What is the worst mistake you made doing your own wrenching?

I got a chuckle on another forum recently reading a post by someone who was genuinely interested in why his Harbor Freight drill bits weren't holding up drilling tool steel.

 

Damn, this is the best.

 

I forgot about this till I read this . I broke a spark plug off (a long time ago dont remember what car ) the broke piece was sitting there flush ( omg moment ) I took the tip of my finger and pushed against it turned left a little and it moved . Took some time but backed it put .

 

im still using the old SEARS Craftsman beam type torque wrench bought it for $20

 

I still have one of those in my garage somewhere, probably has an inch of dust on it, lol.

 

its accurate and never fails Made in USA

 

What torque wrench you recommend for our trucks? People have recommended cheap ones to me on here before.

 

I swapped out a starter on a 96' Nissan Maxima, failed to note where the air intake hose clamp head rotated directionally. Next morning on the freeway to work the pedal had some resistance, well after pushing past it, I couldn't get the car to stop. Wide-open throttle weaving through traffic with the brakes mashed down!

Turns out the throttle cable hung up wide open on the hose clamp head. Talk about a hell of a ride! No lives were harmed in the making of that mistake! Cleaned 20 years of build-up out real nice like.

 

I had a car with a stuck throttle once too, I stabbed the clutch and let it bounce off the rev limiter until I could get off the road, scary experience.

 

lol It was an auto, jesus, cleaned out the engine and my arteries. Went into work like "MORNING M*THERF*CKERS WHOOOOOOOOO!!!"

 

You're brakes must have been awful. Any modernish commuter car should be able to stop even at WOT. Scary stuff.

 

how did u ever get it to stop?

 

Got it on the shoulder, popped it to neutral then killed the engine. Had to go through reverse to get there, in hindsight I would just turn the key back one notch to kill it.

 

I only own two automobile torque wrenches at present. Both split beams, and at least assembled in the USA.

1)

$189 Precision Instruments PREC3FR250F Silver 1/2" Drive Split Beam Torque Wrench with Flex Head

Precision Instruments PREC3FR250F - Rated @ 45 - 250 foot pounds. I use it for lugs and anything over 80 fp. (I wouldn't trust it's accuracy on the low end of the scale)

2) CDI WSC-100CA - Rated @ 20 - 100 foot pounds. I'll use this for anything between 40 to 100. (again, I wouldn't trust it on the low end of the scale. YMMV)

Worthy of note that had I purchased the second one first, for my needs I wouldn't have needed #1.

Anything over 100 inch pounds and under 40 foot pounds, I'll use the torque wrench in my wrist. To the best of my knowledge, it the only one that's never let me down.

 

I think this is literally the worse case scenario for wrenching your own vehicle. Happened locally...

https://signalscv.com/2019/02/saugus-man-killed-after-car-falls-on-top-of-him/

 

-almost killed myself installing an amp because I didn't disconnect the battery (like an idiot) and the ground wire slipped from its connection and short circuited while I was holding the amp. Luckily fuse blew right away but I FELT the electricity going up my arm towards my heart.

-pretty much passed out installing a steel braided fuel line on my supra, wasn't well ventilated and spent too much time underneath with gas pooling around me, buddy pulled me out when he noticed I wasn't responding.

-left a shop towel in my supra throttle body, stuck throttle WOT and car almost took off on me but it was a stick so just pushed clutch in.

-destroyed a hi flo cat because I was running super rich and didn't install the cat-back part, literally melted my cat and caught fire while driving.

-almost killed myself again using a spring compressor, those things are fucking dangerous I'll never touch one again.

-also my very first oil change when I was 15 I drained the transmission not the oil.

My only defense is these all happened back in high school, by college I got my shit together.

 

Where are you at in the SCV? I grew up out there, graduated from Canyon High in '03. My dad still lives in Valencia so I visit pretty often, also like to hit up Rowher & Drinkwater Flats trails

 

and then you went to work for a Toyota dealership.... Just kidding