Admit your Garage Mistakes

[Suvo]

Pulling off an air filter on a fire pump to find it was flooded with fuel, thought i'd try to see what caused it and got a bit too close, Unleaded has got an awful taste to it. Girl I was talking to at the time still laughs at me for it.

Cutting some heat shrink to cover some wires, slipped with the knife. 12mm long 1mm wide and 3mm deep cut in the side of my finger. My boss found it amusing until it was still bleeding after 30 mins.

Hit my fingers on bench grinders a few times, also gave the side of my hand a go with a flap disk in an angle grinder twice in the one day. Hurt the first time, really hurt the 2nd, same spot both times.

A fair few times have I not tightened up a hydraulic oil line on a loader, fire it up and get a nice spray of oil across the bay.

Forgot to put in the tank plug on a tractor, it took me a while to figure out why it was not filling.

[PALE ALE]

Originally Posted by XWildGT

I didn't put any beer in the fridge had to down tools to go and get some :

LOL

A couple of stories, just starting to tinker with cars (15-16), mate gets a HK Holden for $500, we decide to lower the front end, so there we are with the front end raised, castle nuts off, on the lower ball joints, belting the lower wish bone with a hammer, BANG!, lower wish bone slams into the driveway and front coil spring fires out, we did the other side the same. Lucky niether of us were killed by the flying coil springs. We cut 1 1/2 coils out of each spring, used a trolley jack to push the wish bone up and compress the spring so we could do the castle nuts up

Putting a new belt on the power steering on my GQ Patrol, start trying to undo the lock/adjuster nuts on the resivour. Nut wont budge, try a longer spanner for more leverage, still wont budge, try a socket on a ratchet, still wont budge. This thing is starting to wind me up, get a torch so I can get a good look at this nut. Its a case nut that is welded to the bracket, and the bolt goes through the resivour and screws into it :

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by johnandjus

Well while we're on the subject of finger injuries....

While removing the side repeater from a crappydore, I had my hand resting on top of the guard up by the windscreen when the bonnet struts failed. Pics tell the story



I still have this bit in the jar at home.

I was actually thinking the other day at work what would happen if someone slammed the bonnet on your finger. Now I know.

[Dezza]

Speaking of power steering belts, almost a month ago I was changing yet another one on the EA (thankfully with the serpentine conversion, that's a thing of the past). While doing up the tensioner nut, the spanner slipped off and slammed into the thin hose that goes from the coolant overflow to the thermostat. It actually split the hose so warm coolant starting spraying everywhere! Luckily I had some tape in the boot to quickly wrap it up before I got another hose.

[TaraHymen]

Originally Posted by johnandjus

Well while we're on the subject of finger injuries....

While removing the side repeater from a crappydore, I had my hand resting on top of the guard up by the windscreen when the bonnet struts failed. Pics tell the story



I still have this bit in the jar at home.

that is by far the winner. you should get a prize for that. i've come close many a time but didnt think it would cut like a perfect clean guillotine. i bet you said "for goodness sake" a couple of times.

[GreenMachine]

So I've been reading this thread on and off for ages, occasionally chuckling and saying "man, I'm glad that wasn't me"...

So last night at 11pm when I'm just shaking the last of a fresh 5L container of HPR30 in to the Clevo, I wonder whether I'd put the sump plug back in... The pool of nice fresh oil I'm standing in says no. Whoops.

[Neeek]

LOL! Almost did that myself at the weekend when i changed the oil. I was overjoyed when I started pouring the oil in to see that I'd put the sump plug back in. Feeling smug when the job was completed, I poured the old oil from the tray into a container and to get the last few drops out, propped the container and tray (which was resting vertically on the container) up against the workshop. Left it.

Two or three hours later, there's oil all over the pavers as the whole bloody lot fell over. Made a nice stain. Wife wasn't impressed.

