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What was your biggest screw up working on the cars


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Screw up #1 - Changing a tire on an inclined driveway - neglected to set the parking brake.  Got the tire off just before the car started rolling backward over the bumper jack - at least it stopped when the brake drum hit the concrete.

 

Screw up # 2 - Taking the rear end out of a bare 30s Ford frame.  Rather than crawling under, I was taking the nuts off the u-bolts from above - the more I ratcheted counterclockwise, the tighter they got.  Even got out the breaker bar before it dawned on me that, using the wrench upside-down, "lefty-loosey" is actually "righty-tighty".

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19 minutes ago, retiredmechanic74 said:

Man....you guys......this is a great topic... I feel soooooooooooooo much better knowing that I'm not alone when it came to screw ups.

 

Hate to admit it but a lot of this sounds familiar.

 

I had a mechanic working for me once that was getting a lot of comebacks. I had a talk with him and he said any job worth doing was worth doing twice.

I had the lot boy help him load his tool box. The jerk hit the road and unloaded his tool box right as he left the lot.

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2 hours ago, bobg1951chevy said:

Back in the '60's I rebuilt the six cylinder in my brother in laws RAMBLER.

Engine was buttoned up, reinstalled into the RAMBLER.

I then looked over to the work bench, where,  much to my surprise, I saw the oil pump !

 

2 hours ago, bobg1951chevy said:

 

I can sympathise. The older I get, the more I'm expecting that to happen. The short term memory is getting to be a worry. Did I double check the big ends? Did I put assembly lube on that part? I don't remember fitting the distributor drive? Did I fold those lock-tabs? I find myself (unnecessarily)  pulling them back down to check.

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7 hours ago, retiredmechanic74 said:

Man....you guys......this is a great topic... I feel soooooooooooooo much better knowing that I'm not alone when it came to screw ups.

 

As long as we are telling stories on ourselves. . .

 

When putting my '33 Plymouth back together I neglected the cotter pins that safety the rear axle hub nuts. I probably didn't have the correct size on hand and then forgot about it. And possibly I did not get those nuts properly torqued to the minimum 142 ft-lbs called for.

 

Anyway, all this came to light, fortunately at low speed, on a drive not too long after I got the engine plumbed up. I was lucky I did not collide with anything and it did not take too much metal off the bottom of the brake backing plate as it slowly came to rest (neither the single master cylinder service brakes nor transmission mounted parking brake are functional if you are missing a rear drum).

Edited by ply33 (see edit history)
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 My best friend ever was a tool and dye maker and a master mechanic in all respects. Even the best of us have mental lapses. He was trying to start his old John Deere (Johnny Popper) and it was flooding. he jumps off, takes a plug out and holds it against the hole so he can see if it's firing. He was a ball of fire got a helicopter ride to Crozer burn center and spent about7 mos in saline and getting grafts. The rest of his life was in a body suit. 

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Not my screw up but on the recomendation of a great friend who is a top mechanic I had a Buick 3800 rebuilt. Engine ran like a dream after install, but about 2 months later I started noticing a grinding noise in the front of my engine. Checked the cam sebsor, bad, so I replaced it. Started the car, immediate failure. Took it to my mechanic friend and he confirmed what I thought. The timing gear bolts were loose. We took off the timing cover to discover the only thing holding the bolts in was the the timing cover. There was no thread lock or indication the bolts had ever been more then finger tight on build.

 Engine runs great but I still wonder [even after 6,000 miles what else might come loose.

 Not much remorse from the builder other the paying us for parts and our time to do the repair.

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I had just replaced the thermostat in my '65 Chevy 2 and was running it up to see if it would open.It was a bitterly cold day and my fingers were numb.I placed my hand on the radiator to feel if it was getting warm.The car had no fan shroud and my finger tips were skinned by the cooling fan ! Took a while to grow new fingerprints.

