Stupid is as stupid does..................

So i'm doing my front brakes on Saturday. All is going well. It is, after all, disc brakes. Not like the old days when all four corners were drums. This should be easy, right? Wrong!!

All went well. Or so I thought.

I did the front brakes without a hitch. Ex was off the jack stands and ready for the road test. I decided to clean up before the road test.

While I was cleaning up I found one of the new pads by the driver side wheel. My first thought was that the idiots at the factory put an extra pad in the box, right? There is no way that I reassembled the driver side without installing one of the pads. I mean come on, no way.

Well, I'm an idiot. Not only did I forget to install one of the pads, I didn't tighten the caliper bolts!!

Good thing I decided to clean up before the road test and not after.

I got the "extra" pad installed and all was well!

Just goes to show you that you should always check your work.

Hey, nowhere on my resume does it mention intelligence.

 

[1992fordgreen]

Well, I'll join the club of DOI. When I had my 92 Explorer the radio had been ripped off. I was replacing it with an MP3 player and radio unit. But for some reason, the stinkin radio didn't wanna mate with the connection from the explorer. Took 5 trips to and from AutoZone and the store employee to figure out, I was trying to cram a harness on a harness.

So dumb...and no, beer was not involved.

 

[DjDom]

Mine is pretty embarrassing.

I was changing the brake lines in my Exploder, and as I'm going to bleed the calipers, the Rear Right Caliper bleeder broke off. So, after struggling with it for a day with an easy out and no progress, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new caliper.

The new caliper came with 2 copper washers, seeing as there were 2, I put them on the slide pins/bolts for the caliper, then reattached the line for the brake fluid.
I spent 2 hours cussing and trying to figure out why this line was leaking..

I was then told those 2 copper washers go on the brake fluid hose connector, not the slide pins.. Very stupid, and I took pics of it too.


TLDR:
Got a new Caliper. Came with 2 copper washers. Thought washers were for slide pins, put them on slide pins, brake fluid leaked everywhere, the washers go on the brake fluid hose.

 

[mr cribb]

So dumb...and no, beer was not involved.

And the situation makes you wish you WERE drinking so at least it would make more sense right?

 

[BigRondo]

Ahhhhh, beer. It is a great excuse and it forgives all!!

 

[Bobmbx]

Working on my 31' Minnie Winnie RV. Auto-steps weren't working. Crawled under the RV to monitor the switch and motor while reaching way out and opening and closing the RV door by hand. After about 30 mins of nothing, suddenly the steps decide to deploy. Right onto my chest. Lovely. Just before the steps started to crack my sternum, I got the door shut and the steps went up. They had no worked for months prior to that, and haven't worked since.

Weird.

 

[bats]

After I got the engine/trans in the BII I couldn't start it with the key. Me being ever so excited to hear it run again resorted to jumping it with a screwdriver. Didn't realize the truck was in 1 instead of park. While it started on the second jump it proceeded to try and run over me...very slowly.

 

[jimbalaya]

Here's mine: working on my '66 Mustang as a teenager, my first car. my auto-mechanic teacher had shown me how to start the car when under the hood, using a screwdriver to connect the circuit on the starter solenoid. after making some minor repair or tuning adjustment [i forget now], I decided to take the quick route and start the car with the screwdriver method. the car had a really fast idle. well, unbeknownst to me the gear was in reverse and when the engine started the gear engaged and it started to back out of garage. my friend, in all his courage, grabbed the car and it started sliding him out of the garage with it, like in a cartoon. lucky for me [in a way] my parents '76 Maverick was parked in the driveway and my Mustang t-boned it, rather than running into the bedroom wall of the house next door. I never really liked that Maverick anyway - it was a dog. Needless to say I didn't get any allowance that summer.

 

[BigRondo]

Welcome, you are in some fine company! :biggthump

 

[blueka]

hooked up a trailer yesterday.... wasn't really paying attention... turns out the ball was too small, didn't stay hooked up for long.. I got into A LOT of trouble...


Si

 

[Rick]

Yikes... Hopefully nothing was damaged besides your reputation

 

[blueka]

yeah, thankfully no damage... I did get a telling off... I was bummed out for the whole day afterwards... i'll be sure to check next time...


Si

 

[Turdle]

hooked up a trailer yesterday.... wasn't really paying attention... turns out the ball was too small, didn't stay hooked up for long.. I got into A LOT of trouble...


Si

There is a pretty good signature line in there--

 

[Caejxr]

Thread revival..... the reason I have a manual transmission: I had a solenoid malfunctioning at temp causing the torque converter to stay locked up and killing the truck when slowing from highway speeds. Well, on a road trip back in 2012 this happened somewhere out in Arkansas. A town called Pine Bluff. I remember a Ford tech once mentioned that he used to rev them up and pop them into gear when this happened on some Rangers. SO I thought what a great idea to try. I did...BOOM ...then grinding and no movement...hind sight said probably a bad idea on an explorer loaded down with an apartment full of personal effects...well I had the local Ford do a full rebuild on the transmission since I snapped the output shaft... About 2 months later driving to work this terrible vibration and clunking noise started and I just knew it was toast again. This was the 3rd one so I I was fed up and ordered a manual trans. Once it showed up, I got under the truck and saw the driveshaft was partially unbolted. The transmission was fine....DOH!! I sold it to finance the manual swap.

