How Could I Be So Stupid/Careless?

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dibbons

dibbons

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I began taking High School Auto Shop as a junior in 1972. Circa 1995, I was re-building a small carburetor belonging to a 1984-84 Dodge Caravan 2.2 liter four-cylinder for a customer of my then mobile auto repair. Every one knows to be very careful about insuring nothing falls inside the intake manifold when removing/replacing/storing the carburetor.

Well, after the rebuild when I went to install the carb, I only found three carb attaching nuts. This really befuddled me because of the caution I always employed when during such repairs. I don't remember if I looked inside the intake manifold for the fastener or not. I must have found or purchased a fourth nut in order to re-install the carb.

Later, I was driving the same vehicle over to get a smog check (California) and the little four-cylinder began to miss and loose power so I aborted the smog appointment and drove back. Lo and behold, I found a cylinder chamber all chewed up (along with the spark plug) where the nut had entered the combustion chamber. Unforgivable error on my part, but at the same time still unbelievable it could occure with someone so careful as myself. I had to rebuild the cylinder head.

If you like, be sure to include below any mishaps you have experienced (your own fault) that should have/could have been avoided. Thank you.

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Not me, but my asshole brother long ago, rebuilt the 429 SCJ and toploader 4 speed from his 71 Mach 1 Mustang. I was about 13 years old at the time and got to "help" the reinstall by fetching tools, laying under the car for hour holding up the headers, etc.
When he was attempting to fire it for the first time, it would backfire and blow out the carb base gasket. After the 4th or 5th time, I finally suggested that maybe he should put the lockwashers on the top of the carb, rather than underneath it. He was pretty pissed when I told him that I had seen it after the first time, but figuring he was smarter than me, I didn't say anything.
:rofl:
 
Yeah, the starter drive circlip shooting across 30 ft garage, hearing it ricochet twice, and finding pieces of it in 2 cylinders of opposite banks of max wedge at start-up, taught me to never leave carbs/intakes "uncovered".
 
In 1982 I was adjusting the timing on my 70 Duster with a T/A 340 and had the 8" air cleaner just sitting on top of the carburetor with the nut loose on the dished cover. I moved the timing a bit then reached down to give it a rev, when the engine backfired and the air cleaner jumped off, the nut went straight up, hit the bottom of the hood, then went directly in the carb and got sucked into the intake and right into a cylinder. All I heard was a crunch and the engine died and white smoke coming out of the drivers side pipe. Took the head off and a valve was sitting sideways in a piston. Here is a pic in 1981 with the soon to be wife I am still married to, in better times of course...

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In the early 70's my first Mopar was a 69 383 4 speed RR. I had bought a 'pizza pie' air filter which is a big flat thing with a thin (useless) foam filter and perforated cover on top. The stud is VERY short, and not visible, as you put the base/ stud together, then lay in the foam, perforated piece, and a huge floppy snap ring.

I was sitting in traffic and absent mindedly blipped the throttle when it "stuck on fast idle." I kicked it a couple of times, and the idle came back down. Seconds later, a valve ate the stud

Believe it or not, did not seem to hurt the valve. Pulled one head and replaced that piston.
 
Later, when I owned the 70 440-6 car, it had an Ed, 800 Holley, headers. Lots of nonsense with that car. One weekend and friend and I were going from San Diego to the Sac area to see a friend stationed up there at the so called Davis com sta. HE (the friend) sold me the 70. ? Midnight ? middle of nowhere, we are roaring along, and I felt some vibration. I guessed "it might be a belt" and about that time all hell broke loose. I am lucky I didn't wreck it from the coolant and engine oil. The no6 rod cap had come apart, and one or more rods next to it broke, and one of them in there swung around and broke the cam into about 4 parts. Punched a hole through the block and pan, the valves stopped, and what was left of the working pistons beat the valves to death

One pushrod came up and made a BIG mark on the bottom of the intake where it tried to punch through the intake.

I pulled the rocker covers, intake, and distributor, and threw the rest into the dumpster.

==============================

We bummed a ride from a gas station operator / wrecker these two brothers, who took us to stockton, where we spent the night. Next morning discovered we could NOT rent a one way UHaul. Bummed around Stockton and took a bus to San Francisco, a taxi to the airport, and a PSA flight back to San Diego. Took a Taxi down to my friend's place in National City, got his rig, drove CLEAR north from there to NAS Miramar, and retrieved my '64 426 Dodge, borrowed some rear tires from a friend, and rented a clamp on tow bar. Drove CLEAR back up to almost to Stockton, and towed the RR back to Miramar.