[robboxr8]

gas axing an exhaust off of a pajero setting fire to the bin and going out to get smoko
"whats up boss" when i got back eating chips

boss dropping a chev silverado when he tryed to lift it on a 2 poster hoist breaking both car and hoist

the old cut towards yourself with a new blade and loosing the thumb down to the bone

dropping a fuel tanker pod from a forklift loosing 8000 litres of diesel to the iraqi desert

worst i ever seen and this was in the uk was a bloke who lost an eye was garenteed a job for life but decided to move anyway working on buses, he forgot to stick the brake shoes back in and a bus rolled into a shop front, poor bloke never really worked again while i knew him

but me favorite one was me mate big planty trying to walk a land rover trailer down a steep slope by walking in front, slipping sliding down on his **** taking out a stop sign and then looking at me saying "when ya done laughing you want to get me out ya bastard"

[NeillNZ]

A few years ago I replaced the front subframe in my mini. It had hydrolastic suspension, which was completely drained. Idea was drive car to tech in morning on the bump stops(zero spring), go visit mini specialist at lunch time to get the system pressurised and hence ride height restored.

Drove to tech fine. Come out to carpark at lunch time, damn car is leaning over on one side "not another flat" I thought, I didn't have much time to bugger about changing a tyre. Get closer to see that the tyre is not flat but there is no wheel on the left rear, bastards! someone has stolen a wheel right..

Then realized the car was still all above ground. Just for a laugh I started it up and found I could drive it around the car park on 3 wheels. Then it suddenly dawned on me. You can imagine the car was shaking like crazy on the road riding on the bump stops but there was an extra large bump and noise at one point, maybe that was the wheel coming off?

I retraced my morning route, called into a service station, yes they had my wheel and tyre! It had a long cut in the side wall and of course it was pointless trying to find the wheel nuts.

Mini guy was just shaking his head telling me I didn't do up the nuts. I'm sure I did, I think it was all the vibration that made then undo.

That was the same car in which one dark night on a country road I came around a bend at around 100km/hr. Dude on the other side of the road warned me to slow down by high beaming me, which of course only blinded me, then bang! Left front collected the **** of a horse that was refusing to move off the road side. Lucky I did not hit it square on.

[ryanstev]

When I worked at AA Auto Service one of our car grooming boys filled up the brake fluid jug with degreaser.

The next week we had 7 cars returned, 3 required a complete brake system overhaul, I'm assuming from the master cylinder to the wheel cylinders.

He got fired.

[50RCE]

I was working on my AU, i was disconnecting the positive terminal on the battery and without any thought i moved my spanner too far and touched the abs brake line and burnt a hole through the line.
Lucky my wife was kind enough to let me take her car to the wrecker and get a new brakeline.

[V8 Man]

Fitting a set of lowered front springs to my XD, just after I bought it, almost 20 years ago, (when I was a very green 16 year old with far more confidence that ability).
Jacked the front end up off the ground with the factory jack on one side and an old bottle jack of dads on the other.
Taking my dads homemade spring compresser, I proceeded to compress the first spring and tried to extract it from the car, problem, dads compresser wouldn't compress it enough to allow it to fit out. Solution? Start yanking at it as hard as I could.
Inevitably, XD comes down on top of me, squashing my arm. Result? X rays reveal no broken bones to me, however XD suffers damage to both sills. IDIOT!

[cheek]

mine was probably when i jacked the back of my wagon up to change the wheels, changed my mind and got into the car and drove off without taking the jacked up bricks off... GUFFAW!!!

[tankclare]

Originally Posted by johnandjus

Well while we're on the subject of finger injuries....

While removing the side repeater from a crappydore, I had my hand resting on top of the guard up by the windscreen when the bonnet struts failed. Pics tell the story



I still have this bit in the jar at home.

Last week one of my best mates was checking out a sound coming from the engine of another mates Kia Rio. His jumper sleeve got pulled into the power steering belt and his fingers went through the pulley. He held his hand up still wrapped in the jumper and seen blood. My other mate asked if he was ok and then he pulled back the sleeve and seen he had cut off his pointer finger to the first knuckle and his rude finger had a bone deep cut lengthways up his rude finger. OUCH!!!!!!!!! One bloody quick trip to the hospital and then rushed to the john hunter hospital in newcastle for surgery.

