dog and when he realized that nothing was wrong with the poor guy, he tied the harness up, got back in the truck and started back up the road.



Every dog on the block as well as the sheep dog immediately gave voice once again, although he thought his dog had become 'a little sheepish' since then.

 

[The patriot]

I was taking my mutt & shepherd to the dog beach one day. This is before I had a cap. I used to tie them up on a short leash in the front of the bed. The mutt kept standing up on the side of the bed #@$%!

I'd jerk the wheel the opposite way, and she'd come back down to the bed.

Well we were on a pertty busy road, I asked the wife to watch them, and she did what she always does when I ask her something. Nothing. :-laf

I say to her, "where's diamond?"

The dog apparently went over the side, and the weight from fatass broke the collar. She was run over by my rear tire (her paw) and was headed eastbound at record speed.

I parked the truck and started persuit. :-laf

A lady stopped and picked me up so that I might be able to catch her. She's fat but fast. :-laf

Long story short, we caught up to her, and brought her to the vet. Broken leg. But otherwise OK. No more beach for her!

 

[DZLROKET]

A little different but just as (or more )embarassing,

While working for the DA's office as an investigator we ran out of undercover cars so I called a taxi to get me too and from an asignment. In those days I "carried" in a fanny pack. about an hour after returning to the office A call came in from the taxi company, "is there an officer XXXX there?" I picked up the phone and was informed that the taxi driver was holding "somthing" for me I had forgotten! Thank God I was able to retrieve my side arm before anyone found out I left it in aTaxi!!! I would have never!! lived that one down! Stupid,stupid stupid!!!

 

[Cliffman]

I was taking my mutt & shepherd to the dog beach one day. This is before I had a cap. I used to tie them up on a short leash in the front of the bed. The mutt kept standing up on the side of the bed #@$%!

I'd jerk the wheel the opposite way, and she'd come back down to the bed.

Well we were on a pertty busy road, I asked the wife to watch them, and she did what she always does when I ask her something. Nothing. :-laf

I say to her, "where's diamond?"

The dog apparently went over the side, and the weight from fatass broke the collar. She was run over by my rear tire (her paw) and was headed eastbound at record speed.

I parked the truck and started persuit. :-laf

A lady stopped and picked me up so that I might be able to catch her. She's fat but fast. :-laf

Long story short, we caught up to her, and brought her to the vet. Broken leg. But otherwise OK. No more beach for her!

I'm not a bleeding heart by any stretch of the imagination but I have to say that I'm appalled and saddened by this story. This is a perfect example why you don't haul dogs or any animal for that matter in the back of an open pickup. This is boarder line animal cruelty and in some states it is illegal. One easy solution is to “crate train” your pet and haul them in the crate in the back of your open truck. My dogs love there crate, it gives them a feeling of security.

 

[The patriot]

I should have seen that coming.



Edit:

BTW I have a liner in the bed. I dont think crating them is an option as they would be sliding from side to side with every turn...

 

[nickleinonen]

I had a friend who decided to rebuild the engine in his MGB. I give him credit for tackling a job like that, but he was inexperienced and wouldn't take any suggestions. Evidently he broke several head bolts, trying to torque them with a breaker-bar . You'd think he'd learn after one bolt, but noooo.



Doc

ring gear to carrier bolts on a 10 bolt gm rear end... pretty darn tight to remove... breaker bar wouldn't do it. . impact gun sure did... too bad they are left hand threads and the gun was set for ccw

 

[AFoulk]

My first story was my doing. I finished up a truck at work one day and parked it out front when I was done. It was snowing pretty bad, and we had a couple inches of snow/ice on the parking lot. I set the parking brake and sat in the truck a few minutes just to make sure it didn't slide down the hill. All seemed ok. Went to lunch, and when I got back, the truck was sitting at the end of the lot, almost slid out into the highway. I kinda felt my nerve that day.