 

[mr cribb]

Thread revival..... the reason I have a manual transmission: I had a solenoid malfunctioning at temp causing the torque converter to stay locked up and killing the truck when slowing from highway speeds. Well, on a road trip back in 2012 this happened somewhere out in Arkansas. A town called Pine Bluff. I remember a Ford tech once mentioned that he used to rev them up and pop them into gear when this happened on some Rangers. SO I thought what a great idea to try. I did...BOOM ...then grinding and no movement...hind sight said probably a bad idea on an explorer loaded down with an apartment full of personal effects...well I had the local Ford do a full rebuild on the transmission since I snapped the output shaft... About 2 months later driving to work this terrible vibration and clunking noise started and I just knew it was toast again. This was the 3rd one so I I was fed up and ordered a manual trans. Once it showed up, I got under the truck and saw the driveshaft was partially unbolted. The transmission was fine....DOH!! I sold it to finance the manual swap.

mmm Pine Bluff, Arkansas.... nice place to take a crap.

 

[mr cribb]

This is from October 2015:

Well my whoops, is yet again NOT on a Ford.... anyone see a pattern yet?

94 Silverado is my latest daily driver as the Exploder has wiring issues. Anyway I am coming home from work one day and felt a horrible vibration. Upon inspection later at home it was the U-joint at the differential.

Ok no big deal, go to parts store and grab some u-joints, get them installed. Go for a test drive, I make it 3 blocks from the house and this loud ka-boom emerges and no power to the wheels.

The u-joint I just replaced has exploded into pieces. Ok no harm done, swap it back out for one under warranty, I make it back almost to the house (6 houses away) and yet again Ka-boom. I pushed the son of a ***** back to the house and parked it.

Next morning I inspect the damage, and now my aluminum drive-shaft is boogered up.
I call several salvage yards for a used drive-shaft, and to my surprise there was one locally at the cost of $200 used (to rebuild mine was several weeks wait and upwards of $500 IF it could be fixed).

Got the used drive-shaft, up to this point I had used Autozone u-joints, after two failures, I measure the cap size and bore and find out the u-joints were the wrong size.
I take my "new drive-shaft" in with me to advance auto parts, and after an hour and using the paper catalog the parts guy finds the correct u-joint. The problem was it was bigger on one end than the other.

This is the side-effects of having a manual transmission Chevrolet 4wd.

BTW, Chevrolet built the transfer case to require both drive-shafts to be in use, so heaven help ya if you blow one up and try to limp it home using the front differential, cause that is a no go.

 

[JCat]

In 1972 I was working at a Sunoco gas station when a customer with a almost new Lincoln came in. The owner said that he was having trouble removing the left rear tire, it had a slow leak and he wanted to replace it with the spare tire that he had in the trunk.

We put the Lincoln up on the lift, and sure-enough, we could not get the tire and wheel off. The center hole of the wheel was hard pressed over the axle hub.

We beat on that sucker, tried heat, oil, and pry bars. . . . then the owner, who was absolutely determined to get this @%& tire and wheel off, told us to screw the lug nuts on "just a few turns, not tight at all."

We lowered the Lincoln from the lift and he backed it out of the garage.

He then drove his Lincoln to the Kroger parking lot next door, and started doing donuts. He started slow at first, then started going faster and faster. The tires were screeching and smoke was billowing to the point where I could not even see him or the car anymore.

The next thing I see, is a police car pulling up. The cop runs up to me and asks, "What the #$%%^$# is going on here ?"

 

[Sweersa]

put a motor in my capri once. started it, ran great, but the oil pressure wouldnt come up. wire going to the sensor wasn't burnt off from the header so i figured the gauge was shot. after it running for 10 mins, and reeving it, i got out to go do something. when i closed the door, i found out why i had no oil pressure. i dropped the old oil, put on the new filter, but the 5 liters of new oil was still sitting in the back seat.....

Did this ruin the engine?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Did this ruin the engine?

didnt knock or tick afterwards. drove it for 2 summers after that. never did open the motor to look at the bearings

 

[Sweersa]

didnt knock or tick afterwards. drove it for 2 summers after that. never did open the motor to look at the bearings

That's great! I always assumed engines kaboomed faster when running them nearly dry.

 

[shucker1]

Well, way too many to post but after 53 years I have survived them all...

Just a tip.

If you install a brand new electrical service panel in your house, make sure the master breaker "IS IN THE OFF POSITION" before you put that Allen wrench on the main feed lugs to make sure they are tight.

Being a controls tech I should know better.

Like a friend of mine says. "If you want to be stupid, you have to be tough!"