What's the stupidest thing you ever did that you would admit to?

[Stormwalker]

Yeah, I paid special attention to those head gaskets on a 302 when I changed out the heads. I've heard too many horror stories so I made sure not to make that mistake myself.


Anyways, I've done a number of stupid things. Keeping in line with the 302 subject, I did a head/cam/intake swap on a Mustang. The intake was a cobra intake, and did not use an EGR spacer like the factory one did. So I was going to just cap off the coolant lines that went through the old EGR spacer. I had all the lines sitting there ready to be hooked up and attended to something else for a few moments. I got back to it, and hooked up the remaining lines which included a hose that went to the carbon filter. Or so I thought. What actually happened is one of those coolant lines for the EGR was sitting next to the carbon filter line and I plugged the coolant line into the intake instead. I started the car up and the car fired and died. There was coolant dripping out of my intake (the car basically sucked coolant into the motor). Fortunately, nothing was damaged, but I ended up taking my heads off and replacing the head gaskets again, and checking out all the valves, just to be sure (the car basically hydrolocked when it died).


Another story from quite some time ago doesn't focus on me, but a friend of mine. He was 16, I was 17 (I think well over 50% of the dumb things you do in your lifetime occur between the ages of 14 and 19), I had just picked up my first winter beater, a 1986 2.3L Mustang. It needed brakes, he offered to help, so we jacked it up, and I worked on one side while he worked on the other. Well, evidently the bolts for the caliper were pretty frozen in on his side, and he couldn't find any lubricant anywhere for some reason. So he sprayed starting fluid all over on the bolts to try to get them loosened up. He broke a wrench cranking on it after that, so he determined next thing to try would be heating them up. So he took a propane torch to them.......

I heard him get up quickly and start running so I stood up and saw flames shooting out of the wheelwell on his side. He came running back with the hose and put the fire out.

The only consolation after that whole mess, is that the bolts came right out afterwards.

 

[Mstrkage]

I just drove off with only two loose lugnuts on the tire, I was frustrated with the brakes and not paying attention I went off for a test drive, about a quarter mile later I noticed and walked home, that was today!

 

[8Mud]

The list is to long to post, but the funniest was when my brother put an extended shackle on the front of a leaf. We rarely slowed down long enough to read the destructions before starting a job.
And me an hour alter, full speed ahead, put another on the rear of the same leaf. After we took it off the stands, to admire our handy work my brother leaned against the rear, pushed both of the shackles over and the bump stop hit the axle with a authority.
Back in the days when manic activity seemed more productive than planning.

 

[Lodi Jim]

ARB carrier bolts/belleville washers came off and found the ring and pinion on the Dana 30. Pulled both front axleshafts and driveshaft and finished the trail in 2wd. Two weeks later the front driverside tire falls off going 55 mph. The Jeep left some grooves on the asphalt as I pulled over. After THAT, I carried some 2wd hubs from pick-n-pull as well as the usual spare parts for the Dana 30.
BTW, does everyone know why this happened ???

 

[badron]

Re: What's the that you would admit to?

Stupidest thing(s) I ever did.

1: My first wife.
2: A 396 power VW Bus. (think about it)
3: Taking on the front 4 of the Columbia High football team. I lost bad!!!
4: Taking on the front 4 of the Columbia High football team. Again,
5: Picking up the rearend of a VW. My back remines me eveyday how dum that was.
6: Answering this post.

The only way not to do dum things. Is to use a spell checker.

 

[98XJSport]

In high school I was borrowing my fathers truck, and got a flat. Put the spare on, and went to drive off. Clunk, clunk, clunk. WTF? Get out, check it over. I put the tire on backwards. He always does white letters out, but didn't on that one old spare. :dunce:

 

[MrShaft696]

I was a teenager and some lady pulled in the gas station I was working at and had almost run the car out of oil. I was adding the oil and some dripped on the manifold and combusted instantly. I ran away and grabbed a pail of dirty water and poured it on it. Suprisingly it went out and she drove away.

 

[1985xjlaredo]

Went to the mall one night and there is this line where cars are only in one row right up front. Saw this guys car who had busted my windshield out, sitting right on the end fo the row. Didn't see my GF car about 4 cars down? So I had a big ugly Ford F-150, pull up about 100' put it in reverse and mashed the gas. Shoved about 7-8 cars into each other, Gf's included. She never found out but I found out she was screwing him, lol. So the dumbest was that GF

 

[fubar XJ]

Back in '95 when I first got my CJ, I thought it would be cool to mash the gas and speed through a big puddle off of a fire road. Spending the next hour removing and drying my distributor cap and air cleaner convinced me it wasn't a good idea.


