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

I took the 4 bolts out in the cross member when removing a skid and almost had the tranny fall out driving around. I noticed because 1st gear was where neutral was and neutral was at 2nds spot. Couldn't even get it in 2nd...

 

Could not agree more!!

 

I worked for carpenters during my college years. I had enough skills to be dangerous...

One day, I was nailing up block spacers between deck joist. The guy I was working with, Don, was mellow and reminded me of Willie Nelson. Beard, headband, longish hair. Even keeled, not reactionary, at least I never saw him lose it...

It was an elevated deck so we were underneath. My technique was to set the block, a 2x12, to the right of the line, using my right hand to keep it there. Hand on top of the joist, index finger to the left, middle finger to the right. Hit the bottom with one 16p nail from the pneumatic gun, remove my hand then hit the top with another.

We were moving along just fine when my technique got sloppy. I hit the top part first AND I bounced the nail gun with a double hit.. The second nail went through the joist then through my middle finger.

I knew it instantly and just kept it there. Weird feeling, not immediately painful at the time. Don was getting a stack of blocks when I said, “Hey Don, that last one got my finger.” He came over and looked at it for a bit, kinda scratch his beard and said, “Yup, it’s through your finger.” What seemed like 5 minutes later with blood starting to drip at a steady rate, “I think I can slide it off.”

I said that would be OK and he slid my finger off the nail. We doused it with some alcohol, wrapped it in gauze and tape.

We kept on working because it stopped bleeding and I could still use it. Thought about getting it checked out but other than being stiff, I could still bend it.

No infection, loss of movement or pain in the knuckle.

Slight scars are still there and it’s unbelievable to me it didn’t hit the bone or shatter my knuckle. Hard to tell but the scars look like it went straight through..

About 30 years later
Entry scar (Between the knuckles)


Exit (side of the knuckle)

 

Damn that’s some crazy shit! Glad you survived that ordeal with no major problems. It’s amazing you didn’t hit bone!

 

Crossed my battery leads. I had something on my mind, and I just wasn't paying attention... and I was pissed that I had to drop over $100 on a new battery.

I blew the fusible link and about two fistfuls of other fuses, in addition to the monster 120A fuse. Everything came out okay in the end, thank god.

 

Removing my vol. Firefighter wacker equipment, cut the wires for the passenger seat weight sensor for the airbag disable. That really pisses off the airbag system. Easy fix once I realized what I did.

 

Installing a “remanufactured” steering rack

 

I bought a 1986 Nissan 200SX just to learn how to drive a five speed. It was a great little car but needed some work. Anyway, I was checking cylinder compression and managed to cross thread one of the spark plug holes. Couldn't get the plug to go back in. I went to the auto parts store just looking for advice. I told the guy at the counter what I did and he started laughing at me, but as it turned out he sold a kit for repairing this exact mistake. The kit was basically just a tap (a little larger than the existing hole), a threaded insert and some JB Weld (or something similar). Was just about to start cutting a new threads and I just got one of those feelings I was about open up a whole other can of worms. I was worried about the metal shavings falling into the cylinder or something. Went back to the auto parts store, bought a tap that was the same thread as the spark plug. Started turning that one into the hole, a couple of rotations down I found the crossed thread and one full turn after that everything was good as new.

 

Back when I was 17 I was tuning up my 283 points plugs ect . I tried to start it and no start , tracked it down after quite a while and the nylon gear was destroyed on the bottom of the distributor . Couldn't find a new gear and salvage yards wanted to keep the distributor all together . Talked a guy into just a gear , put it together hit the key and ruined that gear . Called my buddies dad who is a mechanic and he found the rotor was the wrong one and was to big to spin inside the cap . It was even harder but I got another gear and he finished my tune up . When I spun that second gear on that old Malibu I was bummed .

 

Reman is for when you're about to sell the thing

 

Fun thread. I can contribute some.

