Whats your worst wrenching mistake?

[Purerock105]

Fess up.
And no, Hickster. This is not about women. That's a wench. 😁

Did it cost extra to fix or just more time? Which for some is worth more than money.

Mine wasn't all that bad. Over torqued bolt on my new C6 Z06 sway bars during install on C5. Broke it off. Had to drill/tap it out and get another bolt. Not a money expense but time AND completely under car while under 4 jack stands and 2 floor jacks. Ugh 😠

 

[BULL]

Putting high-compression pistons in my '88 T-Bird Turbo Coupe

 

[Hunter]

Breaking torque (bolt on power steering) on 71 charger.
Car had the old flex blade (that had a torn blade) on water pump.
Arm slipped, wrist hit the torn blade, sliced my wrist wide open. Needed inner and outer stitches.
FYI:
Was at work at a service station (the only one there/working).
Wrapped my wrist, closed up the station, and walked 1/4 mile to hospital (was luckily just up the road).

 

[MiHiHemi]

NEVER tell a shop what’s wrong with your car. I told them my front bearing was going so they put on a new rotor for me. Wasn’t the rotor/bearing, it was the frikin tire making noise.

 

[HRJ]

This is a tough one....I've made several mistakes. The ones that come to mind off-hand:
- Forgot to tighten the slip collar on a MSD distributor. Kept having to reset the timing and couldn't figure out why. Lucky I didn't create a bigger problem with that one
- Finished a small block and dropped it in the car. When I went to drop the distributor I noticed that I forgot to install the oil pump drive. Pan couldn't come off with the engine in the car.
- Not exactly a wrenching problem, but I made the mistake of asking a friend to fill the tank directly before a hot lap session. Someone had mistakenly loaded a jug of methanol in the trailer (fuel used in a different car) instead of the jugs of VP Late Model Plus and the friend didn't know any different when he topped of the tank. The pistons didn't like that at all. Made a ton of power for about 2 laps lol
- I had a driveshaft failure at the track. There was no way to get another one in time, so I ran back to the shop (15 minutes away) and used the chop saw to cut down a longer one we had for a different car. Realized the MIG welder was out of wire so I brazed it together with an acetylene torch and a wire coat hanger. It held together, but the damn thing vibrated so bad it cracked the tail shaft housing on the Brinn. Finished the race, but the trans was junk.

I know there's more, if I remember I'll post em up.

 

[Jimmy N.]

Oh, the list is long, but what comes to mind now isn't all bad.

I'd bought an engine that was supposedly rebuilt. Yeah, right. So I took it apart, checked bearing clearances and such...sure enough, it was perfect.
Now I had to get all new gaskets, which I really couldn't afford.

 

[B5Cat16]

When I was 18, I replaced the gas tank and fuel pick up in my 68 Barracuda. When I installed the fuel pickup in the tank I forgot to put the rubber seal. I put the lock ring and thought I was done. I filled the tank and brought the car back home. Roughly 10 gallons of gasoline leaked all over the garage floor. Needless to say my father was PISSED!!!! The smell in the house was unbearable.

 

[chuckie]

Had to replace a stripped intake manifold carb stud on a "72 cutlass , pulled the carb off and of course didn't stuff a towel in the intake opening as I should have and during removal of the stud I dropped a nut into the intake. Now this was the days before those little inspection cameras so I took my shop vac and duct taped smaller and smaller rubber hoses together and went down each port with the vacuum on, amazingly i was
able to get the sucker out

 

[Purerock105]

In a related sense I remember wrenching as a late teen in the late 80's and the clock was my worst enemy. Whatever we were working on had to be finished up by Sunday nite, because I've got to drive this thing to work Monday at 8am.😳

And back in those days in my little small town, the only auto parts store closed at 6p on Sunday. So, quite often it was running "good enough" to get you to work and back home. Good times. 😂

 

[Jimmy N.]

Whatever we were working on had to be finished up by Sunday nite, because I've got to drive this thing to work Monday at 8am.😳

That reminds me of a somewhat similar scenario. Started changing the diff and gears in my Jeep's Dana 44 after work, which was 5 PM.
By about 2 AM I finally realized that the book I was using as a guide for contact patterns was wrong.

Luckily I had taken notes of the shims used for the first attempt, so I could "start from scratch".
Got it done in time for opening hour, barely, but might have worn out the shop's press and bearing puller in the process.

 

[Stormtrooper1320]

When I put the big block in my first Cuda, I didn't have the torque converter seated all the way in. I don't know how I screwed that up, it felt like it went all the way in and when we mated the trans up, the flex plate bolts lined right up. We got everything hooked up and fired the engine up for the cam break-in. As soon as the engine fired up, the unmistakable sound of the converter shearing off the front pump ears filled the air. I knew that sound because a friend of mine had done it the previous summer on his Cuda. I think there must've been something evil in those Cudas.

