Mistakes you only make once

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rich006

rich006

Learning as I go
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I've been troubleshooting a raw fuel smell that's been stinking up my garage. Around 11 pm, after I should be in bed, I'm in said garage replacing a carburetor flange gasket. Once I get all the linkages and vacuum lines hooked back up, I decide to start 'er up. The motor starts OK, but then starts running really rough. Thinking there might be a vacuum line disconnected, I get out to look under the hood. Fuel is spraying everywhere. That's when I realize I forgot to reconnect the fuel line to the carb. :eek:ops:

Fortunately I had a bag of absorbent powder and a gallon of concentrated Simple Green, and a hot/cold hose spigot handy. I pushed the car outside, then spent the next two hours sweeping up powder and mopping. Despite all that effort, I'm pretty sure I did not improve the smell in the garage. :banghead:
 
I can top that story. sort of. "In a previous life" I sold auto/ truck parts for about 17 years. One day a guy came in and asked about a dual tank valve. Back then seemed like EVERYBODY was buying or building aux tanks for their pickups. I showed him electric and manual valves, and outlined what he'd need.

He asked me "why can't you just tee them together" and I told him why.

He thanked me and left. Sometime later, maybe a couple of weeks, he came in. I was busy. He waited and talked to me, and wanted most of the items we'd talked about. As he was ready to leave, he told me,

"You know, last time I was here, I went down the street and bought some tubing and a tee, and thought I was pretty smart. Hooked all that together, and went and filled them up. Went home and parked in the garage. A bit later I went from the house to the garage, and there was fuel all over the floor. The thing is, we have a NATURAL GAS WATER HEATER in the garage, and I have no idea why it didn't blow up

What happened? One tank filler was a bit higher than the other. The fuel drained from the high side to the low, and right out the vent of the low tank.
 
67Dart273 said:
I can top that story. sort of. "In a previous life" I sold auto/ truck parts for about 17 years. One day a guy came in and asked about a dual tank valve. Back then seemed like EVERYBODY was buying or building aux tanks for their pickups. I showed him electric and manual valves, and outlined what he'd need.

He asked me "why can't you just tee them together" and I told him why.

He thanked me and left. Sometime later, maybe a couple of weeks, he came in. I was busy. He waited and talked to me, and wanted most of the items we'd talked about. As he was ready to leave, he told me,

"You know, last time I was here, I went down the street and bought some tubing and a tee, and thought I was pretty smart. Hooked all that together, and went and filled them up. Went home and parked in the garage. A bit later I went from the house to the garage, and there was fuel all over the floor. The thing is, we have a NATURAL GAS WATER HEATER in the garage, and I have no idea why it didn't blow up

What happened? One tank filler was a bit higher than the other. The fuel drained from the high side to the low, and right out the vent of the low tank.
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Holy Jesus...
 
I made a big mistake back in the days.
After build in my fresh 318 in my dart, i connected all the rest to the engine.
After starting it, it ran just with full throttle, and that just very low RPM.
when i lift the Throttle it dies imideatly...
After looking for the failure i figured out that i connect the fuel line to the Vaccumport of the Holley Carb!:violent1:
It flooded the Engine with fuel so i had about 2 Liters in the Oil.
Oil came out like water:glasses7:

When i connect the Line to the right spot, made a oil change, the engine ran perfectly.:cheers:
That will never happen again
 
I was 16 workin in a big truck repair shop. We also did car stuff for people who knew the owner. I was doin an oil change on a Grenada. Simple. Just a 302 with a Motorcraft FL-1A. Nuthin to it, right? Well, I had never known a filter O-ring to stick on the block. This one did. First time for everything. Sprayed oil everywhere when I busted it off. I cut it right off. No harm done, just a little mess. Customer was standin right there tellin me not to sweat, that it was no big deal.

Boss came out talkin about how stupid I was, how stupid my parents had to be and my whole family tree. Fired me. By this time, I had the old O-ring removed, the filter back on and the oil topped off. Customer cussed out the owner said he'd never be back because the owner was such an *** toward me.

The whole time all this was happening, the owner was following me back to my tool box still insulting me, my family and anything else he could think of. He finally shut up and went back to the office.

Once in the office, he started runnin that mouth again. I had gotten all my tools together in my box and was proceeding to load them in the trunk of my car. 69 Chevelle. 400 4 speed.

