What are some... oh yeah... duh moments?

I did the same thing in a 52 citroen

 

Never wire a 302 Ford using Chevy's firing order---like I did. Dumb.

 

I was doing a trans swap on my work truck once and I couldn't get the u joint to line up on the rear end yoke so I tried to push the truck back some to get them lined up. I couldn't move that sucker for nothing so I climbed out from under the truck and started pushing from the top and still couldn't move it. I'm aggravated now and sit down to think about this.
When I sit down I look under the truck and realize it's on jackstands.

 

Alcohol is a drug. Duh.

 

Who's full beer is this?

 

I hate when I do stuff like that...

 

done it on too many cars / atc's / motorcycles.. troubleshooting why they aren't running... and the ignition was off der...

 

Just did this last week. Taking parts to an engine builder I was pulling a head out of the trunk. Our previous car was just totalled in a hail storm and we picked this one up thru insurance. The trunk on this car is much lower when open. When I went to pick up the head I gave it a good pull to clear the trunk lip, hit my head on the trunk lid, which automatically made me react by ducking my head down, and I crammed my eyebrow right into the rocker stud.



Hurt like hell. Funny thing was, I took the head inside and started discussing my engne build with the machinest. He kept looking at me funny and finally said "you know your head is bleeding right"? I reached up and blood was rolling down my face. Then I noticed there was a shadow over my right eye. Looked in the bathroon mirror and saw a bloody golf ball sized lump in my forehead. He said he was watching the bump grow as we were talking. Having some fun I made up this pic for the family to laugh at.



I just wished this was the only dumb thing I've done.

Forgot to add, the crooked nose was not due to an accident. I was so ugly when I was born that my Mother kept me face down in the crib, 8^) Mark L

 

Got my first car when I was 14. 54 Plymouth flat 6.
Bought a wolf whistle from J.C. Whitney. Mounted it
directly to the head. Fired up the car and blew the guts out of the whistle. Found the parts on the ground, reassembled, and then mounted it to the intake. Worked like a champ after that.

 

I spent a whole weekend off and on trying to get my 421 SD Pontiac engine started after I replaced the original 389. It would pop and fart but never catch. I got the Motors Manual out and I checked the timing and firing order so many times that I memorized the firing order. Bring it up again and again on no.1 and check the rotor..yep it's right on no 1. I finally got a friend that was a line mechanic to help me. He said bring it up on no.1. Pop the cap and sure enough it was on no 1 but not exactly on no. 1 He said bump it one more time. I did and when we both looked I knew exactly what was wrong. The rotor moved the wrong way. Pontiac has a CC rotation only 1 and 6 were actually in time. Rewired it for the correct rotation and it fired right up. I know that I checked no1 6 times over that week end and the firing order countless times. That was 1967 and I still remember the firing order on Chevys and Pontiacs.

 

I have at least one a day. More now that I'm older.

But if i were you I wouldn't let that 1.5 hr go to waste. Send me that couild mount and I'll make use it gets put to good use.

I did spend about 20 minutes lookinf for a proper puller to pull the balancer off an old motor I'm tearing down the other day. Then I squated down in front of the motor and slipped my fingers behind the balancer and oput my thumbs on the loosened bolt and squeezed; it came right off. I must be quite the man. DOH

 

Bummer Dude! glad I've never done anything like that........yeah right

 

Working on a fresh 289, I needed to get TDC to install the distributor. I used a socket and ratchet on the harmonic balancer bolt to turn the engine over by hand.
Got the distributor in, got the plug wires on, couple pumps of the accelerator and turned the key.
The ratchet, still hanging off the crank bolt, went flying into my brand new radiator.
DOH!

 

Lost my needle nose pliers several weeks ago. Looked for them everywhere I could think they might be and never found them so I replaced them. The other day when I pulled the carpet up under the dash to run some wires there were the pliers laying on the floor where I left them several weeks ago. As if that's not bad enough it was pretty much the same place I had found my "misplaced" roll of electicians tape last year. I guess from now on when I can't find something I will pull up the carpet.

 

OMG, now that is a good one....
Laughing with you, not at you..........

 

Oh that scares me!! I'm going to be putting my intake back on eventually,and stuff like that scares me. I know I'll screw something up.