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My first job as a teenager was helping out at a local garage. About the first job I was given at the garage was installing kingpins and bushings in a one ton truck. I had never done that before so the garage owner gave me a quick overview of what needed to be done. The last thing he told me was "don't ream too much out of the bushings". I took his advice and put it back together tight. This truck had no power steering and you couldn't turn the steering wheel with both hands. His last words should have been, "DON"T DRIVE THE KINGPINS IN WITH A HAMMER!" because that is what I had done. :lol:

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7 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

My first job as a teenager was helping out at a local garage. About the first job I was given at the garage was installing kingpins and bushings in a one ton truck. I had never done that before so the garage owner gave me a quick overview of what needed to be done. The last thing he told me was "don't ream too much out of the bushings". I took his advice and put it back together tight. This truck had no power steering and you couldn't turn the steering wheel with both hands. His last words should have been, "DON"T DRIVE THE KINGPINS IN WITH A HAMMER!" because that is what I had done. :lol:

 

I've done that before, :o

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I helped a friend install a newly rebuilt BBC into his Caprice. We got it bolted in. I had someplace to go so I had to leave. I told him to spin the oil pump shaft with a drill to get oil pressure throughout the engine before giving it the first crank / start. He called me three days later to tell me he had no oil pressure on start up. I went to his house and we worked our asses off to replace the oil pump. When we got it back together I used a drill to twist the pump shaft for pressure. I then installed the distributor. I was having a little problem getting the oil shaft engaged. He suddenly realized that he had pulled out the shaft with the drill each time he started the engine after installing the distributor. We pulled the engine / pan / oil pump back out for nothing! I guess I should have had him show me what he had done when he didn't get any oil pressure.

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One of my fellow night shift electrical technicians at a previous job had a rav 4, it wouldn't start one winter evening and he asked if I'd give him a ride in. When I picked him up he said the ignition was frozen since it was so cold. He was a very animated asain that I always had a hard time not bursting out laughing at the stuff he said. He got the idea in his head that he'd pour hot water on it to "melt the ice" in his ignition switch. I recommend against that but I was just suppressing him because I didn't respect him and fully appreciate his royal dynasty heritage....... when I dropped him off that morning he insisted i hang around to be proven wrong. Sure as snot he boils a gallon of water and pours over his steering column and dash. I'd bitten through both lips trying not to laugh my ass off. He was furious when everything shorted out and went dark, he threw the funniest angry asain dance/song/rampage/throw fest I've ever seen. Me rolling in the driveway laughing didn't help the situation. The next day he was just as furious that I let him go ahead and do that, and since I hurt his feelings and disrespected him by laughing we were unable to be friends. I moved to engineering shortly there after and never saw him again, the car was totalled.

 

Before that I worked part time at a kind of shade tree shop while in jr college. About the first time I met one of the other "mechanics" he was smoking crystal meth from a pipe made of brass fittings. He showed me this really handy trick. If drugs have screwed up your sense of smell and you have a bucket that ether has diesel or gasoline in it you can lite a match and hold it in the bucket. Its super easy to tell which it is, diesel doesn't ignite, gasoline does. He demonstrated, I'm not sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate that it was diesel.

 

I tried to only work on pre 80s, but occasionally got roped into helping him out. He did an engine swap on a 1998 suburban and somehow hooked a heater hose up to a vacuum port, I think the pvc. It ran close to 10 minutes before it locked up. 

 

He had a 60s Mercedes on the rack and whatever he was doing the front suspension was in the way. Instead of dropping the K member style assembly in one piece he entirely disassembled it piece by piece. We had one heck of a struggle trying to put that front end back together. 

 

 

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Maybe not my biggest screw-up ever while working on cars, but my 1969 Pontiac Custom"S" which I had special ordered new back in October of 1968 was still a backup daily driver  to our six Citroens - basically when I wanted to drive in downtown New Orleans and park on the street. At this point in the mid-1980s the special-ordered Pontiac 350ci w/4-bbl carb, 400 tranny, and duals had been driven in excess of 423,xxx miles and the only actual repair other than reasonable maintenance (brakes, belts, hoses, freon, fluids, had been to replace the Timing Gear Set including the Chain at +/- 80,xxx miles. Even the starter and alternator were still original. While I had changed the first set of spark plugs on schedule, a friend and GM engineer convinced me that as long as I could clean and gap them to reinstall them at the next change. They stayed in the Poncho well past 255,xxx miles at which time they rolled off of my workbench during a cleaning - three of them broke so the replacement set went back in.

