What is the biggest mistake?

What is the biggest mistake you have made while working on your trucks?

I havent made to many *knock on wood* but i did have to redo my grill 3 times just from pure lazyness...

 

I haven't made any on this truck, but when we were putting the motor back in my old bronco, we forgot the little metal spacer that goes in between the motor and trans. We didn't realize until we got the last motor mount bolt tightened and saw it laying there on the work bench . It was horrible but we took everything back out and put the stupid plate in.

 

I haven't made any major mistakes in the Tacoma, but I did accidentally light a buddy's Tiburon floormat on fire while hardwiring a radar detector. I was under the dash for quite a while and wasn't watching my cigarette ashes...

 

bump, good thread idea.

 

doing the pinch weld mod. it's so hack ass to just smash it with a hammer, going back and grinding it down, then painting, it's much better now. and dropping my sway bar on my head was a mistake haha.

 

I put the throwout bearing and lever in backwards when doing my clutch. realized it right after reataching the bell housing

 

While installing my UCA's, forgot to connect the driver side end link on the sway bar. Got in the truck, went for a test drive and ripped up my CV boot. Luckily I had zip ties in the truck, so i pulled over, zip tied the end link up out of the way of moving parts, and idled back to the house

 

I was to lazy to ground my new HID ballast properly so my headlight wouldn't always come on so i would just pop the hood, wiggle the ground wire until it came on... that worked for about three days. Then the bulb blew. Now i gotta buy a new $100 headlight. Yay Me!

 

installed the driver's side, front suspension lift kit...patting myself on the back when someone said, "hey did you put the spacer in?" fuck.

no probs with my own truck..but i have almost cried on some of my cars. like the time i fully reinstalled my 911 motor, only to find the flywheel gear still sitting on my bench. i almost vomited.

 

1. Installing the transmission back into my 5.0 mustang by my self. I had a regular floor jack and a piece of wood holding it. Thats heavy sun of a bitch fell off and allmost hit me in the head.
2. Working at a Marine shop in Kemah, I was working on a the injectors on a 8.1 mercruiser well I dropped a nut off the injector line into the injector hole. THank god I caught it. I took the intake and head off to get it out, Otherwise I would have had to but a new piston and rod.
3. Working on my Powerstroke (6.0) I was pulling the EGR valve to replace it. That piece of crap wouldn't come out. So I got a crowbar and a wire coat hanger to pull it out. Well I broke a plastic piece that runs along the windshield. Thank god I found another one at a junk yard for $50
4. Working on my dads boat. I pulled the exhaust manifolds to replace them. (454 crusaders) well on one of them I forgot to put the flex exhaust hose on. that engine bay filled with water quick. Thank god It had working bilge pumps...Now my dad and I laugh about it.
5. Painting the rims on my Taco. I had the front end on jacks, When it came time to put the wheels back on I had to jack it up a lil bit, Damn thing quit working and slammed my taco onto the jacks hard.

 

I've had a few mishaps in the garage...

I rode my bike and brought a new drivechain and sprockets to my folks place about 3hrs away from home one weekend. There are six 10mm studs that hold the sprocket on. The service manual called for 74 ft.lbs for the nuts that hold the sprocket onto the studs. It didn't click that it was way too much torque for such a small nut and I stripped 4 of the studs as I continued to tighten in a star pattern.

I wrote on the FZ1 forums in a panic and found that tons of people have done it and its a misprint in the manual $120 later I had five new studs and 5 new bolts delivered to me overnight from some bike shop in NY. I made it home before work on Monday.

On my 350Z I was installing headers. I got the factory ones out with no problem on the first day. On the second day I installed both with no problems but I forgot the gasket on the passenger side so I took it out and then I spent 30 minutes trying to get it back in. I couldn't figure out how I snaked it in there. Finally I just threw a screaming rage tantrum and kicked my feet around under the car and it popped right in

Changing coolant in the 350Z I forgot about the bleeder valve to purge air while refilling coolant. I filled up the radiator and started the motor. Temp gauge stayed in the middle and then I blew off the radiator cap and sent water flying everywhere after it overheated.

Stripped almost all of the brake line fittings with an open end wrench while installing SS lines on my g/f's tC. I had to finish tightening one with a set of vise grips. I got flare nut wrenches before I did the install on the Tacoma

 

most recent was when changing my oil, i wasn't paying attention and was almost done and started pouring my oil in, after the last jug was in i heard something below my truck....i never put the drain bolt back in and dumped $35 worth of oil straight through my truck onto the concrete. it wasn't a big mistake but a verry dumb one.

 

Haven't done a ton of mods or anything, but breaking the little tab where the headlight bulbs come off on BOTH of my headlights doing the BHLM is the one I'm still waiting to rectify. I can't adjust the bulbs and I keep getting flashed.

 

LOL I have done that before to...But the good thing is my motor was on a stand, And my oil was free.

 

I had two bottles of the same color...one was orange colant for my Saturn car I had before...and the other bottle was orange dishwashing soap...I put in the disgwashing soap into where the collant went....i was like o S@%$!!! so i had to drain my coolant and clean everything out...

 

my stepdad and i were trying to jump our neighbors old bronco and flipped the cables on the mercedes that was jumping the bronco. It wasnt charging for a while, so my stepdad goes to look at the cables on the bronco and there was a HUGE spark, i go look at the mercedes and realized that i put them on backwards.

I felt like the biggest retard in the world

The thing i was amazed at though the mercedes battery, the + and - signs were black and hard to see, i would think they would make the + red like on every other vehicle

my stepdad was about to kill me

 

Had a similar one on the 1st oil change on my old 1st gen taco years ago (5-lug, 3.4V6). Had to reach into kind of a blind spot to get the old filter out and the new one in, and didn't think to check the old one for a gasket after removing it. Gasket from the old filter stayed stuck to the block, and made for a wierd tightening experience putting the new one on; turned out the tigtening dislodged the old one partway and made a huge leak path.

First clue was when I fired up the engine and heard what sounded like a running bathtub.

Biggest mistake was screwing up taking notes before putting new wires on an old 4-banger, and ended up having to fix the pattern by trial and error. Damn lucky I didn't bend the crank or a tie rod that time, but may well have contributed to the cracked head and/or blown gasket issues I had later on.

 

ouch! mine happened when I was taking the sway bar off to check if the links were bad, usually i have a buddy helping me when im working on my truck, and he would have been holding the sway bar up, I forgot that once I got the last bolt out, the bar would fall. I wasn't even looking, just going at it with the ratchet when...THUNK! ouch!

 

When I was 16 I tore the carburator apart on my '65 Malbu SS. I dropped the float pin into the carb and my buddy reached in and opened the throttle plate which caused the float pin to drop into the intake manifold. I knew this was not good. I called a friend of my Dads who had a garage and he told me it shouldn't be a problem as the pin was just brass and it wouldn't hurt the engine. I replaced the float pin and reassembled the carb. We fired it up and the engine seized in like 20 seconds. I tore the motor down and found the float pin had wedged in the number 8 spark plug and when it contacted the piston the piston fractured and grenaded the cylinder. I learned a valuable and expensive lesson!