 

At the drags back in the '60's they were having trouble getting an injected car started. Got permission to push it down the strip to get more speed.

Then folks in stands noted the balls they used to seal the injector stacks were still in place.

I'm sure I could add some personal stories but my memory's not what it used to be

 

couple weeks ago I needed to put my tractor in the shop for some work, so I tied the antenna down and took off the exhaust extension and backed the tractor into the not all the way open door. Now I need new halogen lights.

 

Turn on the kill switch.

 

Was given a 1970 Bonneville years ago when I was 16.Owner just wanted it gone and it came with a title.Put it in a stall at the gas station I worked at and gave it a standard tune up.Plugs,wires,cap,rotor.points.Fresh battery and tried to start it.
Spun over but no start.
Went back and re-checked everything.After a hour of troubleshooting I still didnt know why it wouldnt start.
Mechanic walked over and tapped the gas tank which answered with a hollow echo.
He had been watching all along and figured it wasnt getting gas but wasnt going to say anything.
Fresh gas and it fired right up.Duh.

 

Three moments come to mind.

1. Spent all DAY trying to bleed the brakes on a freshly built hotrod til in desperation I just sat on the floor and stared at it blaming everything in the world. Then I saw it. I'd put the damn calipers on upside down. Bleed nipple was on the bottom!

2. Even funnier. My mate was putting the finishing touches to his freshly restored and painted pearl white MG Midget sportscar (no external door handles on early cars). With the doors off the car lying on blankets on a table he carefully fitted the door mirrors on each door. Two screws per mirror into the door panel. Then he hung both the doors. Awhile later someone asked him why the mirrors where at the wrong end of the doors facing the wrong way! He hadn't noticed even after hanging the doors! The funny thing is, he left those mirrors on like that for several days, maybe hoping one day he'd go into work and find out it had just been a bad dream. I laughed 'til I cried.

3. Only last year, putting the finishing touches to a year long restoration of a freshly painted '41 Chevy coupe, our Russian body man noticed that the doors had no drain holes in the bottom so he lay down on his back and drilled three holes in the bottom of the door, each one all the way thru... the outer panel too!!!!! Three times!!! You should have heard him swear when he stood up!

 

Bought a Lincoln sputterbox welder in '77, didn't realize I needed a 50-60-amp fuse or breaker. Found out I only had 60-amp service to the whole house! So rewired the house for 200-amp service. It took all weekend, but I did a bang-up job, with individual circuits for about everything and every room. Then late that early February Sunday night, I did the switchover from the 60-amp fuse box to the 200-amp breaker box. Pushed the meter back in, threw the master breaker and . . . . nothing. Spent another hour physically and mentally going over everything I'd done, and was absolutely convinced that I'd double-checked every wire, every connection, every junction. Went back to the breaker box and noticed that the main breaker was neither off nor on.

Note to everyone: All breakers have to be thrown completely off before being thrown back on. At 11:45 p.m., I threw that damned breaker both directions and the world lit up beautifully. Let there be light, indeed!

 

On 2 different occasions, I buttoned up the front of an engine only to turn around and see the oil slinger sitting on the bench. Doh!
When I assembled my Buick 455 a couple of years ago I was tempted to hang the damn thing around my neck so I wouldn't forget.
I didn't forget it that time though.

 

Everybody that has flared a piece of tubing but forgot to put the nut on first raise their hand......

 

I do think I have done all of these.RLS

 

Now that is a good one!

 

I think that is why it's called a double flare.

 

A friend of mine was working on his brakes while my other friend Brent and I did strut work. I had to leave since it was 3 am. I was going to remind him to pump the brakes but forgot...too tired. When Brent got done at 5am he heard the engine start. He was in the batroom scrubbing up and went to yell pump the brakes.....as the car drove through the garage door and halfway down the driveway.

 

The other day at work I opened the overhead door to let someone back out of a bay (electric push button overhead door), walked away for a sec, then come back and started pulling on the old rope that is still attached from when the door was not electric and couldn't figure out why the door wouldn't come down....duh....Good thing no one saw me

 

Had issues getting an Amc 360 started in auto tech. The timing kept slipping and there was no oil pressure. A day later we found out we hadn't got the distributor in far enough to drive the oil pump, and keep the distributor from creeping.