In high school ('85) I had just finished installing a cam shaft, headers, and Quadrojet on my '67 El Camino. Thought it would be cool to use that new found power to spin donuts in the parking lot. The resulting BAM!!! followed by the engine dying was the result of the frayed bungee cord used as the ghetto battery hold down snapping, tossing the battery into the fan. Straightening out the fan blades and having my buddy run me to the parts store for a new battery was the extent of the damage, but the feeling of idiocy for trashing my junk in a parking lot with my shop buddies looking on lasted for a long while.


Back in '00 up in Reiter on the Lake Isabel trail, coming down from the top, I thought it would be cool to take the steepest of the three switchbacks without getting out and checking how steep it really was. Crawled over the top and began to descend, then all four tires started to scuff as gravity took me down much faster and steeper than I anticipated. Floored the Jeep to try and pull out of it, the front bumper planted on the dirt at the bottom and stood me on my nose, mashing the fan back into the radiator. The Jeep then slowly flopped onto the passenger side, then did a complete barrel roll before resting again on the passenger side. Spent over an hour picking up all the loose junk that fell out of the Jeep, as well as re-seating the two passenger side tires on the beads, then had to be towed out on a strap because I couldn't run the engine for more than 30 seconds or so due to the coolant had all leaked out of the trashed radiator. Had to straighten the front clip and windshield frame, replace the glass, and bob the now mangled front fenders over the next few weeks.

I think I've learned a few lessons from these experiences.

 

[avnsteve]

divorced 3 times, any divorced man can finish that story. as for cars or trucks, I just got new tires for my 2000 F350, new tags, and changed the oil and such, then got a wild hair to go buy a rubicon 2 weeks later. That was nearly $1K in hasty mistakes

 

[RichP]

:dunce: Last year I changed oil and when installing the new filter, as i screwed it on it became tight what seemed early. I continued to torque it as tight as I could by hand, added the 6 quarts, and ran the engine for a minute.
I locked the doors and went inside with a good feeling about the transfusion of life blood my engine had just received.
The next day, I proceeded as usual, dropped off the son at school, went to Sheetz for my coffee, and drove to the next town on my way to work.
Something, I don't know what, told me to pull over and pop the hood.
Oil was pouring (well at this point, trickling) out from the bottom of the filter!!
I knew the nearest place to get oil was at the ACE hardware a few blocks away. Started her up, and quickly got there.
Before I went in I removed the filter in their parking lot and found the culprit.
The old gasket came off the old filter, and was pinched under the new at one side.
I had just driven 12 miles, idled 10 minutes, and lost over 5 quarts of oil.
I believe the gods were looking down on my old Jeep that day.
Never heard a knock, tap, or any other sound of anger from the old girl.
When I returned home, I discovered a trail of oil all the way up town, and followed it to the school, and to Sheetz.
Moral of the story - I will never assume the gasket would remain on the old filter again.
This was clearly an extreme oversight on my part.
My uncle claims part of the less than ugly outcome was because he SLick50'd the engine before I bought it from him.
I dunno.

Let me guess, it was a Fram filter I had that happen on my 82 S-10 with it's 2.8L, luckily my 7 year old daughter was standing there and said 'daddy, it's peeing on the driveway'....

 

[NKYXJ00]

Just got done installing my current lift. I was itchin' to get it on the road to see how she did. Put the wheels back on and took off to work. Coming home that day, saw something very small in the rear view, but paid no attention. Got to the next stop light, hit the brakes, CLUNK! and then came the grinding. Took it slow on the back roads home as it wasn't too far. Pulled the wheel off and down fell my caliper. I had taken it off while installing the lift to check some things, put the bolts back on finger tight, never cranked them down. That thing i saw in the rear view was one of my bolts. No real damage though, scuffed the paint on interior wheel and ground the wheel weights down. Other than that all was well, but it was still embarrassing as hell.

