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Whats the worst mistake

Put the collar side in on a bearing on the beater shaft for the 6620 combine. Instead of being in on time for evening dinner I made myself change the bearing around which meant being out until 11 PM. Not in a well lit shop either but outside and trying to drape over a 30.5 X 32 tire.
 
I dropped a wooden dowel in through a spark plug hole trying to feel for the cylinder. Took me several days to fish it out without pulling the head.
 
When I was about 19 or 20 years old a friend asked me if I could over haul his Chevrolet 6 cylinder engine in an old car that he had. I told him sure. He got a new set of rings and a set of piston/crankshaft bearings. I installed the rings on the pistons and put the bearing into the rods. I installed the crank bearings and put the pistons into the cylinders. I didn't know that there was a proper orientation for the pistons, I just put them in however I picked them up. The crankshaft turned over hard and then came to a hard stop. I fiddled and fooled for many days trying to find out what was wrong. Eventually, another friend of ours showed up and saw that I had a couple of the pistons installed backwards. We re-oriented them and eventually finished the job. I was humiliated but it was also a good learning experience.

Tom in TN
 
Not using my smart pencil while taking a test in college. Im sure I could have done better if I had.
 
Didn't adjust kick down (TV) cable on transmission after installing taller intake on chevy v8. Trans shop said that's what likely did it in.
 
One thing I did was the first automatic transmission I overhauled was in a 4x4 Chevy pickup.

I simply got an overhaul kit and a manual with step by step instructions. I worked through the transmission overhaul process and installed it back in the pickup. After I'd hung the transfer case and was hooking up the driveshaft I noticed I could only rotate the transmission one way. I thought I must have installed some one way clutches the wrong way.

I pulled the transmission again and went through the entire process all over. I found out there was only one way you could install the one way clutches I was thinking about. I couldn't find where I'd done anything wrong.

Next day I went to a local community college and talked to a transmission instructor I knew. He said, 'Oh, yeah. That's normal. Until the unit runs for a few minutes, gets thoroughly lubed, and the clutch discs get used to running against each other there's so much friction you can only turn the unit one way'.

Grrr.
 
Don't know about it being my worst mistake, but one memorable one was putting a new starter in my Chevy truck. 20 below zero, lying on my back in the driveway, had to shove snow away to get to it, so I figured I'd save time by not bothering to disconnect the battery cable. Needed to crimp on a new cable end and was trimming the insulation back a bit with a metal-cased utility knife when it touched something and grounded out the cable. Got one mighty impressive spark show about 6 inches from my head--enough to melt the blade on the utility knife into uselessness. You may bet I pulled the cable for the rest of the repair!
 
Not honing glazed cylinder walls before installing new rings on a Ford 360. I had heard the engine needed rings and rod bearings so that's what I did. I was 18 years old and didn't know very much. Certainly not enough.
 
While assembling my jeep Wagoneer standard transmission, when I was a lot younger, I put the slider gear on backwards. All I had was low and reverse. All I could do was remove the transmission again. I doubt I could even work under a car anymore. Stan
 
I posted this a while back when a gentleman reported the starter in his Cub quit working. He pull the starter to find a rag wrapped in the starter drive and flywheel. Here is mine One of my worst mistakes happened early in my years as a mechanic. I had taken the intake off of a Chrysler 318 V8 to clean carbon out of the manifold exhaust crossover. Just before break I had a coworker help me set it back on there. Well the shop was not real well lit and sure enough I left the rags I had laid in there to keep crud out of the bottom of the engine. Not long after that the owner was back with oil light flickering problems. Well on that engine the distributor/oil pump gears are open to the valley of the engine. The gears grabbed the rags and started fraying them. The fuzz got in the oil pump pick up and started to plug it. Before I was done I was putting bearings in that car. It just happened to be the car that belonged to the preacher of the church the guys that owned the shop went to. Lesson learned.
Now I will wait for added replies from rustred, woreout and Tractor Vet,,,,,,,,,,guess I better just go to sleep.
 
Not very long after I started working at a CAT truck engine shop a Western Star came through the door with a bad miss (CAT C15). It was a desperate rush job and I was told to replace the broken rocker arm. Nobody mentioned (and I didnt know enough to ask) that I should also replace the rocker arm that didnt break on that cylinder. As I was leaving that day I saw the truck coming back hooked to a tow truck. The next morning I discovered that the other rocker arm had broken but one of the pieces fell between the cam and the side of the head and got pushed out of the head. So, I set about installing a reman head but it wasnt done with me quite yet. There is a piece that holds two o-rings that seals the back of the timing cover to the head which is secured with 3 short 1/4 bolts. And I dropped one. I fished for ages, eventually removed the oil pan, still didnt find it. It was later discovered residing in the air compressor :(. Fortunately I never saw that truck again.
 
Two come to mind:

Rebuilding a 350 SBC and dinged a freshly turned crank with a rod bolt while reinserting the piston. Found out about rubber stud covers that day.

Broke an ear off a cast aluminum intake for a 250 Chevy 6 trying to use the bolts to pull it into position instead of finding out why it wasn't sitting flush. Found out about heliarc welding that day. (Early 80's, before it was called TIG)
 
One weekend back when I was 18/19 I helped a friend put a 4BBL and manifold on a SBC. Bunch of us helping and drinking beer, was priming carb with gas in a empty beer bottle, got 'er fired up, sounded great, grabbed a beer and took a big swig, yup, wrong bottle.

Changed a clutch in a friends pickup on the side of the road. Put the bottle jack under the oil pan to support the engine, was in a hurry, got ir done yup, knock, knock, knock.

oh there's more.....
 