 

When an engine miss became evident I pulled off one spark plug wire at a time and isolated the miss to cylinder #4. The wire and the plug checked out OK. Switching the plug, and then the wire to another cylinder still left the miss on #4. Next step was to remove the valve cover which revealed that one rocker arm was not moving at all, and the pushrod barely moved. Pulling the pushrod, it appeared in excellent condition, but the VALVE LIFTER below it was not. 

 

I removed the intake manifold together with the carburetor, but when I tried to remove to offending valve lifter, it was not sticking above the deck surface. I couldn't grab it with a pliers and didn't have another tool to hook it. BRAINSTORM - since some other lifters were sticking out higher the simple solution was to reconnect the battery and crank the engine over. In retrospect it might have been better to do that by getting a wrench and turning the crankshaft, but this was quick and easy - OR SO I THOUGHT.

 

With the manifold and carburetor sitting on the workbench, as I turned the key the starter engaged - 

and then the fuel pump shot a stream of gas from the output line straight at the distributor-

the spark from the distributor ignited the gas and started a blaze under the hood----

OH, DID I MENTION THAT THIS WAS LATE AT NIGHT,

THAT THE GARAGE WAS DIRECTLY UNDER OUR TWO KIDS' BEDROOMS,

AND THAT THE GARAGE DOOR OPENER WAS NOT VERY FAST?

 

The 2 fire extinguishers were emptied quickly but the fuel kept coming and the flames were scorching the garage ceiling below the children's bedrooms.

By the time the garage door finally opened fully (which seemed like an eternity) I had done the Limbo underneath, and moved the '82 Buick Century Limited back from directly behind it. Next was to push the Pontiac but had to jump back in, grab the key, unlock the steering wheel, and take the shift lever out of Park position, close the passenger door in order to clear the garage, and then push with all my strength, using the buick as a "Stopper" - AND THE GET BACK TO PUTTING OUT THE FIRE !!

 

Some scenario for the son of a career Firefighter and Fire Captain, isn't it?

 

The camshaft was still fine but the valve lifter,. and only that one - not the other fifteen, had worn completely through. There was no indication of notable wear on the lobes of the camshaft or on the basof any other lifter - flat out amazing after more than 423,xxx miles - so after properly cleaning the engine of extinguisher residue, I replaced the lifter, completed the engine assembly, and drove the Pontiac many thousands of miles. 

 

The next repair was the day my wife walked 4 blocks home with the kids and told me that the front wheel fell off - but it was only a broken weld at the rear of the left side lower control arm. Only three blocks from my friend Al BRady's home, I nursed it there, watched him do a masterful job at reattaching the bracket, and continued to drive even more tens of thousands of miles.

 

We ultimately gave the car to a young friend who disappeared a year later. Four years after that I received a letter from the Police Impound in a small Florida town. They had traced the car's serial number back to me, and wanted me to pay for almost four yard of storage on the "Abandoned Vehicle", left in the middle of a country road with the doors open. When I explained the situation and faxed a copy of my notarized Bill-of-Sale/Act-of-Donation from five years earlier, the offered me the car back if I would just pay a $14 towing bill. I agreed, and using the bumper hitch with my 1971 Buick Centurion convertible, I pulled an open trailer more than 400 miles only to find my poor old friend of a Pontiac in deplorable condition - every exterior panel dented, bumpers smashed, the interior reeking of every imaginable odor. Big surprise? No surprise! A reasonably fresh battery and some fresh gas dumped in the tank, and the disheveled old Pontiac drove right up onto the trailer. At that point, the friend who had accompanied me on the quest reminded me how my long-suffering bride would react to the Pontiac's reappearance, so I donated it to one of the local police officers who was restoring a '69 Tempest but wasn't happy with its Pontiac Overhead Cam 6. When I described the 350, he said he didn't want a Chevy engine in his restoration, so I explained that in 1969 Pontiac had their own 350ci - not the same as the SBC. I heard back from him years later that when he tore down the block, there was only minimal wear, that only honing, and new rings were employed, and that even the Rod & Main Bearings and surfaces appeared excellent, but new bearings were installed.