Party at my buddies in-laws party barn. I pass out in the front seat of the jeep listening to some tunes. They claimed to have held down my horn and blared the music to no avail. I ended up in the house somehow. When i came out the next day to leave my door was open and my light selector was pulled all the way out. Shite..... Tried to start it... nothing. Figured i killed the battery, as my door was wide open and lights were left on (set up..). Spent about 20 mins with a jumper box attempting to start her....nothing. Finally my buddy comes outside, pulls off my negative terminal, removes a bit of saran wrap from around the post and puts her back on. Get in, turn the key, Bingo..... A$$holes.....It was pretty good though...couldn't even see the damn wrap. i was getting pissed. Luckily they didn't have time or the sobriety to do the old wire my horn to the brake light switch.... That would have been fun. Drinking is bad.

 

[kevin s]

...anything starting with "Hey, watch this!"

Don't flush your cooling system with the top water pump hose removed when you also have the valve cover removed. Hey, I was multi-tasking, O.K.?:dunno:

 

[DIGITRUCK]

I think this one "Takes the Cake"...

When I first got my '88 XJ, the original 4.0L (has a reman now and aw4 too) Engine was really dirty.

I got a fresh can of WD-40 (the side of the can says cleans as it lubes!) and used the entire can (it was one of those tall cans not the little ones) and sprayed all over the engine until the can was empty.

I then fired it up. Yeah, "fired" is the word all right. The engine caught fire! I slammed the hood and shut the engine. Luckily, there was no major damage to the house!

Yeah, "cleans as it lubes" but kiddies don't try this at home! LOL

Thx.

 

[beav350]

Working on a customer's Grand in Nevada, at a shop with a great reputation (hee-hee), did a brake job and left the passenger front rotor off and couldn't figure out why it pulled hard left!! Yes, I even put on the caliper and didn't realize. Boss was out of town, a sure hangover day... Over extended the piston and now he needed a new caliper as well. OOPS.

 

[lornius]

In hindsight I think one of dummest things I ever did was to go wheeling alone in a remote and very rough spot with no spare parts, no cell service and a non-working CB radio. My rational was ... I'll take it easy and avoid the really nasty stuff. It proved to be WAY worse coming out than getting in!

It is a friggen miracle I made it out of there in one piece, and by the time I made it home I had roasted 2 tie rod ends, trackbar and wheel hub. I was wheeling the back side of Whistler well past the end of the FSR. Basically I pointed my XJ at the wilderness and went for it.

Once home I realized how stupid it was. Sure fun at the time though.
:dunce:

 

[CanMan]

Stupidest thing?

Click on this thread.



Not tighten down the TB bracket after doing some work.

 

[ren]

"stupidest thing that I will admit to." Burnout with 3.07 R/P in a D-35, Lincoln spooled, with a Puegot on warm dry pavement and 33x10.5/15 Boggers. The Boggers, puegeot, and pavemant lived. Anyone wanna guess on the D-35? As for what makes this "stupid", other than the D-35, downtown, on a friday, as the "cruising" starts. (I just HAD to answer the damn Mustang ringing the pipes.)

 

[camarors8992]

First wheeling adventure went bad. I had no clue how to wheel, we had just put a new transfer case in the jeep and I was itching to test it out. I get to the trail, throw it in 4 hi and 1-2 and head down the trail, about 300 feet in I realize the 1-2 isn't necessary so I throw it in 3 and kept going, it was during April, and rather than mud the trail was like a river. I had three friends in the jeep with me and they were all yelling "FASTER! FASTER! COMON WERE GOING TO GET STUCK!" So I stuck her to the floor, man, 20mph in water which was over a foot deep at spot. Every deep spot we hit we would be jerked forward like crazy, then with no warning at all, she quit. STUPID me tried to start it back up, 1/2 rotation of the engine and it does nothing at all. No clicking, I just noticed that it was drawing current. I figured the starter took a shit, so I call a friend and try to tow it out, but his 96 two door got all messed up too, kept stalling and sputtering which later turned out to be the TPS. We ended up getting our backhoe and pulling it out and loading her up on our car dolly and towing her home. We got home, tore the engine apart, and 1 bent connecting rod, broken timing chain, we decided to just buy another jeep with a good motor. Quick engine swap later, and I was good to go.

 

[lawsoncl]

ARB carrier bolts/belleville washers came off and found the ring and pinion on the Dana 30. Pulled both front axleshafts and driveshaft and finished the trail in 2wd. Two weeks later the front driverside tire falls off going 55 mph. The Jeep left some grooves on the asphalt as I pulled over. After THAT, I carried some 2wd hubs from pick-n-pull as well as the usual spare parts for the Dana 30.
BTW, does everyone know why this happened ???

You removed the entire axle shaft, not realizing that the hub is held together by the outer axle stub. Only thing holding it together is a mild press fit.