I went back for a ball peen hammer I forgot. Boss in the office STILL spewing insults. I snapped. I just turned around and flung that 48 ounce ball peen toward his voice as hard as I could. He got up out of the chair JUST in time to miss it coming through the wire reinforced office window. I turned back around, got in my car and left. Never saw the guy again. Until......

NOW he is one of my regular customers where I work, AND his son owns a fleet repair shop that is one of our biggest accounts. I would "guess" the guy is about 70 or so now. The first time he saw me, he spoke quite cordially.

Then like a week later, he came in and GAVE ME my hammer back and apologized for how he was back then. Said it had cost him his marriage and his relationship with both his children but he was trying to work on that.

Imagine that.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I was 16 workin in a big truck repair shop. We also did car stuff for people who knew the owner. I was doin an oil change on a Grenada. Simple. Just a 302 with a Motorcraft FL-1A. Nuthin to it, right? Well, I had never known a filter O-ring to stick on the block. This one did. First time for everything. Sprayed oil everywhere when I busted it off. I cut it right off. No harm done, just a little mess. Customer was standin right there tellin me not to sweat, that it was no big deal.

Boss came out talkin about how stupid I was, how stupid my parents had to be and my whole family tree. Fired me. By this time, I had the old O-ring removed, the filter back on and the oil topped off. Customer cussed out the owner said he'd never be back because the owner was such an *** toward me.

The whole time all this was happening, the owner was following me back to my tool box still insulting me, my family and anything else he could think of. He finally shut up and went back to the office.

Once in the office, he started runnin that mouth again. I had gotten all my tools together in my box and was proceeding to load them in the trunk of my car. 69 Chevelle. 400 4 speed.

I went back for a ball peen hammer I forgot. Boss in the office STILL spewing insults. I snapped. I just turned around and flung that 48 ounce ball peen toward his voice as hard as I could. He got up out of the chair JUST in time to miss it coming through the wire reinforced office window. I turned back around, got in my car and left. Never saw the guy again. Until......

NOW he is one of my regular customers where I work, AND his son owns a fleet repair shop that is one of our biggest accounts. I would "guess" the guy is about 70 or so now. The first time he saw me, he spoke quite cordially.

Then like a week later, he came in and GAVE ME my hammer back and apologized for hoe he was back then. Said it had cost him his marriage and his relationship with both his children but he was trying to work on that.

Imagine that.
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Rob, did the SAME THING, (the oil filter gasket,lol)on a Mazda 323,'92-93/. Popped a new set of main & Rod bearings in,that plucky beast left 20.minutes after done,lol. (The boss/employee argumentative, was always short,we still get along)
 
sold a 340 motor to a guy at a Honda performance auto shop. He called and told me the motor was locked up. After some discussion on the phone about how I screwed him. I drove down to check it out.

They hooked the one heater hose to the power brake port and filled the car with anti-freeze. They then turned the motor over and broke a piston which allowed the anti-freeze in the oil pan. After that they got it running and ran it until it until it locked up.

luckily I got there befroe they pulled it or I would have never seen the hose connected to the wrong port. We argued for an hour on what that port was for until they unbolted the intake.

Just think if they would have pulled the motor . I would have been stuck with giving him his money back.
 
Another time I sold a 360 from a truck to a guy. He installed it. No oil pressure at idle. We put it on the lift and I saw the oil filter plate leaking. I pulled it to find strings in the filter. and I mean alot of them.

I pulled the pan plug and the oil would not come out. Dropped the pan and found peices of rags which he immediatly blamed me forbeing in there. Until I reminded him the motor came from a truck and he changed the pan.

After some investigation I looked up and saw there was a rag wrapped around the cam.

Then he started blaming me again for the rag being in there. When it was all over I come to find him and his pro mechanic left the rags in the motor they laid down to scrape the intake gasket for the new intake.

After Bearings ,Oil pump and cleaning all the rag out we got it running. Only cost was parts no labor because I felt bad. He was one of those guys that didn't have much and was out of work.

