Really stupid moves

[bgott]

Let's see, this was about two hours ago...Waterpump job on a 6.6 Duramax. I don't have the special tool to remove the harmonic balancer so I lock an 18" pipe wrench on the lip of the balancer. 5' of pipe on a 3/4" drive socket and ratchet later, broken balancer and a broken pipe wrench. So then we jamb a pipe on the ground and hit the starter, the bolt comes right off. I'll pull the starter and see if I can screw up the flywheel with a pry bar to lock it up to tighten the bolt.

Just in case somebody else around here has to do one of these. There is a small tin plate in front of the oil filter on the Allison Automatic. You can remove this and lock the torque converter with a pry bar, no special tool needed. I didn't notice this access plate yesterday, I read the instructions for the Lisle special tool, before I bought it, thankfully, and then I wiped off the dirt and found it. To use the factory tool you have to pull the starter.

 

[kbkna]

Living in the country has its benefits. Open fields with large irrigation ditches along the side of the roads and not too much traffic. While hauling home my prized VW bug on the car trailer, I tuned the corner to head for home and the wife looking at me and says " someone has a bug just like yours!". I looked as my gonads sunk to my throat, threw the truck in park and chased it down the road. How it didn't end up in the irrigation ditch and thank goodness no was was coming is beyond me. Now I use EXTRA EXTRA straps. Boy was I lucky! No damage!..

 

[deathbound]

Living in the country has its benefits. Open fields with large irrigation ditches along the side of the roads and not too much traffic. While hauling home my prized VW bug on the car trailer, I tuned the corner to head for home and the wife looking at me and says " someone has a bug just like yours!". I looked as my gonads sunk to my throat, threw the truck in park and chased it down the road. How it didn't end up in the irrigation ditch and thank goodness no was was coming is beyond me. Now I use EXTRA EXTRA straps. Boy was I lucky! No damage!..

That's a funny story, but I'm wondering how someone's gonads can SINK to their throat when they're already much lower.

 

[fireguy]

the all HELL breaks loose.I looked back in my rearview mirror just in time to see my drivers side trailer wheel break off the trailer.I was doing 80 MPH down a hill when the damn thing passed me!QUOTE]

I was driving my 1 ton chevy step van to a job. I had just gotten the van out of the shop. Some of the u-bolts holding the springs to the axle had worked loose. The vibration had also worked the spring hanger bolts loose. the shop fixed all that and the next stop was to the local Les Schwab tire store to have the winter tires changed to summer tires. Tires done, I hit the road to do a job. As I am driving,I notice some minor vibration, similar to the vibration before the mechanic fixed the loose bolts. But Paul's shop does very good work so I know the vibration is nothing to worry about. The vibration is getting worse. I start to wonder if anything is wrong, but I have complete confidence in Paul. The shaking is getting worse. I wonder how quick I could stop the van if a wheel came off. Then I look out the right window and see a wheel go by. I hit hte brakes about the time the other right wheel goes by (duals) and on the left I see the wheel spacer go by. That 10,200 GVW van stops real quick when the right drum hits the pavement!

I got a ride to the next town, phoned my tech to come and get me. I phone the wrecker service and ask to have the flat bed sent to get me. I never did do that job, I called them. I do not think they believed me when I said the wheels fell off my van.

I called my mechanic, he opened a space in the shop and the driver dropped the van inside the shop. The problem was the spare duals that Les Schwab put on did not require the wheel spacer. The spacer made the wheel studs too short to hold the wheels on. Of course, Les Schwab denied all responsibillty.

 

[61pv544]

Just the other day, I was changing a light fixture over the sink in my bathroom. I distictly remember thinking that it was nice to be able to see what I was doing for a change, It's usually pretty dark in a room with no windows, when you are changing the only light in there.
Long story short, i took my wire cutters, cut the live wire, and ended up on the floor in pitch darkness with a warm, fuzzy feeling in my body... I live in denmark, where we have 230 and 380 volt service. That 230 volt line will give you a pretty nasty kick up the backside, before the fuses are tripped! I could have been killed... in the end, it only cost me some pride, and a new wire cutter. The old one had a hole melted in the jaws!

