Backyard/Garage/Driveway Mechanic Oopsies

[308]

That's what I was thinking it might be from one of your prior postings. What a little rocket ship!

 

[clearconscience]

Dang thats sweet.

I'm not mechanic by any means, but I am cheap and try to fix my cars when I can (Thx youtube!)
I recently had my door lock actuator go out and found a parts car on CL, the are a B to remove and I broke it taking it out.
It was pouring rain, freezing cold and I was doing outside in a yard, so I was rushing through it having never done it before.
Had to pay the guy for a part I can't use.
$75 burnt.

I can't even begin to explain how PO'd I was.

And my door lock still doesn't work.

 

[PaulB47]

When I was young, my philosophy was to fix my own stuff despite the risk of damage via ignorance. In the end the ignorance is reduced (with a bit of luck) and even after fixing something you damaged, you probably still spent less money than hiring the job out.

However...

One day a friend of mind looked at a Austin Healey Sprite with a completely rebuilt engine that barely ran if it ran at all. The owner threw the towel in and wanted it sold. Friend noticed two plug wires were switched, kept his mouth shut and got it for very cheap - $300 IIRC. Then he swapped them and drove away.

I taught myself how to work on vehicles by starting with the fairly primitive English motorcycles. One has not seen a real shop manual until one has looked at the Norton Commando manual. Imagine, exquisite line drawings on a bike it's assumed the owner would fix, not some shop. Command of the actual English language. Nothing I've seen comes close.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

4L60e i have all torn apart right now. guys radiator leaked coolant into his trans cooler. wiped everything out.

 

[Member 5605]

4L60e i have all torn apart right now. guys radiator leaked coolant into his trans cooler. wiped everything out.

View attachment 285672

Those weak Chevy radiators! I got lucky when mine went, it leaked the reverse direction...

I'm sure you also like the E40D's when they grenade from overheating due to piss poor radiator cooling (albeit solved by an extra trans cooler that Ford cheaped out on)...

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Dang thats sweet.

I'm not mechanic by any means, but I am cheap and try to fix my cars when I can (Thx youtube!)
I recently had my door lock actuator go out and found a parts car on CL, the are a B to remove and I broke it taking it out.
It was pouring rain, freezing cold and I was doing outside in a yard, so I was rushing through it having never done it before.
Had to pay the guy for a part I can't use.
$75 burnt.

I can't even begin to explain how PO'd I was.

And my door lock still doesn't work.

There we go!
Had a bad cold, sleet and snow and wind! Had to install a new clutch in a '73 Dodge Dart. In my folks driveway built in 1902, so on a slant, a lovely grass strip down the middle!
Oh yeah! My wife's car, needed now for work!
Took me nine hours, no helper! Even had to crawl out for tools in the garage! Earned me a Dart with a sweet clutch, my wife's undying gratitude (well a week or so) and double pneumonia that nearly made her the sole owner of that car!
And......that's why I hire out auto repairs!

 

[clearconscience]

You win.

I'm a B.

 

[Certaindeaf]

When I was young, my philosophy was to fix my own stuff despite the risk of damage via ignorance. In the end the ignorance is reduced (with a bit of luck) and even after fixing something you damaged, you probably still spent less money than hiring the job out.

However...

One day a friend of mind looked at a Austin Healey Sprite with a completely rebuilt engine that barely ran if it ran at all. The owner threw the towel in and wanted it sold. Friend noticed two plug wires were switched, kept his mouth shut and got it for very cheap - $300 IIRC. Then he swapped them and drove away.

I taught myself how to work on vehicles by starting with the fairly primitive English motorcycles. One has not seen a real shop manual until one has looked at the Norton Commando manual. Imagine, exquisite line drawings on a bike it's assumed the owner would fix, not some shop. Command of the actual English language. Nothing I've seen comes close.

I started with a '68 bug and this book.. I contend that it started the "The Idiots Guide To.." craze. Awesome book and I did everything to it, many times. Oh, and I had many F ups along the way too of course.. hate that.
Then I started wrenching on BMW bikes and saw how similar they were to the bug.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Horizontally opposed, air cooled! What could go wrong?

 

[Member 5605]

Horizontally opposed, air cooled! What could go wrong?

Easy....

Make it a Subaru and water cool it with leaking cam and crank seals with a closed deck design that is prone to overhearing because of holes In head gaskets that are too small to allow proper coolant flow.

 

[edslhead]

All this brings back some bad memories

 

[Capn Jack]

"The Idiots Guide To.."