 

[Hunter]

When I put the big block in my first Cuda, I didn't have the torque converter seated all the way in. I don't know how I screwed that up, it felt like it went all the way in and when we mated the trans up, the flex plate bolts lined right up. We got everything hooked up and fired the engine up for the cam break-in. As soon as the engine fired up, the unmistakable sound of the converter shearing off the front pump ears filled the air. I knew that sound because a friend of mine had done it the previous summer on his Cuda. I think there must've been something evil in those Cudas.

Used to always have issues trying to seat the Torque Converter on my older Challengers.

 

[1971demon]

Putting high-compression pistons in my '88 T-Bird Turbo Coupe

The only wrench involved was a 3/8 open end....replaced a battery in my 06 viper this past spring...simple 20 min process took almost 2 days...after installing the battery...it took a day and a half to get it to run...every connection..every fuse..every wire..was checked..double checked..triple checked..and checked again....no power...finally gave up and went for coffee and a cigar...only to come home an hour later to a running viper with my wife in the drivers seat...astonished and bewildered..i asked WTF did you do...(I never swear in her presence )...she said I got in turned the key...hit the start button...and it started...to which I said what key???...yup my HC/Demon don't use a key.....I PROUDLY WEAR THE TITLE KING OF ALL IDIOTS.. the story was told in detail on the old forum

 

[motorhead]

Um... had to give this some hard thought. But upon deep reflection of over 20 years of spinning wrenches I have to settle on this one:

Back in the early 2000s my brother, friends, and I finally got my Buick Turbo T running (built one car out of two). And as the story goes just before the first test drive the ignition fell out of sync. So we fixed it. Just before the first test drive for the second time the battery was flat. Swapped the battery. Just before the first test drive for the third time the exhaust broke and fell off the car. So we rigged it up. Four of us hopped in the car (unplated (borrowed them off my MCSS) and uninsured) and went for a late-night test drive. At about 80km/h down a four lane divided city street I saw the driver's side front wheel hop up and pass me. The car slammed down into the road creating a tall shower of sparks up the side of the car - with a collective "OH SHIT!" inside the car. We spent a good deal of time looking for the wheel (which thankfully didn't hit anyone) and running back to the house to grab a jack, wheel, and some lug nuts. We had to force the rotor through the pads to free it up. Amazingly a cop never showed up either.

Those were definitely signs from the car Gods not to drive the car.

By the next morning we had a fresh rotor on the car, changed out all four wheels, and drove the car to a car show with an open downpipe - still uninsured and unplated. Kids... they never learn. But, we had no more incidents.

Oh, as a bonus we developed a motto for whenever a project leaves the garage: Torque the lug nuts... Torque the lug nuts... Torque the lug nuts... This reminder recently got immortalized on Motion Raceworks magnetic safety check list because my brother had put it there when his friend (who runs the printing shop that produces them) asked him to review the draft.

So the next time you torque your lugs, think of me:
https://www.motionraceworks.com/products/motion-safety-checklist-magnet-dry-erase

 

[Mean Cat]

Sorry , I got nothing , I'm a pretty good mechanic , the rest of yall need to tighten up !

 

[BULL]

Sorry , I got nothing , I'm a pretty good mechanic , the rest of yall need to tighten up !

We don't have an appropriate response tag for this post...

 

[Mean Cat]

We don't have an appropriate response tag for this post...

That's ok , we know what your thinking.

 

[Mean Cat]

Breaking torque (bolt on power steering) on 71 charger.
Car had the old flex blade (that had a torn blade) on water pump.
Arm slipped, wrist hit the torn blade, sliced my wrist wide open. Needed inner and outer stitches.
FYI:
Was at work at a service station (the only one there/working).
Wrapped my wrist, closed up the station, and walked 1/4 mile to hospital (was luckily just up the road).

Ouch !

 

[NYCSRTATE]

Nothing to bad here.

Removed the intake on my 06 Jeep SRT to install intake spacers, while reinstalling the intake I over tightened an intake bolt and stripped the threads on the head.

Had to remove the intake and heli-coil the head.

A lot of cursing on in reinstall.

 

[Stormtrooper1320]

Breaking torque (bolt on power steering) on 71 charger.
Car had the old flex blade (that had a torn blade) on water pump.
Arm slipped, wrist hit the torn blade, sliced my wrist wide open. Needed inner and outer stitches.
FYI:
Was at work at a service station (the only one there/working).
Wrapped my wrist, closed up the station, and walked 1/4 mile to hospital (was luckily just up the road).

Ok.....I'll admit.....I'm a dick. When I read this, there was some initial concern...but then I started laughing because it made me think about the Black Knight from Monty Python....tis but a flesh wound......sorry......I'll say some extra hail mary's or something later