Soooo, im about to put my carb back on and when i took it off i kept the nuts on the manifold bolts so i wouldent misplace them. I go to take one off and as im taking it off i drop it into the hole!!!! So the only way to get it out was to take the manifold right off to get it, so of course a 10 min job turns into an all night job of cleanin the manifold, scrape the gasket off, and while im at it repaint it. Please tell me im not the only one whos done that??
Nope, never done that! As a matter of fact, I've never pulled any bonehead mechanical moves............. Yeah, right!!!!
I've never done that but there's been some other doozies like drilling through my heater box and into the heater core when I was mounting a booster for a stereo. Does that make you feel better?
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
My biggest bonehead move was when I was changing the cam on the Laurentian last summer. I couldn't get the damn cam out. It was Dave who noticed in a photo I posted that I hadn't removed the fuel pump (and the pushrod that was jammed between two cam lobes). DOH!
-- Edited by 69Laurentian on Wednesday 23rd of December 2009 09:32:27 PM
Nope, never done that! As a matter of fact, I've never pulled any bonehead mechanical moves............. Yeah, right!!!!
I've never done that but there's been some other doozies like drilling through my heater box and into the heater core when I was mounting a booster for a stereo. Does that make you feel better?
I changed the carb(to Holley) on my "almost new" Lemans Sport COUPE and cut the metal gas line with a hacksaw!! Stuck on a rubber hose.. Didnt check for sharp edges? 3 days later WIFE and KIDS were driving it and noticed Flames! They bailed out and called fire dept!!!! The Clinton fire dept arrives, and put put out the fire, with 4000 gallons of water! Car's engine compartment was nicely repaired at Goderich Insurance adjuster said it looked like "someone was fiddling with carb!!! lol
I knew a guy that had a customers car fall off a hoist when he was an apprentice years ago.
Our shop has had 2 GM trucks come off the hoist,(same hoist) ( wasn't me) both did major damage and one the dealer had to buy back, or give the guy a good deal on a new one. Have also lost a small spring type hose clamp, though nothing off it until I fire the new engine and it started making funny noises and started to miss, yup went right into the intake port, through the valve and stuck into the top of the piston, we were able to fish it out through the spark plug hole and all was good, engine ran for years after with no problems.
in my younger days I replaced the cam in my 454. I didn't have the distributor in yet, and was going to put on the quadrajet carb. The back 2 carb studs were there, with the nuts on them. I spun off one of the nuts, and it proceeded to fall on to the intake, then down the distributor hole. I couldn't see it, took of off the intake and still couldn't see it. Turned over the motor by hand a bunch of times, and still couldn't see it, so figured the heck with it. When I disassembled the motor 4 or 5 years ago, I found the nut in the oil pan, it was sliced in half as it likely got stuck between the connecting rods or something.
Same engine, 3 years ago. 67rag396 and I were on our trip to POCI Nationals in California. I have a dual snorkel air cleaner on my car, with the small wire mesh flame arrestor. It went missing on the trip and I figured it fell off at some point when I had the air cleaner off. The next year I went to change the intake as I have low vacuum, and when I had the intake off I went to clean out the intake runners as some gasket material had fallen in. I stuck my finger in the #5 runner, and felt something weird (almost like a piece of sandstone). After going around the other side of the car to look into the #5 runner, I spotted the flame arrestor in there. Somehow it had fallen off, got sucked through the secondary of the quadrajet, and lodged right by the intake valve. It was in perfect shape, and it's back on the car.
When I was 16 I bought a used cam for my 350 in my 66 Chevelle that was supposed to be a 30-30 375 Hp cam. I installed it and set the lifters I betchya 5 times. Every time I hit the throttle, they went all out of adjustment. Boy was I MAD !!!
A few years later as Parts Manager at a GM dealership, I ordered a complete new Cadillac engine for an ambulance and the mechanic happened to unknowingly drop a nut down the intake. This turned out rather bad as well, you might call it a hammerhead after that !! I think we ordered a new head and piston if I remember right. Some time later we did the same to a brand new 350 Diesel.
-- Edited by Elroy on Saturday 11th of April 2009 10:41:19 AM
great stories!! Well, all is well and its back together and fired right up. The part i was worried about was the distributer, but all it well. hopefully will get a new one in a couple weeks. I did try the one from my 305 but i couldent quite get it seated right, the outer shaft was a little less than a quarter inch from the base, and the gear was in though. Oh well.