After spending ages looking for the rest of his finger it still has not been found. We laugh thinking about the poor person that finds it lol.

Now he is driving around etc one handed with 2 fingers wrapped up. Can't wait to see it.

[KPOJ]

Putting in a nodular alloy 9" diff carrier, at the time i had a broken hand but was determine to get it in there. Car was on the hoist, i was messing around for ages trying to get it in the right position, i loose grip of it and down it comes. dislocated shoulder and smashed housing and diff gears. Very expensive lesson,

[Teflon Turbo]

while the car was running making sure the spark plug leads weren't loose [had miss], one of the rubber sleeves were and got the shock of my life. my arm hurt for days. i had been electricuted a couple of times before in a tram hangar and domestically but this was painfull. never again

[x series]

a fews years ago a young lady rock up to our workshop with her car a laser blowning smoke.it turn out she top the oil, fill the rocket cover right up to cap with 5 lts .

[Hitman]

Well thats not what I thought I'd see when I opened this page, a big picture of a bloody finger with it's end missing.
Wish I hadn't opened this page now, that'll teach me for actually visiting instead of just reading the reply in the email.

[AC/DC]

I bought a ford :-(

[gocruzin]

While trying to remove an engine and trans from my car, I forgot to get the handbrake cable out of the way. So I had to get under the car to lift the trans over said cable.
I only just fit under because the engine crane I had wouldnt lift high enough so I had the car low on the stands.
While lifting and a mate pulling on the crane, the cable snaged on the trans bung pulling it out and giving me a nice trans fluid bath.
Couldnt get out quick enough and managed to skin my forehead on the handbrake cable adjuster bolt on the way out... big fun. :togo:

[1LOUDXFUTE]

Originally Posted by x series

a fews years ago a young lady rock up to our workshop with her car a laser blowning smoke.it turn out she top the oil, fill the rocket cover right up to cap with 5 lts .

haha one of my mates is a mechanic. he had a customer come in that had done this. the car wouldnt even start. the guy was really embarassed so my mate took him out the back to tell him his mistake so he didnt make him look like a d*** infront of his missus

[fos408]

we got a flat at the back of a mazda camper miles out of loxton and spent 2 hours trying to get it off the nuts were way over tight ,tried putting a lenght over the top of the tire lever ,nothing would budge it ,tried the other wheel no probs. turned out the nuts on the left side undo clockwise and anti clockwise on the other side , we had been trying to do it up the whole time.

rebuilt my 308 in my boat , new pistons ,rings , cleaned up the crank ,new cam , rod bolts etc. Fired up fine but had crap oil pressure. Pulled it down and had damaged the crank bearings and slight damage on the crank . Forgot the gasket between the oil pump and the block.

[Sideswipe]

stripped a bolt off from a metal undertray, that bolted to a hollow chassis rail (when I was an apprentice mechanic), another mechanic then smashed the head off, pushing the rest into the chassis rail thing ( memory a bit hazy( - spent the next hour with an extender magnet trying to find a hole big enough to pull half a bolt out of the chassis.

[xbandrew]

when i was bout 15, young and stupid me was jacking up the side of my brothers new eb that he just got, and almost rolled it onto its side from jacking it up too high. (the other side was on stands and car slipped off them), it wouldve rolled if there wasnt some1 on the other side to push it back over, but it then landed on its disc brakes, and the jack, was an absolute to get off the ground.

[MITCHAY]

I tried to change the colour of my instrument cluster but ended up stuffing up the needles when sanding the green film off.

Ended up costing $500 to find a second hand replacement cluster and I was lucky that I found one with the same amount of kays on it because no one could program the odometer reading into it apparently.