My leading chief and the RADAR shop could do a marvelous imitation of Columbo, who was not even a TV show, yet. He goes, "I just have one question, his eyebrows knitted as if deep thought.........."Are you supposed to be able to look DOWN THROUGH the engine, and SEE THE GROUND?"

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A day off at the RADAR shop, which is no longer there. The Marines have paved over where this was. Left, one of 2 62--64 GM service trucks, an unknown friend of Nelson, 70 Challenger Shaker Hood, Nelson's Olds, My black 64 Dodge 440 (426), a friend's 68 RR, and my lime 70 RR
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I was 19 at the time, my girlfriend wanted to go to Toronto to visit a friend, plus I had a friend who had recently moved to Southern Ontario as well. We lived in Winnipeg at the time, and the trip was about 1300 miles each way. We got to the Toronto area no problems, but as we were leaving, the differential in my 74 Ford Torino started making some bad clunking noises.
Being 19, I didn't have much for resources, no credit cards or such, nor did my girlfriend, she was 17, 2 months shy of 18. We decided to take the chance and hit the road, driving cautiously and not pushing our luck.
We made it about 800 miles or so before it got really bad, the gears would freewheel several times before finally engaging and the car would move again, and I was worried about it quitting completely in the middle of nowhere, which is pretty much what Northwest Ontario is for miles.
My girlfriend's friend had family in a little town called Nipigon Ontario, and they were kind enough to let us leave the car in their backyard, and we hopped a Greyhound the rest of the way home to Winnipeg.
Over the next week or so I bought another car, loaded up my tools and another complete 9 inch differential, and my buddy and I set out to retrieve my car. We had both worked all day, plus he did a cam swap on a sbc after work, which I helped him finish, then delivered that car to the owner, and finally got on the road about midnight.
We drove the 500 plus miles to Nipigon, put the Torino on stands, pulled out the grenaded center section, and all the shrapnel that had been spider gears, reassembled everything, and were back on the road by early evening.
About 50 miles into the drive home, I'm doing about 70 mph in the Torino with my buddy following, come around a right curve, and boom! The *** end of the Torino jumps about 4 feet in the air, slams down onto the pavement, and I have no left rear tire. Car is skidding around, sending a roostertail of sparks in the air, and I managed to get it stopped on the shoulder.
We realized that we each thought that the other one had tightened the lug nuts, 2 were broken, 1 stripped, and 2 were usable. We popped 3 studs out of the spare axle in the trunk of the second car and raided one lug nut off each wheel.
Never did find the missing tire, guessing it went a fair distance into the bush, put the spare on and continued home, non-stop.
By the time we got home, we had been up for some 56 hours straight.
I'm still very thankful that there wasn't a vehicle coming the opposite way when that tire let go.
 
missing linc said:
I was 19 at the time, my girlfriend wanted to go to Toronto to visit a friend, plus I had a friend who had recently moved to Southern Ontario as well. We lived in Winnipeg at the time, and the trip was about 1300 miles each way. We got to the Toronto area no problems, but as we were leaving, the differential in my 74 Ford Torino started making some bad clunking noises.
Being 19, I didn't have much for resources, no credit cards or such, nor did my girlfriend, she was 17, 2 months shy of 18. We decided to take the chance and hit the road, driving cautiously and not pushing our luck.
We made it about 800 miles or so before it got really bad, the gears would freewheel several times before finally engaging and the car would move again, and I was worried about it quitting completely in the middle of nowhere, which is pretty much what Northwest Ontario is for miles.
My girlfriend's friend had family in a little town called Nipigon Ontario, and they were kind enough to let us leave the car in their backyard, and we hopped a Greyhound the rest of the way home to Winnipeg.
Over the next week or so I bought another car, loaded up my tools and another complete 9 inch differential, and my buddy and I set out to retrieve my car. We had both worked all day, plus he did a cam swap on a sbc after work, which I helped him finish, then delivered that car to the owner, and finally got on the road about midnight.
We drove the 500 plus miles to Nipigon, put the Torino on stands, pulled out the grenaded center section, and all the shrapnel that had been spider gears, reassembled everything, and were back on the road by early evening.
About 50 miles into the drive home, I'm doing about 70 mph in the Torino with my buddy following, come around a right curve, and boom! The *** end of the Torino jumps about 4 feet in the air, slams down onto the pavement, and I have no left rear tire. Car is skidding around, sending a roostertail of sparks in the air, and I managed to get it stopped on the shoulder.
We realized that we each thought that the other one had tightened the lug nuts, 2 were broken, 1 stripped, and 2 were usable. We popped 3 studs out of the spare axle in the trunk of the second car and raided one lug nut off each wheel.
Never did find the missing tire, guessing it went a fair distance into the bush, put the spare on and continued home, non-stop.
By the time we got home, we had been up for some 56 hours straight.
I'm still very thankful that there wasn't a vehicle coming the opposite way when that tire let go.
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I lost a tire off the trailer of my pontoon boat taking it to the MIL's house because she was across from a nice lake. Never did find that wheel and tire, and it was a big bolt Ralley...LOL..
 
