Something So Stupid

[MalMac 1,328]

Have you ever did something so stupid, that you looked around and wondered if you were on Candid Camera or Americas funniest Home Videos? Well I dug out a old C101 that I put in the dead line because the wiring harness just got so bad on it. I put the new harness on and could not get this thing to run. Oh it would start carry on throw a fit then die. Would not throttle up. Just a totall mess. As I was double checkering that I had everything on it's assigned post. I happen to notice that there was no condenser. Then it hit me I had robbed it last year. So I put a new on. It's amazing how well things run when they have all their parts as designed. How many years have I been doing this? The senior moments are coming in fast and hard. Geez.

[AMC RULES 36,954]

[WH nut 553]

LOL wait until you go through the trouble of changing a part to only find out you the put the original bad part back on.

[Dhodge 528]

I hear ya.  Stupid is as stupid does.  I am rebuilding a hh120 Tecky motor.  Bored cylinder .020 over, turned crank to .020 under.  new Tecky rod, piston, rings, gasket set oem.  I put the cylinder cover on last night after using a little grease to hold and line the gasket bolt holes up.  Torqued to specs, spun the block around to install newly cut valves in newly cut valve seats and no push rods----damn!!!! back apart she  ain't gonna run without those little devils.

It happens to me a lot----I don't know if because I'm dumb or dumber!!!!

[slovinski 42]

Yep, i pulled a smoothie last week. Put a new head gasket on my 855. Cranked and Cranked and nothing,  turns out i forgot to put gas in it,  Now full of gas i cranked and cranked again until gas was dripping out of the muffler.  An hour later i was inspecting what i did wrong, leaned my fat self over the motor placing my hand on the spark plug...POP,  yep i forgot to put the wire all the way down on the plug.  felt like an idiot but it runs great now.

[MalMac 1,328]

Well I guess it feels good to know I am not the only member of this club. What bothers me the most is, this is not the first case of a brain fart and what scares me the most is, it will happen again! When and where who knows when the stupids will happen, but it will happen. Because there is no fix for it I am aware of.

[pacer 3,160]

Heh!, I suspect most anybody that tinkers with mechanical things has a story ---

 

ONE of mine is similar to malmacs - I went through a K241 and set it up to bench run, it would star quickly but then would act crazy, backfiring, wont take throttle, suddenly die, etc. Must have fooled with that thing a couple hours, rechecking hookups several times (at least I told myself I checked ) So finally on the 4th or 5th 'recheck', surprise! the condenser was on the wrong side of the coil!! :banghead:  Ran a lot better after that!

[dclarke 4,011]

I do the same kinda thing, Tim. You just have to laugh to yourself and go on. 

[rmaynard 14,922]

Back when I was a kid of maybe 14 or 15, my dad asked me to change the oil in our fairly new Montgomery Ward riding mower. So I was very careful to put the mower up on blocks so I could slip a pan under the engine, waited until the engine cooled, then drained the oil. After that, I put the drain plug back in, carefully removed the blocks, and then the brain cramp happened...

 

You guessed it. I started the engine without putting in any oil and drove the mower up to the garage. There was dad standing with a fresh new can of oil in his hand, and a look on his face that could kill. Fortunately for me, those old Briggs engines could run for a short time with nothing but the residual oil left on the moving parts. No harm done. Poured in the oil and that mower lasted for another 25 years.

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

Get ready for a "Salty Story."One morning at the lifeboat station I was assigned, a recent "boot" Fireman Apprentice was assigned the small boat checks. He checked the oil on a 30 footer with a GM 6-71 (love that sound!) and thought the oil was low. He added the amount he thought was needed! I double-checked his checks and found the oil level was now to the top of the dipstick tube!

 

One time we asked the same guy to bring us a bucket of steam.

[squonk 38,981]

When we get a new guy at work I always pull the left handed screwdriver or metric crescent wrench trick on him.

I do stupid things all the time. (Steve will vouch for me on this!) My most common one, I'm up on the roof at work and need a cordless drill. I go to the shop and get it. I get all of the way back to the roof before I realize I don't have the battery to go with it!

Edited April 3, 2015 by squonk

[C-101plowerpower 1,605]

When we get a new guy at work I always pull the left handed screwdriver or metric crescent wrench trick on him.

I do stupid things all the time. (Steve will vouch for me on this!) My most common one, I'm up on the roof at work and need a cordless drill. I go to the shop and get it. I get all of the way back to the roof before I realize I don't have the battery to go with it!

 

dont forget the square hole drill and the special engineerd weldable hardwood 

[Bach-Ed 164]

Squonk,

     I'm sorry to correct you but there are metric and imperial Crescent wrenches.   Here is the difference, an imperial wrench is in the catalog as say 8 inch and the metric is listed as a 200mm.  And for all practical purposes they are the same, but the catalog lists them differently.  So one old joke - busted     And yes I've used this before on rookies

[squonk 38,981]

Metric is blue, Imperial is red.

[squonk 38,981]

My other classic that I've done more than once.I go to Wally World and load up the cart. Only to find out I left my wallet home! 

[953 nut 51,895]

My other classic that I've done more than once.I go to Wally World and load up the cart. Only to find out I left my wallet home! 

 

Mike, why don't you just buy another, they sell them at Wally World!     

[857 horse 2,581]

red and blue ??????

 

oh no...........what are we gonna do with cold and hot ????