Had a "Friend" that was complaining about her VW. Bought her that book.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

Those weak Chevy radiators! I got lucky when mine went, it leaked the reverse direction...

I'm sure you also like the E40D's when they grenade from overheating due to piss poor radiator cooling (albeit solved by an extra trans cooler that Ford cheaped out on)...

the funny thing is i drive an f150 with a 4r100 (e4od basically) and i work for a chevy/cadillac/subaru/toyota/scion dealership. i am trained in GM and subaru. i have worked at independent shops in the past so if a ford comes in i just price out a transmission...no teardown. i'll work on most off brands to an extent. theres only so much we are equipped for (scan tool and special tool wise) other than our brands.

 

[CoastRange57]

I was a gear head back in the day, rebuilding motors, racing, all that stuff. Earned a living for a while on commercial turf and excavation equipment and then when I owned my excavation business, worked on that shi*t all the time. Anything you put in the ground will break.

At about 48 years old, I gave all that up. I still do little things, like trying to hook up my trailer brake adaptor in my 97 F 350 today. Contort up under the dash to hook that damn thing up. Oil changes are too cheap at the local place, dude that owns it is former ARVN officer and is riot to talk to. I have two muscle rigs that need very little work and is all something I can handle.

My desire now is to run the muscle rigs hard, have fun, hook my pickup to the trailer and go have fun. Other than minor things, somebody else will do it at my age.

My worst fup was when I crewed with 2 other guys on a drag boat and somehow we managed to smoke a blown 454 sitting in the boat in the shop. That was an expensive evening. There were others as well, but hey..

 

[CoastRange57]

Those weak Chevy radiators! I got lucky when mine went, it leaked the reverse direction...

I'm sure you also like the E40D's when they grenade from overheating due to piss poor radiator cooling (albeit solved by an extra trans cooler that Ford cheaped out on)...

I smoked so many of those worthless trannies in my work trucks, I had good contacts in every Ford dealer in the NW I think. 40,000 tops if towing a lot set your schedule to that.

I do have one in my 97 F 350, but it has been set up to the tune of about $ 5,000 by the previous owner with clutch upgrades, new cooling, and an awesome shift kit. Would really prefer the 6 speed manual but you take what you can get in the older trucks.

 

[Joe13]

Haven't seen this one yet and it's been awhile but in my younger days I've stripped at least one head installing spark plugs - no torque wrench and too stupid to get one.

That's made a 30 min quick tune up turn into what I only vaguely remember as a very bad day...

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

Haven't seen this one yet and it's been awhile but in my younger days I've stripped at least one head installing spark plugs - no torque wrench and too stupid to get one.

That's made a 30 min quick tune up turn into what I only vaguely remember as a very bad day...

i had a plug blow out of my cyl head. thought i was gettin shot at. lol. installed a time-sert in my driveway in the dark in about 20 minutes!

 

[Ura-Ki]

Just cost my self a new rebuilt motor in my bike! I had torn down the engine/trans in my 92 ATX 350 for a rebuild and to fix the oil leaks these Rotax motors are famous for, Went to install the new timing belt and couldn't get it to time! Luckly I didn't try and start it up, but bent all four valves to the tune of $48 bucks each! So I ended up doing the Tim Allen thing ( more power) and tore it down and installed the big bore kit! Now it's a 604 cc screamer! Never did figure out how the heck I bent the valves, other then I may have had the crank 180 off when I went to put the belt on!

 

[PaulB47]

Here's another. Back when I was a struggling student I was driving a Dodge Dart I had paid $145 for. I was up in Seattle visiting my sister, and was going to take some college students back to Eugene. Just as I picked up the last of them and was driving up the hill, the car stopped making forward progress despite the engine revving madly. Turned out I had stripped the gears in the rear end.

I had it towed back to my sister's house, out in the street, and decided to pull the half-shafts and put new gears in. Nothing I could do would get them off; they were rusted in solidly. At the end I had this big steel bar, must have weighed 30 pounds, and a length of chain connected to the half shafts, and I was swinging this bar in the loop of chain trying to shock them out like a giant slide hammer. The whole car was swaying back and forth on the jack stands, but no go. Finally I started screaming in rage, picked up the tire iron and started wailing on the side of the car. Must have looked pretty amusing. Then my brother-in-law walks up and asks me, "Why don't you just swap the whole axle out rather than trying to fix that one?" Doh! I went to a junk yard and got another whole rear axle for $25 and swapped it out in short order, and drove back to Eugene.

Of course the whole idea of fixing a $145 car made no sense at all.