Similar to post 4, I used a ss washer and nut on my air cleaner, picked it off the carb and the washer went to parts unknown. I searched all over for that washer and come to the conclusion that it made it`s way in the carb.:BangHead:
Tore the intake off no luck. I figured I better pull the heads too. no washer.:wtf:
New gaskets and reassemble.
Years later I bought new heads for it and found that washer in a deep crevasse of the Dside header:lol: One of them better safe that sorry scenarios.
 
I bought my wife a TVR British sports car, 1800 lbs, 289 Shelby 307h/p.
Ours had wire wheels with knock-offs, - get a phone call, "my left front tire kept going straight when I turned right".
Found the tire, got it on the car, found out 3 inch ground clearance doesn't leave room for a jack, piece of 2x4 from nearby fence.
A week later, same thing.
The knock-offs are Left and Right thread to self tighten, or in this case self- loosen .
Change hubs to opposite sides, no more drama, thooo, the windshield needed to be held in at the top, when over 130 mph .
Very, very quick car, built to compete with Cobras, 427 optional.

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2 brothers story I knew back when. Short, 2 brothers in their teen's got into a fight.
Older brother had a 68 340 Dart. Younger brother lost the fight,in anger (when older brother wasn't around)
grabbed a hand full of 1/4'' nuts,removed air cleaner,opened throttle blades,dumped them in.
Next thing I heard the older brother was installing a 318...
 
How about lifting the car up with a floor jack under the k-member, we do it all the time. Last year I was lifting up the '72 and it spit the jack forward. Goodbye new radiator, new condenser and lower radiator support. It took awhile to figure out why it did it after all of these years and never a mishap. Now, I leave the car in neutral, and the floor jack free to move, so that they can move forward and backward. Keep your heads up boys, we're all in this together.

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Missing Linc reminds me of a story related by my good friend, the now RIP electrical engineer I met in San Diego. When Sent to NAS Miramar, I made friends with him via amateur radio on the local repeater, WB6WLV. Incidently, that SAME CALL is carried on a repeater PRESENTLY, on the SAME MOUNTAIN (Otay) it was then, in the early 70's. (San Diego Repeater Association.)

ANYway I soon also met a friend of his, "Mike." Mike was born and raised in San Diego, and at the time was a REAL Sh*thead. A drunk, not very responsible, a real screw off. I did not care much for Mike, although he and my engineer buddy were life friends. The irony is, that later in life, Mike actually became an air transport Captain via the commuter airlines, for I think Continental. There is NO WAY I would knowingly ride with Mike on an aircraft!!!

ANYway, my engineer friend told me a story about mike and his brother, neither of whom were mechanics. Their family, who was certainly not rolling in dough, had a Comet or Falcon. One day the car would not move. My engineer friend offered advise on what to check. He was no mechanic, either, but understood things. Soon, my engineer buddy went over and here Mike and his brother had removed the transmission, and not finding anything wrong, had proceeded to TEAR IT COMPLETELY APART IN THE GRASS, loosing various small bolts, parts and needle bearings.

To make a long story not so long, their Dad got a used junk yard gearbox, they put it in the car, and JUST LIKE MAGIC, IT WOULD NOT MOVE.

I don't remember anymore, whether the clutch was burnt or the rear axle broke. I think it was the rear axle.
 
