What silly mistakes have you made?

[maxustaxus]

17 years old, I wondered if I could blow a small dent out of the petrol tank of my Honda CB250 by dropping a lit match in it and closing the lid very very quickly.

 

No I couldn't.

 

[camryv6]

47 minutes ago, maxustaxus said:

17 years old, I wondered if I could blow a small dent out of the petrol tank of my Honda CB250 by dropping a lit match in it and closing the lid very very quickly.

 

No I couldn't.

 

I have to ask, what sort of condition was the petrol tank in after you came to ?

[Mrcento]

Fitted a head gasket on a Fiat FIRE back to front (in a badly lit lockup, in a rush to get home, throwing the car back together).

For anyone that doesn't know, that look identical back to front, side to side, but there's 1 tiny, tiny difference.

1 side (the front) is flat/solid. The other (The back) has 1 small hole in it centrally.

This small hole..... yeah, just the oil gallery for feeding the rail that lubricates the entire top end 😂

Thankfully, it was very obvious, very quickly something was wrong on startup with the racket it made, so zero damage done. All was revealed putting a screwdriver down the gallery and finding it only went down as far as the gasket..... no harm done apart from annoyance, giving myself the job to redo and the cost of another gasket. Thankfully also not expensive for them!

[bunglebus]

On 25/06/2024 at 19:25, 83C said:

Doing spark plugs on an X20XEV in an Omega - managed to drop a nut down No.1 cylinder. Thank fuck for telescopic sticks with magnets on the end.

I was doing the valve stem seals on my CVH Orion (special tool so you can do it with the head on). Dropped one of the valve collets down an oilway in the head, tinkled its way all the way down into the sump. This was in the car park outside my old flat on a Sunday, and I needed it for work the next day. How I managed to fish it out using the old magnet on a stick I don't know, but I did. Took a while though!

[artdjones]

3 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Drove from Torquay up the M5 as far as Bristol before we twigged why there was a fair old oil reek - Vauxhall Omega 2.0litre. Went into some Vauxhall dealers over the Cribbs Causeway side of town and the spares guys, after a smirk, robbed one off a scrap engine and handed it to us. Top chaps.
I may* have done that before with a 2.25 pezz Series Land Rover but it wasn't as bad - I'd left the cap upside down on the exhaust manifold so the plastic caught fire after about 30 minutes and gave a hint that not all was well.

I did it on the way to meet my future parents in law. I picked my girlfriend up in Bristol on the way to their place in Dorset. I stopped somewhere near Shepton Mallet and put a pint of oil in, leaving the cap on top of the battery. Where I found it after reaching journey's end, shaking hand the noticing smoke seeping around the edges of the bonnet.

[stuboy]

ordered new lense for my old welding mask, seller had posted from scotland, arrived to my old gaff in ashford , kent in one piece, un wrapped it, took it out too the shed passing the exwife hanging out the washing, me gleefully tell her i was impressed it wasnt fu8ked in the post.... then i dropped it... i looked silly

[Marina door handles]

Many years ago when I was driving a dull Mk2 Golf, it had an issue with a knackered CV joint. I tackled the job myself, fitted a new CV but I failed to get a circlip to seat correctly in the end of a drive shaft, unaware of my mistake a I re fitted the drive shaft and put the car back into service.

I eventually discovered my error just after midnight a few days later. I dropped off some friends at their home after a night out. Left their road and as I exited the first sizeable  roundabout on the route back to my place, the CV joint slid off the shaft and the car immediately lost drive. Had to get rescued by the AA who to be fair arrived pretty quickly.

I still don't really trust circlips!

 

[Surface Rust]

3 hours ago, Mrcento said:

Fitted a head gasket on a Fiat FIRE back to front (in a badly lit lockup, in a rush to get home, throwing the car back together).

For anyone that doesn't know, that look identical back to front, side to side, but there's 1 tiny, tiny difference.

1 side (the front) is flat/solid. The other (The back) has 1 small hole in it centrally.

This small hole..... yeah, just the oil gallery for feeding the rail that lubricates the entire top end 😂

Thankfully, it was very obvious, very quickly something was wrong on startup with the racket it made, so zero damage done. All was revealed putting a screwdriver down the gallery and finding it only went down as far as the gasket..... no harm done apart from annoyance, giving myself the job to redo and the cost of another gasket. Thankfully also not expensive for them!

You showed remarkable restraint. I probably would have just battered the screwdriver through the gasket  in anger and called the job done!

[Mrcento]

1 hour ago, Surface Rust said:

You showed remarkable restraint. I probably would have just battered the screwdriver through the gasket  in anger and called the job done!

I very, very, very nearly did 😂😂😂

[TrabbieRonnie]

After replacing the cylinder head in my dearly departed Toyota Liteace many years ago (itself not the easiest job due to the engine's location under the front seats), I set about re-fitting the freshly and beautifully re-cored (new ones unobtainable) radiator.

Slipped with a screwdriver doing up the top hose jubilee, straight through the bloody thing...

No bother I thought, as I removed it for a temporary fix with chemical metal.  I'd found that one of my chisels was the perfect fit between the fins for squeezing the putty in nicely.

Obviously as I stood back to admire said repair job, I dropped the effing chisel through it again!

It was ten o'clock at night by the time I had everything back together and topped up, we left at one in the morning for the 8 hour trip to the in-laws (kids were toddlers, so overnight journeys were best).

Needless to say I watched the temp like a hawk the whole way, but those two lumps of chemical metal lasted another 150k, until the oil pump disintegrated at 300k! 

