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What are te nastiest conditions you've ever wrenched in?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by 63comet, Apr 5, 2013.

  1. SquireDon
    Joined: Aug 8, 2010
    Posts: 602

    SquireDon
    Member
    from Oregon

    Laying in a ditch half full of running water, under a '72 ford f100 bolting the driveline at the rear end back in during an Oregon November downpour.

    Cold, half submerged in wet and dark is no fun to be wrenching in.
     
  2. MATACONCEPTS
    Joined: Aug 7, 2009
    Posts: 2,069

    MATACONCEPTS
    BANNED

    It started to drizzle for a few minutes last Friday
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2013
  3. Bearing Burner
    Joined: Mar 2, 2009
    Posts: 1,177

    Bearing Burner
    Member
    from W. MA

    taking a dash out of a '41 Buick at 5* with a wind blowing. Did it for someone else who was restoring a Buick.
     
  4. Changing a trans by myself, gravel driveway, blowing snow, 22 degrees, 10 pm, to get to school and work the next day. I hate 57 Chevys to this day.
     
  5. treb11
    Joined: Jan 21, 2006
    Posts: 4,064

    treb11
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Spent most of last year in Kuwait working on mine-resistant vehicles. Everything is big and heavy. The local laws say you cant work outside when its over 130 deg F, so they stop reporting the actual temp at 128. A 5 foot tall pallet of bottled water lasted about 2 days. Fine blowing sand in everything. I was so thankful to get back to Texas where its only 105.
     
  6. In a field trying to get a open driveshaft rear end out of a 46 ford truck with hand tools with a bull in the midst.
     
  7. whtbaron
    Joined: Sep 12, 2012
    Posts: 585

    whtbaron
    Member
    from manitoba

    I twisted a driveshaft on a truck, so I had to remove it on the side of a gravel road in the snow at minus 40. My brother works as a heavy duty mechanic in the north. He's worked Fort Mac and Baffin Island. One job was in the NorthWest Territories 300 miles from the Arctic Ocean. Workplace and Safety wouldn't let them use temporary tents so anything that broke outside ( pretty much everything) had to be fixed on site. Try changing 20 ft tall tires in blinding snow at minus 60F. Guess that's cheating unless he rods a Droitt though...
     
  8. 37dodge
    Joined: Feb 22, 2006
    Posts: 202

    37dodge
    Member

    Being shot at in Iraq while changing out a starter in a HUMVEE.
     
  9. In February 2002 we were providing communications relay for UCT2 while they were conducting dive operations out of Deadhorse Alaska. Try keeping generators running at -80f. The divers were glad to get in the water under the ice. The water temperature was 28 degrees. The special extreme cold weather silicone lube on our antenna joints solidified so we ended up just breaking the elements and sending the antennas to salvage (DRMO) when we got back to California. The next year we went back to Alaska and stayed on a man made island in Valdez harbor in February, living in GP meduim tents for 33 days. I remember now why I retired.
     
  10. Leviman
    Joined: Dec 11, 2012
    Posts: 201

    Leviman
    Member

    Pulling a starter off a 1972 saab 99 at 20 below. It actually wasn't that bad though, no wind in fairbanks.
     
  11. UNSHINED 2
    Joined: Oct 30, 2006
    Posts: 1,201

    UNSHINED 2
    Member

    Fixin a broken chain on a fully loaded shit spreader on a cold, windy day in January in Wisconsin.

    Talk about shitty conditions!!!
     
  12. Pete1
    Joined: Aug 23, 2004
    Posts: 2,261

    Pete1
    Member
    from Wa.

    I won't bore you with details but it involved changing a swing frame under a D8 Cat
    in the middle of a taxi-way on an airstrip. 6 feet of snow on the ground and minus 42F.
    Oh, and it was dark 23 hours a day.
     
  13. kismyss
    Joined: Jan 12, 2011
    Posts: 65

    kismyss
    Member

    Had to do an cummins m11 engine swap on a trash compactor on the trash pile. It was hydrstatic and couldn't move it. So layin on dirty diapers and tampoons makes for a long hard look at what I chose for a living. I quit and now work at a power plant. Now I play in the coal, dirty, but clean!
     
  14. RayJarvis
    Joined: Oct 11, 2010
    Posts: 209

    RayJarvis
    Member

    Syria. just outside Damascus.jury rigging starter on my jeep
     
  15. Grumbler
    Joined: Mar 2, 2009
    Posts: 358

    Grumbler
    Member

    Around 1980 changing a main wheel on a DC-3 after it blew on landing, veered off the runway and buried itself up to the axle in mud in a torrential downpour barely above freezing in a little town on the north coast of BC. The muck was so deep we had to go into town first and buy a truckload of 3/4 ply from the building supply to have a surface to work on. Then we started digging......
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2013
  16. bgaro
    Joined: Sep 3, 2010
    Posts: 1,189

    bgaro
    Member

    you guys ever tried to wire anything at 20 below. it don't work, insulation just cracks. the boss said wire it so i did. dink.
     