Dropped a nut down the manifold, yup, did that, took the manifold off to get it. On the bright side, the 1/2hr job I was doing, turned into a week-end job. Ended up taking everything apart, cleaning and painting everything. It looked and ran great Monday. But never want to go thru that again....
broke an exhaust bolt u know the one on the drivers side at the back rate beside the firewall and oh ya the brake lines had to pull motor to repair can you say all niter fun fun
Did the same thing as 69Laurentian with the fuel pump p'rod.. I bought the 67 Camaro as a Project in the making car, as the seller could not get the thing to start.. Pulled her home and had at it.. so to speak.. Noticed there was no fuel pump on block so I pulled and pulled on the pushrod with long nose/and regular vicegrips, heated the thing up, WD40'd the son a mah gun, but, to no avail she still would not come outta the bore.. Finally, in my infinite wisdom I bought a fuel pump blockoff plate and installed a Stewart Warner electric pump... Learned maybe a couple of days later, there was in fact a bolt retaining the pump pushrod.. Live and Learn I guess, but, the trick is never making the same bonehead move again, eh??
When I was 19, one night I was putting a '69 Toronado 455 into my '69 442 Post car and didn't realize I'd mounted the connection at the starter end touching the manifold.. It was about 2 am when I hooked up the battery and tried the starter...instant smoke was the result.. As my harness was melting, I frantically worked to undo a battery end cable and although happy I got it off before the harness was totally destroyed, still felt sick to my stomach.. Luckily all still worked Ok w/ a tape wrap job and the sick feeling quickly left me on the first test ride w/ the Toro 375Hp under my foot!. I've always twist-tightnened one battery end cable on my own cars ever since..
One older fella I worked with put a tranny in a '68 Delmont ragtop once and when he went to do up the converter nuts realized he'd forgotten to put the converter itself in...we jazzed him pretty good about that one for a long time!.
-- Edited by Ghost Post on Tuesday 21st of April 2009 09:42:34 AM
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I like real cars best...especially the REAL real ones! ----------------------------------------------------------------
16-17 years old working at the gas station my brother owned. He redid a Ford 9" and told me to put it back in the car. Pretty simple job. Did all that, tightened everything up and off he went for a test drive. He yelled at me pretty long and pretty hard when he came back from the test drive with the diff howling real loud since it had no oil in it...
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
God, where to start? So many! My bro and I had thrashed on a 57 2 door sedan about 30 years ago. The interior was gutted but we got the engine running so we had to take it for a test run at midnight. We put two pop boxes in for front seats, jammed the steering unto the splines and got a flashlight. I pointed the flashlight out of the window and we idled out of the yard. As soon as we got clear onto the road I said, Punch it!. He did and that 283 started to howl. Pretty good acceleration, in fact so good it pulled the steering wheel off the splines and we both tumbled over into the back as the car piled into the ditch! Luckily nothing but hurt pride but it was a few years before we coudl bring ourselves to tell other people what we had done. Oh well, I feel better now.
guy at work was puttin a motor in a GM truck, had it all bolted in except the convertor bolts, He had forgot to put the flex plate on so he had to move the trans back to install flex plate, only took a couple of xtra hours, LOL.
God, where to start? So many! My bro and I had thrashed on a 57 2 door sedan about 30 years ago. The interior was gutted but we got the engine running so we had to take it for a test run at midnight. We put two pop boxes in for front seats, jammed the steering unto the splines and got a flashlight. I pointed the flashlight out of the window and we idled out of the yard. As soon as we got clear onto the road I said, Punch it!. He did and that 283 started to howl. Pretty good acceleration, in fact so good it pulled the steering wheel off the splines and we both tumbled over into the back as the car piled into the ditch! Luckily nothing but hurt pride but it was a few years before we coudl bring ourselves to tell other people what we had done. Oh well, I feel better now.
That's priceless!!! I could see it all happening as I read that!
Thanks for the laugh!
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
guy at work was puttin a motor in a GM truck, had it all bolted in except the convertor bolts, He had forgot to put the flex plate on so he had to move the trans back to install flex plate, only took a couple of xtra hours, LOL.
I can't count how many times I've heard of guys doing that or forgetting the converter but having the flywheel on! When I do that (not if, but when!) I am not telling anyone!!!
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
Took the hood off a Corvette for some forgotten reason (replace water pump? radiator? don't recall - but I do recall the next steps), laid it on the driveway behind the car, completed all the work, fired it up, and backed it up ... drove it right onto the hood. Fiberglass was not happy, me either.
Dave's not here ...
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1956 Pontiac Pathfinder 2dr sedan, 496 - dyno'd 545 hp, stick shift, 4.11 posi - Hot Rod
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1956 Pontiac Pathfinder 2dr sedan, 496 - dyno'd 545 hp, stick shift, 4.11 posi - Hot Rod