So now my cluster is green and the rest (HVAC, fog light switch, ciggie etc) is orange :

[388cube_edxr8]

Drove the front of the XR8 onto ramps to fix the exhaust leak, then discovered that we couldn't fit under the car because it's lowered, and we would need to jack the back up.

Then we discovered that the trolley jack wouldn't fit under the rear bumper to lift it up by the diff, so we jacked it up at the rear jack points one side at a time and put stands under the axle.

Unbolted the exhaust, then discovered that we did not have the new exhaust to bolt on, because my mate had left it at some other house somewhere. No worries, lets go get it.

That was when we discovered that the only running car at the house we were at was mine, up on the stands and ramps. Damn. OK, get it back on its wheels and we'll go for a drive.

Getting it back down, I jacked up the rear left to get the stand out, and the back wheel on the other side comes off the ground. Front of car rolls off ramps, rear of car suspended by trolley jack rolls off the stands, onto the slope of the driveway (it was flat where we jacked it up) and straight towards me, with my back to the fence.

Oh #*%&.

Somehow I caught the car and stopped it from rolling, (I'm weaker than American beer) except now the front wheels are on the ground and the back ones are up in the air, with the trolley jack holding them up at the corner I'm standing at.

The car's weight has wedged me between itself and the fence, at the rear left corner. I have to push against the back of the car with everything I have to stop it rolling down the driveway, through the fence and into the neighbor's house. I also have to keep the back wheel on the other side up off the ground using only weedy little arms lifting against the rear bumper, because the jack is up so high that if the rear right wheel goes down, the front left will come up and the whole car will fall onto its side.

I cant let the jack down because the handle is wedged into the metal wire fence about halfway towards the front of the car, and I cant reach it, and I'm running out of strength to keep the car where it is.

My mate meanwhile, has lapsed into some sort of stupor, and is standing beside the drivers door looking at me holding the 1400 odd kilos of Australian engineering with my scrawny 6 foot+, 70kg frame.

After some - carefully selected words - he snapped out of it and came rushing over with a ramp to put under the other back wheel so I could let go of the car. Getting it back on the ground was a 30 minute logic puzzle, and then it needed a 20 point turn to get it at the correct angle to get it down the driveway.

That's when we discovered just how loud a V8 is with no exhaust system past the extractors. After that escapade, that's how it stayed.

[WOTDAH]

Not me but the old man. About 30 years ago my old man owned a service station, one of his mechanics was doing a patch up job on an exhaust with a welder. A spark travelled about 10 meters into an open fuel container : . Burnt the whole servo down to the ground, apparently the acetylene bottles burnt for 2 days afterwards

[2stroksmokr]

Yesterday I cleanly snapped off the front of my car due to hitting a ditch up my farm, spent the whole day fixing it up on top of the ramps only to stupidly put it back on to come down the ramps with it getting caught on the stoppers to clean rip it back off! So damn cut, now I'm back to repairing the old one and still looking for a new one with no luck :(

Old HR put my hand in the engine bay, make cranked the engine and the fan got my hand ouchies

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by 2stroksmokr

Yesterday I cleanly snapped off the front of my car due to hitting a ditch up my farm, spent the whole day fixing it up on top of the ramps only to stupidly put it back on to come down the ramps with it getting caught on the stoppers to clean rip it back off! So damn cut, now I'm back to repairing the old one and still looking for a new one with no luck :(

You snapped the front of your car off twice?

[2stroksmokr]

Yup, first one was backing up the hill, went forward into my old motobike rutt / ditch which I couldn't see. Repaired it as it seems to off been plastic welded back on before.

Fixed it all up yesterday after cleaning up the dodgy work the guy did before hand. We've just moved house and I couldn't find my ramps so I had it on wood, as I was changing exhausts. Anyhow found ramps swapped to them had the front of in the mean time. Put it back on with it still being on the ramps, didn't even think to check clearance already had a shitty day. Came down slowly only to see the front rise. Learn not to do by myself or not rushing things.