 

[jktruck150]

Here are a couple of the classics:
Put truck in reverse in a hurry, turn wheel sharply to turn around, smack large pine tree with bumper of truck ---- check.

Muffler pipe is rusty, muffler falls off truck, pickup muffler in road, burn hand ----- check.

Shin contact with trailer ball hitch, create large welt and bruse --- check.

Grizz signature says "if you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem mate" My response: you don't need hammer, a single finger and contact with a ground does just fine. My case was an electric fence and a metal t-post. Did you know 50-mile fence chargers hurt when you are only about 30 feet away??

Stupidity: Just acquired a new (to me) JD tractor. Ran it for two days, then the dang thing wouldn't start. Replaced battery, battery cables, fixed about half a dozen electrical connections (even if they didn't need to be connected) etc. Ater three days of trying to get the tractor started, I simply PUT THE TRACTOR IN NEUTRAL and the tractor started like nothing was wrong.

Then there was the time I spent a weekend and took of work to find a 18 thread 1/4 bolt. I thought it was a Massey Fergeson special. Found out that it was just a stretched normal every day, run of the mill 20 thread 1/4 in bolt. How did it get streched and how did I not know? Well, duh, I am the one the over tightened it and broke the bolt. Why do you think I was trying to fix it in the first place.

There are just way to many to keep going....I like reading everyone elses!!

 

[WVBrady]

This didn't happen in my garage, but on my computer. I got a new computer and they had a special on some speakers, so I got them too. I had the computer running for several months and decided one day to install the speakers. I had some trouble and had to download new drivers, but finally got them working. One day, I was on the internet and suddenly there was this sinister message on my screen saying "increasing volume" and the volume went up to the max. My first thought was that some hostile virus had taken over my machine. I clicked on the icon on the screen and it had no control. I also couldn't mute it. I went into the control panel and tried various things and, without knowing what I did, got it to working ok again. I had this happen a couple of times, and never did know what I had done to correct it. Then one day, I was working and happened to look down at my new keyboard and noticed three little buttons with bell symbols on them. I touched them and found that not only did they control the mute and up and down volume, but they had a HAIR TRIGGER. What had caused my mysterious problem was that a book or magazine had got pushed over and depressed one of the hair trigger keys! Boy did I feel dumb.

 

[Ford12508]

I can't think of anything other than a time my friend pretended to stab me, and was using a real knife. He pushed it towards me, and whats me reaction? You would think grab his hand or wrist, but no, my dumb *** tries to grab the knife. Hurt like a mother!

 

[eborcim]

Always close the hatch on a camper shell before backing up to the garage door...they tend to rip off when hitting the door frame or the roof overhang.

 

[bpc23]

I was contemplating whether I could reach the acetylene torch with my foot and cut the whole pumpkin/ center section out of the axle, when my finger slid out.

That changed my shop practices a bit, regarding telling others where I was, where I would be, when to check on me, etc.

That's a VERY important safety tip. Recently, here in Connecticut, a man was doing work on his furnace and his arm became hopelessly trapped in the ducting. When the emergency crew found him three days later, he had nearly freed himself by cutting through his arm.

 

[jake26]

Really stupid moves for today or all time?

I have so many ... I rather not play favorites.