Nothing too serious, but it would have been if I didn’t notice: A few years back I was installing a catch can on my car. The turbo charger was behind the engine, between the firewall and block, near the bottom of the block. In order to get to the area where the catch can would be installed, I had to remove the intake tube that ran from the inlet of the turbocharger to the air box at the other end of the engine compartment. Well, I get tube out of the way and grab a towel to throw over the inlet of the turbo charger. As I pull the towel between the firewall and engine block tight spot, EVERYTHING was tight about this setup, I hear a very “tin sounding” tink tink tink.....” heart sank. I knew immediately what happened. A very small lock nut that I had placed on the windshield cowling had been dragged off the cowel and dropped into the inlet of the turbocharger when the towel snagged it as I was placing it over the inlet. I spent the next 30 minutes fishing out the nut with various grippers, finger traps, and a flexible magnetic tool before I got it out. The worst part was, I was basically flying blind in the process, since I couldn’t see squat. Worst case I would have removed the turbo and shook out the nut, but that wasn’t exactly a fun project.

You live and learn!

 

This brought back memories of my first car- a multicolored 68 Mustang coupe. It had a 302 and I learned a ton about keeping up maintenance and repair...

It was very rusty by the time I got it in 1979 to the point every one in the back seat would get drenched if I went through a puddle going 10 MPH or faster..

One time (I must’ve been 16/17 too) after replacing the plugs, points, cap, condenser AND wires, it was running pretty good. Just for good measure, I figured I’d push down on all the wires on top of the distributor... While it was still running... This resulted in what I remember to be an intense, deep shock that transmitted up my right arm a bit past the elbow. It was kinda numb for a while...

When I think about all the stupid, impulsive things I did as a kid.....it’s good to be as functional as I am now .

 

I know that same feeling, got zapped from a Magneto before.

 

Lmao I remember that thread. It was a good one.

Depends, I’m running a reman rack. First one lasted about a year and a half putting up with my abuse before it died (honestly I wasn’t even mad). Comes with a 3 year warranty so rockauto mailed me out a new one for free. Had it in 3 hours later, and still going strong a year later.

Now of course oem is better but for 1/3 of the price and a pretty good warranty, I’m not complaining.

 

This is about my son. He’s smart enough but makes me wonder sometimes. He bought some kind of Nissan sedan for a first car. Grandma and Grandpa “helped” him pick it out. He told me it bounced a bit, and asked if I could ride with him.
It was so bad I don’t know how he could even control it. The front struts were beyond worn out. I asked him if it did that during his test drive and he said he didn’t even test drive it!!!
Anyways, back to the bad wrenching mistake. He called and said the engine was making some bad noise so I told him to bring it over. Asked questions, turned out he had recently changed the oil.
Asked him what kind of oil he used and he produced a 5 quart bottle that was very full. I thought maybe it was the used oil he put back in the bottle to take to the recycling place. No, it was new oil.
Thinking he must have used some other oil, asked how much he put in. “I put in as much as what came out.” Pulled the drain plug and less than a quart of sludge came out, along with metal shavings.
Turns out the car had a bad oil leak and he only put in one quart! His first car only lasted him a couple of months.

 

It's bad at my work to say that it's slow or quiet. Somehow it makes everything pick up real fast.

 

Check out these guys next time you’re looking at replacing the rack.

I haven’t used them yet but plan to do so when I need to. They advertise going above and beyond the typical reman process.

Got soaked a couple of times with my ‘07..

http://www.cvjreman.com/

 

Replaced disc brakes on all four corners. The pads were a high performance pad, and said no anti squeal was needed. After a trip around the block, I realized it was necessary. Pretty much had to redo the whole job just to add a little crap to each pad back.

 

Some asshat tightened the oil filter way too tight and I couldn't take it off by hand. So I stupidly decided to hammer on the filter wrench really tight then put my impact on it. Well that made things even worse because it stripped the filter. I had to remove the front wheel so I can jam a screw driver through the filter so I could turn it loose. Took me like an hour before I could take the damn thing off. That thing was obliterated. A simple 15 min. oil change turned into an hour long job.

 

tightened a new PCV on my 2001 Nissan xterra and cracked the aluminum intake manifold at 170k miles Took some gorilla glue and patched the linear crack and went another 66k miles before the HG started to let go and i traded it in.