 

Whatever I did or didn't do to that '69 Custom"S", it seemed to survive  -- make me think "Christine, in GM couture.

 

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45 minutes ago, Digger914 said:

My biggest screw up was not checking to see if my brand new torque wrench actually worked like it should. On the low end it was way to high, on the high end it was way to low and lucky for me no one got hurt.

Musta been made in China like everything else now a days. Note.....If you run across anything made in the U.S.A. Don't use it, leave it in the package you could be on the Antiques Road Show some day.

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20 minutes ago, Marty Roth said:

Maybe not my biggest screw-up ever while working on cars, but my 1969 Pontiac Custom"S" which I had special ordered new back in October of 1968 was still a backup daily driver  to our six Citroens - basically when I wanted to drive in downtown New Orleans and park on the street. At this point in the mid-1980s the special-ordered Pontiac 350ci w/4-bbl carb, 400 tranny, and duals had been driven in excess of 423,xxx miles and the only actual repair other than reasonable maintenance (brakes, belts, hoses, freon, fluids, had been to replace the Timing Gear Set including the Chain at +/- 80,xxx miles. Even the starter and alternator were still original. While I had changed the first set of spark plugs on schedule, a friend and GM engineer convinced me that as long as I could clean and gap them to reinstall them at the next change. They stayed in the Poncho well past 255,xxx miles at which time they rolled off of my workbench during a cleaning - three of them broke so the replacement set went back in.

 

When an engine miss became evident I pulled off one spark plug wire at a time and isolated the miss to cylinder #4. The wire and the plug checked out OK. Switching the plug, and then the wire to another cylinder still left the miss on #4. Next step was to remove the valve cover which revealed that one rocker arm was not moving at all, and the pushrod barely moved. Pulling the pushrod, it appeared in excellent condition, but the VALVE LIFTER below it was not. 

 

I removed the intake manifold together with the carburetor, but when I tried to remove to offending valve lifter, it was not sticking above the deck surface. I couldn't grab it with a pliers and didn't have another tool to hook it. BRAINSTORM - since some other lifters were sticking out higher the simple solution was to reconnect the battery and crank the engine over. In retrospect it might have been better to do that by getting a wrench and turning the crankshaft, but this was quick and easy - OR SO I THOUGHT.

 

With the manifold and carburetor sitting on the workbench, as I turned the key the starter engaged - 

and then the fuel pump shot a stream of gas from the output line straight at the distributor-

the spark from the distributor ignited the gas and started a blaze under the hood----

OH, DID I MENTION THAT THIS WAS LATE AT NIGHT,

THAT THE GARAGE WAS DIRECTLY UNDER OUR TWO KIDS' BEDROOMS,

AND THAT THE GARAGE DOOR OPENER WAS NOT VERY FAST?

 

The 2 fire extinguishers were emptied quickly but the fuel kept coming and the flames were scorching the garage ceiling below the children's bedrooms.

By the time the garage door finally opened fully (which seemed like an eternity) I had done the Limbo underneath, and moved the '82 Buick Century Limited back from directly behind it. Next was to push the Pontiac but had to jump back in, grab the key, unlock the steering wheel, and take the shift lever out of Park position, close the passenger door in order to clear the garage, and then push with all my strength, using the buick as a "Stopper" - AND THE GET BACK TO PUTTING OUT THE FIRE !!

 

Some scenario for the son of a career Firefighter and Fire Captain, isn't it?