I miss that wee van.

[paulplom]

Changing the cylinder head gasket on my D reg mk2 fiesta in about 1995. I came up with the great* idea of turning the engine over on the starter to get the coolant from the cylinders.

It seems I should've disconnected the coil lead first though as The resulting sparks from the plugs ignited the petrol from the carb that was still attatched. It took about three washing up bowls of water to put it out. I was rather frantic at the time running in and out of the kitchen. 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

Working on a Ser 2a Land Rover on our old sloping drive. No problem - under the bonnet, faffing around, changing oil, filters, blah blah. Mind away with the fairies. 
In an idle moment I thought 'why not replace that weeping rear half shaft hub gasket while I'm here?'
Bloody thing was well and truly stuck on. Crowbar. Bigger crowbar. Success!
I then watched as the bloody thing trickled off down the side of the house scraping every O/S panel as it went.

I chock wheels now. Lesson learned.

[rainagain]

On 25/06/2024 at 13:08, rainagain said:

Fitted a head gasket the right way up but 180 out, I didn't realise it wasn't symmetrical and I had blocked the main oil feed to the head. Started the car up and it made the most awful noise, it was then I noticed the camshafts were running dry. Amazingly I stripped it all down and despite it being a MLS gasket, I flipped it round, bolted it all back and it worked fine.

 

 

17 hours ago, Mrcento said:

Fitted a head gasket on a Fiat FIRE back to front (in a badly lit lockup, in a rush to get home, throwing the car back together).

For anyone that doesn't know, that look identical back to front, side to side, but there's 1 tiny, tiny difference.

1 side (the front) is flat/solid. The other (The back) has 1 small hole in it centrally.

This small hole..... yeah, just the oil gallery for feeding the rail that lubricates the entire top end 😂

Thankfully, it was very obvious, very quickly something was wrong on startup with the racket it made, so zero damage done. All was revealed putting a screwdriver down the gallery and finding it only went down as far as the gasket..... no harm done apart from annoyance, giving myself the job to redo and the cost of another gasket. Thankfully also not expensive for them!

Lol glad I wasn't the only one who's done this! I read on the Fiat forum some poor bugger paid a garage to change their HG, they did the same thing but told them the noise would subside, the engine eat its top end.

[JeeExEll]

Rejetted the carb jets on a 3.1 Capri to try to improve fuel economy which was at around 18mpg in that state of tune with big inlet valves and 285 cam but still a 38DGAS Weber. Much worse fuel consumption if you hammered it but it did sound good.

I made it too lean as I didn't know what I was doing and melted a piston within a couple of weeks. Fuck.

Engine out on New Years Day 1st Jan 1989, in for lunch and brandy and red, then back out to the garage with the rest of the brandy bottle and some more red. A 3 litre Essex is a heavy old thing and trying to align it with the gearbox is not something I'd want to do again.

Had tried a Holley 4-barrel 390 on what was stamped a Swaymar manifold but I don't think it was actually a Swaymar manifold at all as the carb was positioned 90 degrees the wrong way. Fuel consumption with the Holley was horrendous as the carb had come straight from a  rally Triumph TR7 V8 which had then changed to 4 downdraught carbs.

[Mrcento]

6 hours ago, rainagain said:

 

Lol glad I wasn't the only one who's done this! I read on the Fiat forum some poor bugger paid a garage to change their HG, they did the same thing but told them the noise would subside, the engine eat its top end.

It's really easy done in a rush, gasket itself has 'top' marked on it and it's easy to just think 'Yeah ok, this way up then' and throw it on 180 degrees out.

Every single other gallery on it lines up bar one!, so even visually, it looks right at a glance 😂

[camryv6]

10 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Working on a Ser 2a Land Rover on our old sloping drive. No problem - under the bonnet, faffing around, changing oil, filters, blah blah. Mind away with the fairies. 
In an idle moment I thought 'why not replace that weeping rear half shaft hub gasket while I'm here?'
Bloody thing was well and truly stuck on. Crowbar. Bigger crowbar. Success!
I then watched as the bloody thing trickled off down the side of the house scraping every O/S panel as it went.

I chock wheels now. Lesson learned.

Got to love a transmission handbrake, caught me out too, when i jacked up one rear wheel and the bugger tried to get away from me !!

[iainrcz]

Getting involved with women.

[mat777]

On 26/06/2024 at 17:26, maxustaxus said:

17 years old, I wondered if I could blow a small dent out of the petrol tank of my Honda CB250 by dropping a lit match in it and closing the lid very very quickly.

 

No I couldn't.

 

Was this you? 😂

[IronStar]

The 12v socket on 159 was not gripping the charger properly, and my phone needed a charge. I took the first thing I had to hand to bend the pins inside - a metal key. With ignition on no less. My hand slipped off the pin I was bending. 

Needless to say, no phone was getting charged that evening, and for a few months more, as I kept forgetting to replace the fuse. 

[Barry Cade]

Mk2 Cavalier SRi130.. clutch started slipping badly and needed it for work. Middle of a really cold snap and was about -8 .. jacked it up, put on all the little clips and dropped the clutch plate and pressure plate down through the bottom as you could do on these cars. New thrust bearing in, and new clutch assembly up and bolted in. Proper freezing now and took 5 mins inside so I could make my fingers work again. Back out and fired it up to check it was all good. Ping, bang, rattle... 

I'd forgotten to take the clips off,  1 of which went through the gearbox casing, and let all the oil escape. 😖