I have a story, none my fault.
Big 4x4 rally, several friends went, camped for the weekend with the wife in the back of my Ramcharger.
Well, 4x4's mud and beer what could go wrong at 12pm at night.
My somewhat intoxicated friend, said it would be fun to run the obstacle course backwards.
Me being even more intoxicated said "hell yeah" so did about 4 more buddies.
We all piled in his jacked up Jeep CJ-5 and run the obstacle course really fast, backwards.
It was all good, until right at the end, we hit the last water hole, and he said no brakes, the drum brakes had enough.
Then we hit the bump out of the pit and the body lift flexed, and the steering shaft came apart, no steering, and no brakes.
Plowed the big oak tree head on.
I flew out of the back seat over the roll cage and landed on his hood.
He thought he killed me when he finally said "You ok"
"Yes I yelled never felt better" I did not have a scratch on me, god bless you Anheuser Bush.
Well we put the steering back together and got the battle rig back to camp...radiator busted.
More to come
 
Busted radiator, out in the sticks what to do.
Pinch as many tubes off as you can, and load every container up with water, for the 3 hr drive home thru the mountains.
Did not work out too good. We made it around 30 minutes at best, arrived at a pretty cool place called Cool Springs WV, kinda tourist attraction, general store, food grill.
But anyways we bought bondo and oatmeal.
Bondo to hopefully stop the leak, and the oatmeal to at least clog the leak from the inside.
Did not work worth a crap, too steep of hills comming out, ended up hooking a chain to his already compromised bumper and pulling it the last 2.5 hrs or so with my Ramcharger.
Pulling was no problem, but my Einstein buddy did not bring his top for his Jeep with him on this camping adventure. It was getting dark, and cold in the mountains.
So what does my buddy do, he flashed his light, I stopped. Hi and his passengers get out their sleeping bags, slide down in them, and we resume speed in the mountains.
This works really good for about an hr or so, he has pointed his fog lights down, so he could steer the old battered Jeep.
Well we were about a 1/2 hr from his house all is going smooth, dark as can be, they are comphy in their sleeping bags riding in the battered topless jeep.....
And a darn dog runs out in the road in front of me, well all I can recall is jerking the steering wheel to miss this real pretty coon dog.
The compromised bumper on the beat Jeep, with his driving lights decided to evacuate. I actually remember seeing the lights still lit up skidding down the pavement, until coming un-hooked from the jeep.
I slowed down, totally forgetting my buddy was in a sleeping bag, and could not hit the brakes.
So my Ramcharger was his brakes.
Hooked the chain back up, throwed what was left of his lights and bumper in the back of my Ramcharger and got him the rest of the way home.
Anybody says old 6cyl Jeeps are not tough, he drove the Jeep for over a week to work, with no radiator in it, nobody had a used one, and the parts store was a week getting him a new one.
 
I’ve always been a Mopar guy and in 1977 bought a ’65 Imperial 2 door hardtop. Land yachting at its best! In 1972 I discovered Mercedes Pontons. My brother brought home a ’61 190Db. A ’49 Plymouth with German flavor, anyway I was selling Ponton parts in Hemmings and got a call from a guy in the Carolinas that needed a trans. It was 1978 or ’79. What I should’ve done was shipped it by bus but no let's drive it down from right above Philly at 10 MPG! I just had the right rear axle seal replaced so my friend and I were good to go. Running down I-95 the car would kind of move funny like getting hit with a gust of wind. We got to the customer’s house, got paid and were back on the road by early afternoon. Twenty miles or so up Route 301 there was the tell tale noise of a bad right rear axle bearing. I pulled over and my friend who is a mechanic and I pulled the right rear apart. In the meantime an African American Sharecropper type stops in his obligatory old Chevy pick-up and offers help. He takes us with the axle to a parts store and Marv there presses the old bearing off and puts the new one on. We get back to the car and find out that the race won’t fit right but we decide to put it back together. We put everything together and we are up the road except we have this noise still. A little further on we stopped for food. After that we are driving up the road and it’s getting dusk. Suddenly there’s a flash, then another and I timed it just right to see this three foot flame out the side of the axle! Holy S**T! We pulled over on the only stretch of highway with no dirt on the shoulder. Pulled an old jacket out and beat out the fire. We were right below Rocky Mount and there was a gas station across the road so we wandered over. We parked and attracted a crowd. The axel was on fire again! This Good Ol’ Boy comes over and says “Ya’ll know yer car’s on fire”. I said “yeah, I know”. “Ya’ll need a extinguisher?” “Yeah, is it yours or the company’s”. “It’s the company’s”. “OK then” ‘cause my truck driving friend said that it was always a ***** when you used your own extinguisher when your helping somebody on the road! So with the fire out we decided to go across the street to the K-Mart to get a couple of extinguishers to put the fires out as we went up the road! So we went into the K-Mart and bought two. When we got into the car there weren’t any brakes. Yeah, the rubbers in the wheel cylinder were burnt! So we made the decision to park the car and figure this out later. We went to the bus station to go to the Raleigh-Durham Airport. While we were waiting they called the bus for Philly and we looked at each other and went to Philly on the bus. We barely got to Philly. The bus trans was dying as we drove into the terminal! We took the train home and figured the train was going to die but we got there.