 

The camshaft was still fine but the valve lifter,. and only that one - not the other fifteen, had worn completely through. There was no indication of notable wear on the lobes of the camshaft or on the basof any other lifter - flat out amazing after more than 423,xxx miles - so after properly cleaning the engine of extinguisher residue, I replaced the lifter, completed the engine assembly, and drove the Pontiac many thousands of miles. 

 

The next repair was the day my wife walked 4 blocks home with the kids and told me that the front wheel fell off - but it was only a broken weld at the rear of the left side lower control arm. Only three blocks from my friend Al BRady's home, I nursed it there, watched him do a masterful job at reattaching the bracket, and continued to drive even more tens of thousands of miles.

 

We ultimately gave the car to a young friend who disappeared a year later. Four years after that I received a letter from the Police Impound in a small Florida town. They had traced the car's serial number back to me, and wanted me to pay for almost four yard of storage on the "Abandoned Vehicle", left in the middle of a country road with the doors open. When I explained the situation and faxed a copy of my notarized Bill-of-Sale/Act-of-Donation from five years earlier, the offered me the car back if I would just pay a $14 towing bill. I agreed, and using the bumper hitch with my 1971 Buick Centurion convertible, I pulled an open trailer more than 400 miles only to find my poor old friend of a Pontiac in deplorable condition - every exterior panel dented, bumpers smashed, the interior reeking of every imaginable odor. Big surprise? No surprise! A reasonably fresh battery and some fresh gas dumped in the tank, and the disheveled old Pontiac drove right up onto the trailer. At that point, the friend who had accompanied me on the quest reminded me how my long-suffering bride would react to the Pontiac's reappearance, so I donated it to one of the local police officers who was restoring a '69 Tempest but wasn't happy with its Pontiac Overhead Cam 6. When I described the 350, he said he didn't want a Chevy engine in his restoration, so I explained that in 1969 Pontiac had their own 350ci - not the same as the SBC. I heard back from him years later that when he tore down the block, there was only minimal wear, that only honing, and new rings were employed, and that even the Rod & Main Bearings and surfaces appeared excellent, but new bearings were installed.

 

Whatever I did or didn't do to that '69 Custom"S", it seemed to survive  -- make me think "Christine, in GM couture.

 

I was a Pontiac mechanic back in 1967 to 1970 then left to open my first gas station. I never heard of a Pontiac S. Was this a Tempest or a full size car??? Olds had a Cutlass S but I don't remember Pontiac having one. Just curious. 

Edited by retiredmechanic74 (see edit history)
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In-between assignments, and needing some vacation time from my the headaches of serving the governors of two different states as Director/Bureau Chief for statewide Information Management, I agreed to serve as Parts & Service Manager for a friend's Citroen, Peugeot, Alfa-Romeo, Renault dealership. One of the Alfa "mechanics" in the middle of an engine overhaul on a DOHC Alfa 4-cylinder was told that the rod bearings needed to be shimmed. Rather than following my instructions, he was honestly trying to convince everybody in the shop that it meant that the rods would be "TILTED TO ONE SIDE" in relation to the plane of the crankshaft. It took a while to prove to him that it couldn't work that way.

 

Another "mechanic" in the same shop, doing a First Oil Change on the recently introduced Renault 5 put the car on the lift, undid a drain plug and drained all of the lubricant, reinstalled the drain plug, changed the oil filter, and added a full complement  of fresh oil, washed it, and parked it in the lot. The customer came by after work, paid the tab and headed home - this in the days before common use of cellphones. When we got to work the next morning the little Renault 5  was parked blocking the door to the shop with a note that it had been towed, was smoking badly out the tailpipe, and that the transmission made major noises before it locked up in the middle of the Interstate during rush hour traffic. You guessed it - the so-called mechanic had drained the transmission, overfilled by double the engine oil, and not bothered to check any of the fluid levels. The cost of repairs, a loaner car during repairs, as well as the client's loss of confidence in the vehicle and the dealership were all substantial. My apology to the client on behalf of the dealer and the mechanic did help, as did a promise of extended service and warranty.