 

[robertlynk]

i've had a few moments of stupidity, latest i tried to catch a falling 20L plastic drum with one hand- it hit the ladder on the harvester in front of me and bounced out smashing my bottom lip into my teeth, the old man thought it was hilarous. Another was I was working on a seeder replacing the pins and bushing, I was holding onto a four foot crow barb bouncing of the ground trying to get the pin to move. and move it did- as i came down the bar seesawed up and backwards straight into my forehead knocking me down and putting a neat number 7 imprint on my head where the side of the bar hit.
I also tried to remove a stubborne radiator hose on a 54 chev truck. after 1/2hr of trying with levers i tried pulling it towards me with both beceps flexing, till the pipe ripped clean and smacked me straight in the head again. Then i was working chair, unsecured on the bench with part of it hanging over the front i pushed down on it and knew what was comming the back leg of it followed the rest off the taple and crack me well and good in the forehead. you'd think i'd learn after the first two times?

get a hard hat with face shield

 

[TAftw]

That's a VERY important safety tip. Recently, here in Connecticut, a man was doing work on his furnace and his arm became hopelessly trapped in the ducting. When the emergency crew found him three days later, he had nearly freed himself by cutting through his arm.

HAHA, WCCC talks about that story all the time. What part of CT are you from?

 

[bpc23]

HAHA, WCCC talks about that story all the time. What part of CT are you from?

I'm from Windsor, about 15 minutes North of Hartford.

Brian

 

[bpc23]

I was preparing to move to the East coast and had to empty the attic above my garage of all the accumulated stuff. I had a friend helping me and we decided that it would be most efficient if he stayed in the garage and I handed him boxes down from the attic above through the pull-down stairway access. I had a good method established, which involved stepping across the opening to straddle it and then handing the box down to my buddy. We managed to clear all the small stuff from the attic and all that remained was some larger boxes. The large box I was carrying obscured my view, but I thought to myself “I’ve stepped across this opening enough to do it without looking.” I stepped across the opening, but,,, (wait for it),,, my foot missed the floor on the other side and went through the opening. But wait, it gets better. As I was falling through the opening, I flung my arms outward to catch myself. Luckily I did and stopped with my back against the ladder and upper body still in the attic. I tried to move my right arm to help pull myself back into the attic, but it would only move a few inches. It’s like it was caught on something but I hadn’t been looking. So, as I’m yanking my arm to free it, I glance over to see that a 16-penny nail that had been partially nailed into the floor had penetrated my arm. But, that’s not the gross part. The nail was between the skin and muscle, so as I was trying to pull my arm free, I could clearly see the outline of the 2.5” nail as it pulled the skin away from my arm. . I pulled my arm up off the nail and quickly clamped my free hand over the wound and we made a trip to the hospital. Surprisingly, it didn’t bleed and no damage was done. Stitches weren’t even needed since the hole in my skin was only about the diameter of a pencil.

 

[santagary]

I used brads that were too long in my new brad nailer and nailed a screen door I was repairing, to my workbench...my wife 5/8ths (my better half) is still laughing. I had to clench all the brads over after prying it off the bench with a crow bar.

 

[santagary]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...I put Tidy Bowl in the dishwasher once after cleaning up the kitchen as a favor to 5/8ths. All the dishes were bright blue the next morning. Luckily they returned to their normal appearance after being washed properly.. That was a close call.

 

[bazzateer]

Moved into a new-build house back in '97. It had double-glazed sliding patio doors with just the standard lock. I wanted some extra security on the door so bought a dead bolt fitting. When I drilled the hole in the sliding door frame I just caught the edge of the sealed double-glazed unit and BANG! It was like a gun going off! The whole inner pane shattered but stayed intact. I felt like a complete idiot! Insurance coughed up though, I was trying to make the place more secure after all!

 

[bgott]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...I put Tidy Bowl in the dishwasher once after cleaning up the kitchen as a favor to 5/8ths. All the dishes were bright blue the next morning. Luckily they returned to their normal appearance after being washed properly.. That was a close call.

The next thing you know you'll be confusing your Preparation H with your toothpaste!

 

[Lou N]

I have had several moments, the latest...Replacing the ignition switch on my wife's Harley, all is well and I'm finishing up the wiring heating up the shrink wrap with my heat gun. The gun has a diffuser on the front that narrows the flow. I decide it's blocking the air flow and grab it to take it off; unfortunately I had already been running the gun on the hot setting for 15 or 20 seconds. These guns get very hot in about 5 seconds - I still have a nice burn mark on my index finger. Dumb A*#

 

[seagravedriver]

I have a Mustang with an FE series big block, (428). Dad told me many years ago to always check to make sure the oil gasket came off with the old filter. Do a quick oil change on the car, drive to a friends house.....whats that smell?I shut it down as everything in my mind came together. I was so embarrassed I pushed it two+ blocks home. Chances are pretty good I wont do that again.