2nd story... a buddy of mine changed a fan clutch on a rig when he used to work with me and had dropped one of the nuts and couldn't find it. No problem he thought, and got a new one. Well, he started it up, and aparently he had dropped the nut down in the fan shroud cause it picked it up and spit it out... . right through the passenger window of the truck sitting next to it

Finally, i was at Rita's with my ex one summer, and her friend met us there in her "new style" VW Beetle. We went to leave, and she backed out of her spot, but couldn't shift into any forward gears (automatic). She put it in neutral and I pushed it back into the parking spot to get it outta everyone elses way. I popped the hood to check the linkage at the transmission, and guess what I find jamming up the linkage! A pair of scissors! Here she had used it to cut all this pretty looking purple wire loom that she put on every hose and wire in site under her hood and forgot it under there. She said, " I wondered what happened to those. "

 

[AFoulk]

Oh, I've also seen several guys at work try and pull out of their bay with the exhaust evac system hoses still attached to the trucks stacks

 

[AFoulk]

Oh, even better, one time a guy at work asked the new guy to help him install a rear mainseal wear ring on the crankshaft of a Mack. Well, on a mack, you have to heat the wearring up and drive it on with the specific driver. Sometimes though, the ring goes on croocked cause our driver is worn out, and you have to heat the heck out of the ring with a burnsamatic cause the cranks soaks up so much of the heat. Well, what he forgot to mention to the new guy was that he had just cleaned the bellhousing and crank with a bunch of brakleen. Well, that was quite the explosion! The wearring driver came flying out the back of the truck! The new guy did singe his hair and eyebrows, had some second degree burns on his chest and his one ear, but hes ok now, and I think all has been forgiven at this point. Now we give the other guy flak everytime he has to do a rearmain seal. No one ever wants to help him

 

[AFoulk]

We've also had a guy try and take a 12ft delivery van through a 9ft tunnel

 

[AFoulk]

Same guy that did the rearmain seal had a Mack with a broken exh. manifold stud. he had trouble getting the old piece of stud out, so he decides to try and heat the head up around the hole with the acetylene torch. Well, he gouged the gasket surface to bad that it needed a new head. So he takes the head off without removing the injectors which is ok, but he sets it down on the shop floor with the headgasket surface down, messing up all the injector tips. Then he finally gets the new head on, turns the engine over to adjust the valves and when he met resistance, he forced it and bent all the push tubes in that head (other than the new engines, a Mack has 2 heads). Here his old head didn't have guide pins for the valve bridges (same setup a 24v cummins has), but the new had had them in, and he didn't pay attention to this. Thats what caused the valve train to bind up and bend the push rods. The amazing part is he still works for us



I've also got some good stories involving my buddies potato cannon, but we'll save them for another time

 

[rweis]

Couple of years ago (03) truck is still new and I am learning about working on a diesel with the help of the TDR members. Just put a new exhaust brake on because we are going to the mountains on vacation, did not like the micro switches on the pedal so made it a manual switch (see where I am going with this?).



On vacation, worked my a. . off getting the truck ready for it's first big test of driving in the mountains. First long distance drive in the mountains. Everything running fine, been towing the 13k RV in the mtns for 2 days and feeling pretty good about all the mods working so well together.



Come down a long steep grade that then climbs up into the RV Campground. Have been working the exhaust brake pretty well, on when you need it, off when you don't, simple.



Get to the bottom of the hill, feed in the go pedal to climb up into the campground and NOTHING, zero power. I knew the VP44 just dumped, my stomach fell into an abyss, "how the heck am I going to replace a VP44 in the middle of no where, with virtually no tools". I actually threw up I was so disharted. My wife who encourages my "truck work" cried and said what do we do now? the vacation is ruined.



I crept up the grade into the campground, barely, smoking like a freight train. Black smoke is comming out from under the hood (turns out I had a downpipe to turbo alignment minor mis alignment), some black smoke is comming out of the tail pipe, not much, but some. I did not shut it off because I knew I would never get it started again, idle is better than NOTHING.



Wife goes in and registers and explains the truck just trashed, they give us a camp site that is downhill that I can roll down hill into without power.



One shot get it parked rolling into the spot. Take a deep breath and shut it down. Get out and have a beer (everything crisis always looks better through the bottom of a beer glass). Everything I had done races through my mind, injectors, fuel lines, lp relocation, fuel, fuel quality, what the he. . could it be?



Get back into truck and try to simulate (without cranking it up) what went so terribly wrong. Run through the down hill grade, make sure exhaust brake is on, yep still on,,,,,,,huh? STILL on? what do you mean STILL ON? should have been OFF to climb up into the campground. Recheck with visual to make sure my tactile touch is not lying to me, YEP STILL ON!



Turn exhaust brake OFF, crank her up, runs FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Accelerates perfectly, all is well.



We move to the site we wanted (better views, stream etc) NO PROBLEM.



My mechanic work is vindicated, and I do not ever let my finger off the exhaust brake switch once I turn it on since then.



Bob Weis