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18 minutes ago, Marty Roth said:

Another "mechanic" in the same shop, doing a First Oil Change on the recently introduced Renault 5 put the car on the lift, undid a drain plug and drained all of the lubricant, reinstalled the drain plug, changed the oil filter, and added a full complement  of fresh oil, washed it, and parked it in the lot. The customer came by after work, paid the tab and headed home - this in the days before common use of cellphones. When we got to work the next morning the little Renault 5  was parked blocking the door to the shop with a note that it had been towed, was smoking badly out the tailpipe, and that the transmission made major noises before it locked up in the middle of the Interstate during rush hour traffic. You guessed it - the so-called mechanic had drained the transmission, overfilled by double the engine oil, and not bothered to check any of the fluid levels. The cost of repairs, a loaner car during repairs, as well as the client's loss of confidence in the vehicle and the dealership were all substantial. My apology to the client on behalf of the dealer and the mechanic did help, as did a promise of extended service and warranty.

Especially because that's a dealership story, you have more horror story points than anyone else so far, Marty!  But I'll bet there are more contenders for the lead still out there...

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1 hour ago, retiredmechanic74 said:

I was a Pontiac mechanic back in 1967 to 1970 then left to open my first gas station. I never heard of a Pontiac S. Was this a Tempest or a full size car??? Olds had a Cutlass S but I don't remember Pontiac having one. Just curious. 

 

5 minutes ago, Bleach said:

The Pontiac Custom S was a one year only model that replaced the Tempest Custom.

 

Yes, it was in the mid-sized lineup. While the 2-door models had a 112' wheelbase, the 4-door models like mine rode on 116". For 1969 the Pontiac Custom"S" was slotted inbetween the basic Tempest and the LeMans with some . I was able to order it with most of the GTO options with regard to ride & handling, Power Disc Brakes and Quick-ratio Power Steering, gauge package, Speed Minder Buzzer, 400 Series, Hydra-matic, Towing Package, remote adjustable mirror and many others. We were into SCCA and Rallye, and our friends called this mini/maxi-Poncho a "GTO-In-Drag". It moved and handled really well, especially after refitting with 15" wheels and Michelin radials, and to somewhat offset the traditional handling characteristics, the rear tires were the metric equivalent of one oversize, but the front tires were three oversized, resulting in an almost neural-handling mid-sized 4-door sedan which could haul a 23ft inboard/Outdrive fishing boat, and then turn respectable results at the Gymkhana.

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54 minutes ago, Marty Roth said:

 

 

Yes, it was in the mid-sized lineup. While the 2-door models had a 112' wheelbase, the 4-door models like mine rode on 116". For 1969 the Pontiac Custom"S" was slotted inbetween the basic Tempest and the LeMans with some . I was able to order it with most of the GTO options with regard to ride & handling, Power Disc Brakes and Quick-ratio Power Steering, gauge package, Speed Minder Buzzer, 400 Series, Hydra-matic, Towing Package, remote adjustable mirror and many others. We were into SCCA and Rallye, and our friends called this mini/maxi-Poncho a "GTO-In-Drag". It moved and handled really well, especially after refitting with 15" wheels and Michelin radials, and to somewhat offset the traditional handling characteristics, the rear tires were the metric equivalent of one oversize, but the front tires were three oversized, resulting in an almost neural-handling mid-sized 4-door sedan which could haul a 23ft inboard/Outdrive fishing boat, and then turn respectable results at the Gymkhana.

Damn and I thought I knew everything (I wish) That's interesting thanks. 

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Back when I was a mechanic at a Pontiac Dealership in 1968 we had a rash of oilpan leaks on the GTO. In order to get the pan off the car (without pulling the engine) you had to back off the front body mounts and raise the engine as far as it would go then raise it (along with the body) another 2 inches then remove the pan. One of the mechanics did the procedure and by the time he got the pan off it was quiting time so he left the car in the air with the engine jacked all the way up and went home. Not realizing this the shop foreman shut down the compressors and all the air (over night) drained out of all the hoists . We came in the next morning and that GTO was upside down on top of another car in the next stall. Both cars were totaled. 