 

[TAftw]

I'm from Windsor, about 15 minutes North of Hartford.

Brian

I see, I'm just across the border in MA.

 

[grcthird]

Back in my younger and dumber days (that I still haven't completely graduated from) I was replacing the rear shoes on my 82 Jeep Cherokee. This was back when pliers were my tool of choice for anything other than removing nuts and bolts. I remember not being able to stretch one of the springs over the top post, hmmm where's the needle nose at? After retrieving my favorite tool of choice, I put the death grip on that poor unsuspecting spring, yeah that's right spring your *** is mine now, with all of my herculean effort I begin to pull up on this spring up and then whammo. My trusty pliers are off the spring and with heading towards my nose at the speed of light, so after self stabbing my nose with my now not so favorite tool, my neck jerks my head back and whammo the back of my head finds the inside of the metal fender flare. Unfortunately there were witnesses who, after finding out that I was ok, proceeded to roll all over the floor laughing at me. Haven't lived it down yet.

 

[foss]

My Mom bought a new Volvo SUV a couple months ago. She had it backed into the garage and went to do an errand . She put something into the passenger side first and closed the door and then went around the car ,jumped in and started to pull out when the garage door came down and crashed the windshield. Turns out the rope was too long for the garage door release and she closed the passenger door on it and released the door as she pulled out.
Kief !!!!

 

[grcthird]

A couple of years ago I had a camper that mainly stayed in the backyard, but came out for Nascar races twice a year. There is a about a 10 ft wide spot beside the house that the camper has to be backed through. In that 10 ft space close to the house resides my natural gas meter. I am a good backer upper of all things towed, most of the time. One day I was backing the camper into the backyard without my domestic supervisor's supervision and hooked the awning bracket on the gas meter. This caused the gas line to break off below the shut off valve, and admittedly I am now a member of the calling 911 on yourself club.

 

[Hemihead2]

A couple of years ago I bought a new 60 gallon vertical dual cylinder air compressor from Lowes. It was bolted to a pallet and they used a forklift to load it in the back of my pickup. Now, I knew I wouldn't be able to get it out of my truck by myself so I had a buddy coming over the next day to help me unload it and move it into my shop. Thinking I'd at least get a start on the process - when I got it home, I decided to lay it on its side so we could slide it out. The plan was to first rest the compressor end on a sawhorse mounted on a furniture dolly making it easy to finish sliding the rest of it out of the truck bed, then set the pallet end on ground. Getting in a bit of a hurry, I over-estimated my ability to handle the heavy end as I tilted the compressor over and under-estimated the length of the truck bed relative to the height of the compressor. When it reached the tipping over point, it came over in a rush, smacking me in the head and knocking me backwards out of the pickup bed. I came to lying on the ground, blood running down my face from a compression cut on my forehead and a numbness in my left arm. Don't know how long I had been out, but later as I was cleaning and patching my forehead, I was thinking how lucky I was that that was all that happened to me.
The rest of the unloading went according to plan with no further problems.

 

[Boyd Who]

Last year the interior rear-view mirror bracket came loose from the windshield of my wife's '99 Chrysler Cirrus. Being the loving and mechanically inclined husband that I am, I went out and got a glue kit to fix it. I took the little metal piece that glues to the windshield and cleaned it up, them applied the glue and set it in place. After it dried the correct amount of time I went to put the mirror back on only to find I'd glued the piece in upside down. Due to the mirror design is has to sit the right way up. The glue that is used is incredible stuff...to this day I haven't been able to remove the piece from the windshield so I can do it properly. D'oh!!!

