Mistakes you only make once

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I was 17 and it was the summer after high school. My uncle knew a guy who managed a well respected Mom and Pop auto shop right here in my neighborhood and got me a job there changing oil. It was my first job ever. I only lasted one day.

I had to change oil on a diesel truck. Was doing fine getting the thing up on the lift, got the oil drained out fine. Lowered the truck back down and they had one of those hoses attached to the ceiling that you just spray oil out of. So I dump 12 quarts or whatever the engine required into it and was pretty proud of myself for a job well done. That was until I looked down at my feet and noticed I was standing in the middle of a lake of oil. I had forgotten to put the drain plug back in :banghead:

Boss told me not to fret, just required some cleanup but at least nothing was damaged. So I got that all cleaned up and thought ok at least I got my screw up out of the way. Now it's time to get back to work.

I changed oil in some little 4 banger ricer after that. Remembered the drain plug this time. Topped the oil off and went to close the hood. As I started to pull the hood down, I felt the tension from the hood springs and I slammed it shut. Except this hood didn't have springs....it had one of those short 10" sticks to hold it up that went right up in the corner of the hood. I put a massive dent in the hood, right where that stick jammed right through it. I hung my head in shame and went and told the boss that this probably wasn't the job for me. He was very nice about it and just told me to finish the day cleaning the shop up. The customer wasn't too mad either. I didn't want to accept it but he paid me for the day and that was it for me. I seriously thought I'd never become a productive member of society after that experience lol.
 
oh - fresh 318, nice clean engine bay - dinking around getting things set up for first start.. few beers flowing, maybe a little smokable involved... all set.. turn key - engine fires right up... what's that weird noise... why do I smell oil... shut it off quick.. everything is wet and shiny under the hood.. even the firewall.. why is there oil on the windshield.. OH YOU DUMB F^&K - you never hooked up the oil line for the mechanical gauge - the fitting is in there...
 
Built a P-14 Enfield rifle with a 1910 Maxim gun barrel in 7.62x54R. The 7.62 x 54R has very thin case walls close to the rim (unlike most rimless cartridges which have an almost hemi type chamber around the primer). The extractor cut is very critical and cannot be too deep in the barrel or the case will fail under 50,000 psi and bad things happen. The first test fire of the gun blew out a nice rectangular slot in the case, blew my glasses off, ruined the extractor and put a few flecks of brass in my face while making my ears ring even with the protectors on. I set the barrel back a thread and re-measured everything very carefully, re-reamed the chamber until headspace was correct and it is a tack driver but LESSON LEARNED!
 
I'm surprised nobody put "voting for Obama"! Ooops he got a second term huh.....
 
When I was a kid we were using my uncles Farmhand on a Cockshutt tractor. It got to leaking fuel out the carb and flooding. So, I took the carb apart and emery clothed the needle and seat for the float. When I put it back together it would not run at all. I told my Dad what I had done and he said he was going to town that afternoon anyway and we would get a carb kit. We went to the parts store and asked for a carburetor kit. The guy looked it up and asked if I needed the kit with the venturi or without the venturi. I said, "Venturi?" He showed me a blow up picture. I said I didn't need either and thanked him for the info. Then went home and took the venturi from the arm of the farmhand and installed it in the carb and the tractor ran perfectly. Since that time I have tried to put as many parts back into my repair as I took out!
 
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 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.
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The auto business will do that to people....
 
Never accidentally rest your arm on top of a pro power coil when the race car is running.I wound up on the floor with a sore arm and not sure how I got there ......
 
I once bought a used Porsche 911 E. !969. This was the model that had the mechanical fuel injection. A small inline 6 cylinder looking injector mill sat on top of the engine and was driven by a toothed belt. Anyway the car was originally a European car but with left hand drive and a close ratio 5 speed with shift pattern of standard 4 speed with 5th gear up and to the right. Reverse was left and down as I recall.

Anyway the car had this button that offered no clue as to it's purpose. When you pulled it out you would here this clicking sound and then the smell of fuel.