  17. Dane
    Joined: May 6, 2010
    Posts: 1,351

    Dane
    Member
    from Soquel, CA

    Sheesh, these stories are makin me feel like a pussy. :D Yeah, I know, if the shoe fits...
     
  18. Obi's Volvo in Silver Spring, Maryland. There was so much sta-dri imbedded in the shop, I thought the place had dirt floors.


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  19. Swapping out a vacuum modulator in a Ford C6 in a old Ford wagon sitting next to a muddy creek in August in Southern Illinois...while using plywood under the jack so it didn't sink into the mud. Young, dumb, and I'd do it again.
     
  20. 49styleline
    Joined: Nov 1, 2012
    Posts: 507

    49styleline
    Member
    from oregon

    winter in a uninsulated garage
     
  21. duncan
    Joined: Aug 23, 2006
    Posts: 1,216

    duncan
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Clutch replacement on a Kenworth with a full load of logs, covered in slushy snow on a steep, downhill rut filled adverse. Had the company owners 18 year old kid along for help, who stayed in the service truck with the heater on because it was "cold". Quit that night.


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  22. MrFalcon62
    Joined: Sep 9, 2010
    Posts: 249

    MrFalcon62
    Member

    In the local junkyard, pulling fuel and temperature gauges from a wrecked 1960 Falcon in snake infested, waist high grass in West Texas in July. ImageUploadedByH.A.M.B.1374794313.051914.jpg


    Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
     
  23. Truckedup
    Joined: Jul 25, 2006
    Posts: 4,660

    Truckedup
    Member

    I replaced a submarine propeller in shark infested waters.Would have been easier if I could hold my breath longer at the 600 foot depth.
     
  24. JC Sparks
    Joined: Dec 8, 2008
    Posts: 733

    JC Sparks
    Member
    from Ohio

    I crewed on a Top Fuel car for about 25 years. Baton Rouge was fun with 95 deg and 90% humidity and all the bugs you could swallow. One year in Rockingham there was snow showers between rounds. Indy in the late 80's it rained so much that there was water 3+ inches deep running through our pits, when it got down to 1" I got down there and checked the mains. Last year working at Bonneville was a picnic compared to the drag strip. More fucking fun that you could stand. JC
     
  25. Risky
    Joined: Oct 30, 2012
    Posts: 53

    Risky
    Member

    Wrenching outside and Texas spring storms don't mix well.
    Changing starter on an old Monza during a driving thunderstorm. Had water literally running across the top of my chest whil laying under the car from flood waters running down the drive.
    Changing flat tire on the wife's Yukon. It's pissing down thunder and lightning and all that nice stuff. Wouldn't you know spare tire lifting mechanism is stuck. Laying on my back under the truck soaked to the bone and lightning struck the house next door. It caused all my muscles to contract up and cramp. Made my way out from under truck it took 5-10 min. to walk it off.
    We do what we gotta do when the daily devers down and you got to get to work lol
     
  26. I don't know if this counts since it's not car related but I work in a wastewater plant (you know where this is likely to go) and the "mud well" is about 15' deep maybe 8' square with 3 pumps and 4-8" pipes and 2-4" pipes. The 8" pipes are telescopic and open at the top, return sludge flows out of them and the valves don't hold good. You have to pump the pit down, don a rain suit and worm your way down a ladder. When the flapper valve gets clogged up you have to loosen the 6 bolts slowly and let the 15 feet of sludge in the 4" vertical pipe spray out the side as you try to stand out of the way. When it's done draining you take off the cover plate and pull the hair ball out (with your hands) and put it back together hoping not to drop a bolt or wrench since there is about 6" of sludge left in the bottom, all while sludge is dripping on you since the valves don't hold completely. Oh and you must keep your mouth shut at all times.
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2013
  27. Lobucrod
    Joined: Mar 22, 2006
    Posts: 4,122

    Lobucrod
    Alliance Vendor
    from Texas

    Around 76 I was working in a transmission shop in Amarillo Texas and had to change the trans in a truck that was used in a feed lot. Had to scrape about 6 inches of shit off of everything!
     
  28. herbet99
    Joined: Jan 16, 2009
    Posts: 194

    herbet99
    Member
    from Central NJ

    As a young kid, in a junk yard, removing a section of automatic transmission shift linkage (the part that goes through the case) while lying in mud and transmission fluid. The owner felt so bad for me he gave me the part for free.
     

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