 

[dmeadow]

Thanks, Guys. All of a sudden the big rusty nail i pulled out of my finger on Sunday doesn't seem so bad ( nor does the day I set my frayed jeans on fire while welding ).

I'll make you feel even better. I did the frayed jeans on fire while welding thing, too. Except my jeans were frayed at the crotch.

 

[Cryptic1911]

I was installing a skidplate under my 95 GTI and the brackets for the front were these billet aluminum pieces that were notched on the top to fit into a slot, and then turn to lock into place.. well I put one in by hand and tried to turn it, but couldnt get it all the way locked. I left it and looked & reached over for a wrench to slide on and turn it, and of course when I looked back up at it, it was already on its way down. SMASH.. right into my two front teeth. Teeth: 1, Billet bracket: 0

Glad I have hard teeth!

 

[lupinsea]

I'll make you feel even better. I did the frayed jeans on fire while welding thing, too. Except my jeans were frayed at the crotch.

Man, I hate it when my crotch catches on fire. It usually starts off a round of mild panic in me. It definitely teaches you not to stand in the path of the sparks from an angle grinder, though.

 

[Cryptic1911]

 

[deathbound]

So, I do a lot of welding at work & I also have a long goatee (about 10"), most of which hangs outside the hood. Now, I've managed to never catch it on fire & people ask me all the time if I have, even though the fire "bounces" off of it. Well, one day, my partner & I are each in our own sky climbers welding elevator separator screens on each side of a shaft. I'm welding my side & he starts priming the welds on his side with rattle can primer (unknown to me). I hear a few "flare-ups" not knowing what they are & instantly smell burnt hair-that's right, my "used to be" 10" long goat is now a singed pile of hair. It only got about 1/2 of it, but I smelt burnt hair under my hood the rest of the day. He says it was an accident because he was priming the welds 2-3 feet above me. I still think he was ****** around until he realized what happened-then said it was an accident. Needless to say, my wife is a little happier with it shorter-she even got to grab the bottom half & cut it off.

 

[keflaman]

Last year the interior rear-view mirror bracket came loose from the windshield of my wife's '99 Chrysler Cirrus. Being the loving and mechanically inclined husband that I am, I went out and got a glue kit to fix it. I took the little metal piece that glues to the windshield and cleaned it up, them applied the glue and set it in place. After it dried the correct amount of time I went to put the mirror back on only to find I'd glued the piece in upside down. Due to the mirror design is has to sit the right way up. The glue that is used is incredible stuff...to this day I haven't been able to remove the piece from the windshield so I can do it properly. D'oh!!!

I did the exact same thing to a friend's BMW, except I tried to pry the piece back off. It cured a lot faster than I would have thought and cracked the windshield when I gave a sharp tug. That mistake cost me $500.

 

[grcthird]

Enough talking about the fire crotch, that ***** is in jail finally!

The glue that is used is incredible stuff...to this day I haven't been able to remove the piece from the windshield so I can do it properly. D'oh!!!

I broke numerous windshields trying to glue rear view mirrors back on when I was an Audi tech. The mirror has a death grip on the button that pulls the glass touching the glue out of the windshield. That's fun explaining to a customer.


When I was again in younger and dumber, (notice a trend here?) I was helping my buddy put a clutch in his IH Scout. Somehow I ended up holding up the weight of the transmission and the fawking drop light fell on my face. After much yelling and twitching it got pulled off but the damage was done. Imprinted in my chin were the words "Use 60 watt or less" backwards. Dumbasses, we had a 100w in it, so that metal back reflector was hot as hell.

 

[bucklidl]

1st month of owning my new home, I was changing out the turbo in my car with a new unit. I had forgot to close the qwik valve for the oil and it was several days since i had opened it up to drain the oil. Went to fill the car up with oil, after adding the fifth quart of oil I check the dip stick "nothing wtf",So like an idiot I look down to find this.

Since then I have put in an epoxy floor and i make sure to close the qwik valves on my cars.

