Automotive misadventures. Confess your sins here!

[barry2952]

Automotive misadventures. We've all had them. Bare your soul. Confess your sins here:

My mother had a '63 Tempest. It was my first automotive misadventure. I was 14 and my parents went out of town. I decided to do some maintenance on the car. I thought I knew everything.

The Tempest was a very unusual American car. The first unusual thing was the 4-cylinder engine. It was a Pontiac 389 with an entire bank of cylinders missing. They simply capped off the area where the other 4 cylinders would have been.

The second odd thing was transmission/rear suspension. It was a swing-axle trans-axle. It was bascially a transmission bolted to a differential. That's where the problem came in.

Apparently, I drained the differential and overfilled the transmission with rear end dope. The rear end locked up and had to be replaced. The transmission had to be flushed four times before it operated properly. Can you say "seriously grounded"?

 

[mespock]

Ummm I had a 1995 Dodge Intrepid... enough said..

2 tranny's in 5 months.

 

[crazyman]

1996 Hyundai Sonata. Changed the water pump and timing belt. Got the timing wrong. Cranked it over... ... took it all apart and got a new head.(not my car)
1994 Kenworth T-450 dump truck.After 5 days of hell changing the clutch and tranny,I was just rapping it up, installing the shifter and I dropped my wrench into the tranny.

 

[Frat-man-du]

On my 1965 T-Bird I had drained the trans fluid and put a new filter in, it was 3 am so I figured I would fill it up in the morning. My Dad took the car to work... got 5 miles before it locked up. This was long before cell phones so he had to hoof it back on foot 2 miles to get to a phone. He spent $1000 to fix it. It was not until I got married that I told him it was really my fault for not putting in fluid.

 

[billcu]

I recently replaced my rear shock mounts on my red Mark VIII. I've done it before, and it's an easy job.

I guess I wasn't paying attention, as one of the big washers was stuck to the old mount. I didn't see it until I was done and put the tools away.

I can't believe I missed that washer. I feel better now that I confessed though.

 

[MrWilson]

well i dont have an automotive one, but earlier this year my buddy and i put a leafblower on his minibike, and blew the ring out...i guess it was the ring, but it was fun none the less.

 

[DixieRambler]

I had a 30th anniversary edition T-Bird (bad ass car). Had to replace the waterpump once. Took everything off the front i.e., fan shroud, belt, fan, some other sh*t as well. Put the new waterpump on and put her back together. As I sat there and admired my work and had a cold beverage, I happened to see the new gasket that came with the pump on top of my tool box. Went and got another beer and tore it apart for a second time and redid it, this time putting on the new gasket. Man I feel better for confessing!