That day when I got home I bought a ’62 Imperial from a friend and pulled the axle out and my dad and I went back to Rocky Mount the next day. Dad had a ’71 Ranchero and we loaded everything we thought we were going to need. We got there about 1 o’clock and were done about 7:30 that evening and after staying the night we got home without a problem.

So the guy with the fire extinguisher at the gas station, he was a truck driver. His truck was parked at the gas station, FILLING THE TANKS WITH GASOLINE WHEN A CAR ON FIRE DRIVES IN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can only imagine the headlines about the gas station conflagration in Rocky Mount that killed 20 people and nobody knows what happened!

Not long after this episode I find out that when you’re dealing with a Mopar 8 ¾ axle you need to grease the bearing before you put it together. There is an inner and outer seal so no oil gets to the bearing. So John, when he did the axle seal, didn’t grease the bearing which is why it went bad in the first place and then when Marv put the bearing on he did it like a Chevy when the Mopar is backwards. The race is installed first then the bearing.
 
I was getting ready to hit a huge downhill jump on my Redline 20" pedaling my brains out, standing up. My chain was on the loose side and came off. My right kneecap and the beartrap pedal took some of the fall, the rest went through my nuts and the top tube.
Didn't wreck but couldn't bend that leg with the 2" knot sticking out of it for a while.
I always remembered to tighten the chain after that
 
@65TerrorCuda I'd forgotten my bicycle mis-hap! It was the time of The Great Escape. I took the fenders off the bike. There was a spot in the driveway that I used as a small jump ramp. A friend was coming through the yard and I said "Watch This"! I jumped and watched the front wheel fall off! The forks dug into the grass and I went head over. I had to get 7 stitches and I still need to comb around the scar!
 
MAXWEDGECHARLIE said:
@65TerrorCuda I'd forgotten my bicycle mis-hap! It was the time of The Great Escape. I took the fenders off the bike. There was a spot in the driveway that I used as a small jump ramp. A friend was coming through the yard and I said "Watch This"! I jumped and watched the front wheel fall off! The forks dug into the grass and I went head over. I had to get 7 stitches and I still need to comb around the scar!
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Back when bikes had that lock tab for the front wheel I bet? That's a tough price to pay.

I just got your reference. Was that the movie where Steve McQueen jumps a fence?
 
MAXWEDGECHARLIE said:
@65TerrorCuda I'd forgotten my bicycle mis-hap! It was the time of The Great Escape. I took the fenders off the bike. There was a spot in the driveway that I used as a small jump ramp. A friend was coming through the yard and I said "Watch This"! I jumped and watched the front wheel fall off! The forks dug into the grass and I went head over. I had to get 7 stitches and I still need to comb around the scar!
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I did the same thing when my parents moved from Columbia, MO to Bristol, VA in 1969. My 1969 Foremost Swinger 20x16 was strapped to the back of the Mayflower moving van and it was the first thing off. I didn't know they took the front wheel off so it wouldn't keep spinning as they drove along. They put the wheel on and I walked up a steep hill next to the house and a cemetery and I took off. About a third of the way down the wheel flew off and I went end over end! Got pretty scraped up and the people living in the shack beside the road came out and fixed me up the best they could, and brought me and my bike down to see my parents. What a was to find new friends...LOL..
 
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Yes, that was it and it never influenced me that much that I needed a motorcycle. I did follow the Steve McQueen example when I launched my '59 Plymouth wagon over a steep hill and bounced it! And blew the oil pan out of it, they didn't show that in Bullet!
 
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