 

[red baron]

When I first started apprenticing at the shop we would work saturdays, After a long night out, I come in do the morning cleaning and trash emptying. First car comes in, for a waiting oil change, I take care of it, back it out in the lot. Now I am waiting for the next car, walking through the shop looking for something to do, when I notice theres no empty oil cans in the trash!!! Oh s$@# that car was done half an hour ago! Now I gotta go tell the boss that car left with NO OIL in it! As I am telling him what I did, we see the car just start to drive by the office door, I am sprinting down the drive yelling at them to shut it off! Got it stopped, and topped off in the drive, needless to say I was thankful that customer was reading a book in the car and hadnt left yet, and they were none too happy with me.

 

[ddrewyor]

About 12 years ago my wife and I had two Ranger pickups as our daily drivers and a '67 Falcon painted Clearwater Aqua (only year offered). I almost always drove the Ranger for work and the Falcon for everything else. On my way to work one day, I see a '67 Falcon in Clearwater Aqua paint coming down the road and think that it's my wife out and about early. Well as the car gets closer, I see that it's some "dude" driving my stolen car. I do a quick u-turn to go catch this guy and beat some a**. After chasing him for a couple of miles he pulls over and I come screeching up behind him ready to throw down. As I get out of my vehicle he calmly says "nice Falcon you have there". It was one of the rare days I had taken the Falcon and I thought I was driving one of the Rangers. We talked and he turned out to be a great guy - I never mentioned the reason I was chasing him.

Dave
________
HEMP MARIJUANA

 

[jshel101]

I have done a lot of stupid things in my life. These are the ones that I remember.

Me and my family, brother-in-law, and wife's parents went to Los Cabos for a vacation. Well me, my wife, and brother in-law decide to go on one of those ATV tours in the Baja desert. Well my brother in-law and I where racing up and down the sandy beach at full throttle. At each end I would turn around and hit the gas, to swing the rear end out a bit. Well on the one end, I tried to do this, I ended up flying through the air, and landed face first in the nice sandy beach. Luckily the quad didn't roll over on me. I was limping for the next 4 days, and I was still washing sand out of my ears when I got back to Canada 6 days later. This happened 1.5 years ago and I still have numb spot on my leg. My wife still likes to bug me about it.

When I was 20, I borrowed my Grandparents car. My car was recently totaled in accident, but that is another story of me being stupid. Well I went to visit my girl friend. When I came out, the car was not there. I looked around and found it across the street parked on the neighbors grass, inches from a big tree. There wasn't a scratch on the car. I was so used to driving manual transmission vehicles that I left their car in neutral. Not sure how it rolled ahead a few feet and made a sharp left turn to end up on the neighbors lawn, and stop before hitting anything.

Another one comes to mind. I used to work at a sawmill in my twenties. Well one of the jobs I had was to wrap the finished loads of lumber. Well the stacker stacks a typical load of 2X8's in about 2 or 3 minutes, so you don't have a lot of time to wrap each stack. Well we use a air staple gun for this. As I was trying to staple the wrap as fast as I can, I ended up stapling my thumb to the stack of lumber. Went right thourhg my leather glove I had one. Well it took my about 10 minutes to get the attention of the guy running the stacker. Meanwhile my thumb was securely attached to the lumber. He grabbed me some pliers so I could pull the staple out of my thumb.

The last one I can think of is when I was first dating my now wife. I wanted to do something nice for her. So while she was at work, I decided to do some laundry. Well I did a wash, that contained all of her jeans and some shirts. I mistook the fabric Softner for the bleach. Well my wife was not too happy to come home to most of her clothes being ruined from bleach stains. I still hear about this one and it has been 14 years now. lol

I am sure I will have lots more storied to tell before I am dead and gone.

 

[gsport]

pretty funny thread... about 30+ years ago i had a motorcycle and thought it had a miss in it.. so i thought i would just put my finger on the exhaust pipe to see if one was cooler than the other.. yikes, big mistake, it was hotter than hell.... my wife still laughs about that...

 

[mkdive]

Some of these really had me laughing...some hit too close to home.