Then the word came back to me he was spreading that I screwed him on a motor that had a rats nest in it. This was after he sold the car and I bought some of the parts he had. He got another car now and has been trying to contact me for parts and work. I willl not talk to him anymore.

he is a member on this site his name is Tom Bachman. Nice christian guy well soft spoken person. Just I cannot deal with someone who lied like he did and was saying what ever he had to so his wife would not know the truth.
 

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When I was in middle school, I started becoming interested in cars and would help change the oil on our cars. Well, my mom had this 4Runner and it had a skid plate on it. I had never seen one before so I was having trouble finding the drain plug for the oil pan. Eventually I looked back a bit and found a drain plug. Perfect. I got the drain pan, pulled the plug....and the oil looked weird. I'd never seen red oil before. Needless to say, my dad was pretty mad and promptly told me that I drained the transmission and not the engine. These 4Runners have sealed transmissions with no dip stick tube, so he got to spend the rest of the afternoon under the car with a turkey baster filling the transmission through a vent hole.

That was a mistake I only made once.
 
I bought a 72 Mercury Montego in 1976; it had a 351 Cleveland 2 barrel. Shortly after I purchased it the tranny went out and not long afterwards the engine. I had AMACO fix the tranny (expensive repair but no problems) and when the engine went out I decided to buy a short block and an Air Force buddy helped me pull the old engine and install the new. All went well in with my first pull and install I fired her up for the first time. Poured a little gas down the carb and it fired right up but wouldn't stay running. Well, after what seamed like forever trying to figure it out we added an electric fuel pump and the car ran fine - I forgot to remove the fuel pump excentric from tho old block and install on the new one. I didn't even know what a fuel pump excentric was but now it is etched in my mind forever.

Oh yeah - on the same car I changed the oil for the first time with just a few hundred miles and the old gasket stuck to the block and I didn't notice; wife drove it to work and came home and said there is a red light on the dash!!! I added three or four quarts and drove the car for a couple more years before selling. What a gas hog that beast was-
 
IF you get drunk and have to pee, make sure that you unzip your pants before going...
 
krazykuda said:
IF you get drunk and have to pee, make sure that you unzip your pants before going...
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Well, sometimes even that isn't enough...
This happened to a friend of mine at a party a lot of years ago. A bunch of us were having a great time at this party when, all of a sudden, a blood-curdling scream comes out of the bathroom.
We all rushed to the bathroom to see what was going on and found my friend rolling around on the floor, pants down around his knees, holding his crotch.
Turns out he went into the bathroom to pee but was so drunk he thought it would be better to kneel down in front of the toilet to steady himself. So he kneels down, drops his drawers, lifts both the toilet lid and seat, lays it on top of the porcelain bowl and starts to pee...
Just as the lid and toilet seat come crashing back down because he'd just lifted them to verticle - not back past vertical.
 
Just this past year I was working on my Farmall 560. It's a diesel and uses the old Roosa Master pumps. I had to replace the $5 umbrella seal. Pulled it, changed it and reinstalled. Turned the motor over and saw the pump warble. I knew something wasn't right. Pulled the pump and realized I just sheared the pump shaft and trashed my injection pump. NOW I know you MUST have the throttle fully open when putting it back on the pump shaft. Several hundred dollars and a few weeks later I got it all back together. THAT is a mistake I will not make again.
 
rc_brooks said:
Just this past year I was working on my Farmall 560. It's a diesel and uses the old Roosa Master pumps. I had to replace the $5 umbrella seal. Pulled it, changed it and reinstalled. Turned the motor over and saw the pump warble. I knew something wasn't right. Pulled the pump and realized I just sheared the pump shaft and trashed my injection pump. NOW I know you MUST have the throttle fully open when putting it back on the pump shaft. Several hundred dollars and a few weeks later I got it all back together. THAT is a mistake I will not make again.
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Why do mistakes have to be costly or painful for us to understand, lol.
 
First car was a 71 mustang with a 351c. Just out of high school, and I decided to rebuild the top end. Got it all torn down and new gaskets installed. Fired it up and started driving down the highway. Got to a gas station, pulled in to a pump and engine was still running. Some guy comes over and starts yelling at me to get away from the pump because smoke was coming from under the hood. I pulled forward to a spot away from the pumps and killed it. Popped the hood to find the positive battery cable was too long and had been cut by the spinning alternator fins, and had become welded to the alternator! Easy fix and I was back on my way home.
 
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