Well it turned out the car had a gas fueled heater. The clicking sound was a igniter much like your propane grill, and the unit was all rusted out so the fuel just ended up on the floor. Luckily I found out what the friggin thing was before I blew my *** up. LOL !!
 
spinman_1949 said:
I once bought a used Porsche 911 E. !969. This was the model that had the mechanical fuel injection. A small inline 6 cylinder looking injector mill sat on top of the engine and was driven by a toothed belt. Anyway the car was originally a European car but with left hand drive and a close ratio 5 speed with shift pattern of standard 4 speed with 5th gear up and to the right. Reverse was left and down as I recall.

Anyway the car had this button that offered no clue as to it's purpose. When you pulled it out you would here this clicking sound and then the smell of fuel.

Well it turned out the car had a gas fueled heater. The clicking sound was a igniter much like your propane grill, and the unit was all rusted out so the fuel just ended up on the floor. Luckily I found out what the friggin thing was before I blew my *** up. LOL !!
Click to expand...

Could you imagine the unburned hydrocarbons,on that in California BAR smog tests? OUCH!!!!!! (I don't see the initial warm up,working completely well here,lol..
 
apparently wearing flip-flops in a public shower at a camp is a bad idea.. gleaned this from another thread.. :hello2: M2 :twisted: - wait, did I get that right...?
 
Gosh lets see,

I pulled the main plug wire out of the distributor to stop a running engine.

My first 273 rebuild, I put the thrust bearing in the first slot not the third, and then fixed it without pulling the engine. It is amazing how much crank play back and forth there is in an engine when you do that. Also a few very bad noises.

I double charged a 20 guage shell and put it in a very expensive gun. well it was before I pulled the trigger.

And worst of all, I did married a democrat. My most expensive mistake.
 
Worked up a very accurate 300 win mag load and shot them out of my 300 Weatherby. Very accurate actually.

Put acetone on my nut sack to get rid of chiggers. That was bad.
 
Friend of mine told me if he said he was getting married the third time - SHOOT HIM! Saw him the other day and he cursed me for not owning a gun!

I got seperated ribs a few years back when the wind caught a sheet of plywood I was taking off a roof. The next day at work they really started bothering me so I thought taping them might help. Only thing I had handy was duct tape (Good ole Duct it or *#@& it, right?) WELL, dumbass here took his shirt off to wrap myself! Nuff Said!!!
 
From my very first attempt at an engine swap I learned not to force things and double check that you torqued stuff that really needs to be torqued.

In 69 when I was 17 I was trying to put a 65 Commando 273 in my 66 A100. The 273 had had a 904 behind it, there was a 727 in the A100. I did not know about the slight size difference in the pilot on the converters. The engine and trans acted like they wanted to go together, almost but not quite. So I stuck bolts in and started tightening, then heard a loud SNAP as the lower corner of the block broke off.

After I found out what the problem was I took the crank out of the 273 and had the hole in the end machined to fit the 727 converter. Put the crank back in the engine, the engine in the van and got it running. It made a light tapping noise that got steadily louder as I drove it for a couple of days. Right about the time I decided I shouldn't drive it any more until I figured what the noise was, a rod let go. When I saw water running out of the turndown on the left side exhaust I knew something was really wrong. Apparently I had snugged but not torqued one of the rod nuts, since I found it laying in the oil pan.
 
MOPAR front end. Changed out all the bushings. I was on a roll.
Thinking im the ****. im gonna knock out the other side. I pulled the control arms off with the rattle gun. last bolt was tight.
Im sitting with the wheel off and my legs Strattln the drum....

That dam drum hit 1/16" away from my Johnson faster that you can say "Oh ****".... I had forgot to release the torsion bar.....
 
A month or so after I rebuilt my 225 it suddenly died while I was driving home from work. I was like what the hell and started it again started driving and it died again. Finally it started again but was barely running idled really low no throttle response and finally died again. I'm scratching my head thinking wtf....I was getting fuel to the carb so popped the dist cap. Nothing obvious there until I turned it over and noticed the rotor had not moved... Oh crap had to leave it there on the side of the road. Finally had a friend tow me to his house. After investigation I found the problem...I failed to properly torque the timing sprocket on the camshaft. It had sheared the pin off and the sprocket was spinning free on the cam. My friend very lightly tack welded the sprocket where it needed to be and I continued driving it until I could replace the cam. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This whole car experience for me has been quite the adventure. Been a few Doh!! Moments along the way. All i could do is laugh at myself for being so stupid and then make it right.
 
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