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Biggest foul-up??? Real easy. Believing I was good enough to extract performance from a Pontiac 301.

 

After a year of frustration, and lots of dollars (conversion to factory turbo, conversion to special-ground cam by a company that specialized in turbo cams, other mods), finally came to the conclusion I had attacked the wrong component for modification.

 

The engine made excellent power from 2800 RPM to 2900 RPM. What I needed was a 28-speed transmission!!!!! ;)

 

Jon.

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On 1/13/2018 at 10:47 AM, carbking said:

The engine made excellent power from 2800 RPM to 2900 RPM. What I needed was a 28-speed transmission!!!!! ;)

 

That falls into the advanced engineering experience- you, Edith Piaf, and Cadillac appear to be the survivors. Well, maybe just you and Cadillac, but Edith left them a song they hold dear.

Bernie

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1 hour ago, 60FlatTop said:

 

That falls into the advanced engineering experience- you, Edith Piaf, and Cadillac appear to be the survivors. Well, maybe just you and Cadillac, but Edith left them a song they hold dear.

Bernie

 

I think Edith was 33-1/3 to 78 RPM.

 

Cheers,

Grog

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Flat head Chrysler. Last June 2017. New to me. Pulled plugs to inspect, clean and gap. Recent previous owner had lost a small bolt. It happened to land down in the dished out area of the cylinder head around 1 spark plug. Unable to find it, he gave up. Me 2 months later, pulled the plugs. The screw behind the plug was not seen. It fell into the cylinder unbeknownst to me. It sure did not want to run after I reinstalled all the cleaned gapped plugs.  I was throwing all kinds of parts at it trying to figure out what  the heck was going on. Finally a compression test led me to pull the cylinder head. I found a bent valve and both pieces of the broken bolt. Followed by a full valve grind. Car is much better off for it today. Running great!

 

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Edited by keithb7 (see edit history)
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On 1/8/2018 at 7:05 PM, Xander Wildeisen said:

I was about 19, and I remembered someone saying you could just drop out a transmission on your chest. I do not think they were talking about a duel range hydro. So with the transmission on my chest, and short of breath, I started to roll the creeper out from under the car. This is when I started to pay attention to where my pony tail was in relation to the creeper wheel. So with the creeper in motion, weight of me + duel range hydro. It was like a rock under a skate board wheel, things stopped very quickly. As your head kissed the floor, at a dead stop, half way out from under the car, and really short of breath. I knew there had to be a better way to do this.

not duel, two men shooting each other are having a duel, and not a hydro. correctly it was and is a dual range hydra-matic transmission. 

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In 1961 I was a young a dumb 17yo (now and old and dumb 73yo). Bought my first car 1953 Studebaker htp. Nice looking car when I saw it in the dark( buying the car 1st mistake)! The car had been changed from 6cyl stick OD to V8 and auto. I was smart enough to figure out the 454:1 rear end gears were way too low geared without OD. Went out on the bus to a wrecking yard across town and found an automatic 1955, that I kinda knew would work, took the bus home, borrowed my Dad's car, without his knowledge, went back pulled the RE and loaded it in the trunk, my second mistake taking his car. I failed to take the U bolts for the spring mounting, at the wrecking yard, and of course I not the mounting pads either, third mistake. Too late I realized the the RE housings were different sizes and the U bolts were too small. Undaunted I spent several hours filing down the U bolts so I could get them over the housing, forth mistake. I had not had not taken the lug nuts at the WY either, fifth mistake. I found out too late  that Studebaker used both left and right thread lugs and someone had swapped a brake drum from the wrong side. My solution was the most beautiful job of cross threading that you have ever seen, sixth mistake. It took hours to accomplish and boy was I worn out when I finished. There is more but I better stop. This is the first time I've ever told the story, and now everyone knows! My friends would have never let me live it down, and still wouldn't today if they knew!

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