Somehow timing a Deere 329 engine 180 out. Messed with it until we got it retimed. The engine ran great but would never start right. This was in a combine. After 2 years we decided to pull the head and found that pistons and valves do not play well together. It is a wonder it never broke a valve. My Duramax needs injectors and my oldest son said he could do it as he had done his. For some reason one of the injector cups did not go in right and he could not get it out. I told him to stop and we would pull the head. He was sure he could get it and did but in the process slightly bent a valve. Two day latter while the truck was idling it ate that bent valve. I had just bought the truck. By the time we were done I had the $20,000 truck I could not afford. I guess education is expensive.LOL Anyone that never made any mistakes just hasn't done much. Tom
 
Hard to say what the worst was, made a lot of mistakes over the years.

Also got away with a lot I shouldn't have looking back on some of the dumb things I've done... Some I will plead the 5th on for now! LOL

A couple that stand out:

Did a complete rebuild on a 350 Chevy, crank turned, bored, the whole enchilada.
Put it in, it drank oil! Pulled it out, found nothing wrong, new rings, no change. Ended up refunding the money, lost the job, lost the customer.

Overhauled a Continental 4 in a forklift, putting it back together, over tightened the cam gear nut, broke the end off the cam. Best I recall the cam and lifters were about $500, out of my pocket for being stupid.

Then there was the Onan power plant story I've told before. On an old wooden cabin cruiser. Had sat for years, got it running, had the flame arrestor off, unbeknownst to me the fuel pump was filling the crankcase with gas. Suddenly a geyser of gasoline and oil shot straight up, soaked me, the whole back of the boat, dripping down from the hard top! And the generator still running! It was on automatic, every time I choked it to death, it went into start mode! Spark plug wires sparking, relays arcing,absolute miracle from heaven it didn't explode. I was poised and ready to jump, and this was early spring, don't know if I would have survived or could have gotten out if I had jumped.

I finally reached under and started blindly ripping wires (more sparks) until I pulled the run switch wire loose. (The switch was up inside the cabin, I would have had to take my hand off the vent pipe and run inside, a sure death trap had it ignited.)

What a mess! I cleaned for a week, but I was alive, and the marina wasn't burned down! So I was blessed!
 
Destroyed a Fresh Rebuilt 12.7 Detroit when the Cam bolt was not tight enough. Things get broken when the Valves contact the pistons, including blocks.
 
I have many, but the latest was not lubricating the turbo correctly on my F350 when I installed the new one and filled up with oil. So back off with it and installed another one.
 
I was an 18 year old kid working for a case dealer. A lot of packing cylinders and u-joint replacements and they finally gave me a 1070 to replace the brakes on. Got right at it and pulled the duals off then put a strap around the axle and zipped the bolts out and dumped all the fluid in that tractor on the floor. I heard about that until I left that place.
 
I was 15 and did an in frame on my WD , I lined up the timeing marks both straight up .
 
Forgetting about a rag I stuffed into the intake tube, down-stream from the air cleaner and leading straight into the blower on a freshly rebuilt 4-71.

<5 second run time = >3000.oo (1974 dollars).
 
I don't know what I did wrong but I rebuilt the 3 speed in a 52 Chevy. Backing it out of shop made a loud noise and Reverse gear and the bottom of transmission hit the floor. I still had 1,2,3 so I drove that way for two weeks with no bottom in transmission and no oil of course. Took off at a stop light and hear a second loud noise looked in rear view mirror and second gear and the side of transmission case laid on the street. Still had third so I drove it home and put in another transmission. Not good to the last drop but good to the last gear.
 
Not the worst, but could've been. Just last year at my job I did front brakes on one of the managers pick ups. To be thorough, I rotated his tires. He called me a little later and said all kind of lights came on and he was only about a mile away. I ran over there. I had left all the nuts loose on one wheel and the wheel almost fell off. I found two on the road and we limped back so I could put more on. Its one reason I retired...losing my edge and making me worry.
 
In the mid 80's the engine developed a tick.

I replaced the cam, lifters, and timing chain on the 350. The next day I fixed the real reason for the tick. A broken return spring on the fuel pump.

If I would have only used that short piece of garden hose for a stethoscope first ! lol


cvphoto118506.jpg
 
Long ago, as a young machinist mate in the navy. a supervisor had put a lot of work and love into rebuilding a steam driven fire fighting water pump, then told me to do down and bring it on line for the 1st time since the rebuild. I did so and forgot to open the valve providing cooling water to the packing gland, smoked it worse than it was to begin with. We're still friends.
 
I had a 64 Ford Galaxie with a 289/C6 combination. It smoked and used transmission fluid pretty bad. So I proceeded to change the front pump seal on the torque converter to eliminate what I thought was a leaky seal. I was pretty young back then and used all my books and research to figure out what was wrong up to that point.

The engine exhaust still smoked, so I started to tear the thing apart again to do a ring job!

But when I pulled off the pipe that went to the vacuum modulator on the transmission, I noticed that fluid dripped out of it.

It was the diaphragm in the vacuum modulator the whole time. It leaked fluid that proceeded to get into the intake manifold, and get burned in the cylinders. Caused both the smoky exhaust and the fluid loss.

Felt really stupid. On the other hand, not one of the old timers had ever seen it either.
 
(quoted from post at 03:49:33 02/24/22) I dropped a wooden dowel in through a spark plug hole trying to feel for the cylinder. Took me several days to fish it out without pulling the head.
Click to expand...
Mine was a plastic mini blind rod that broke off inside the cylinder trying to find TDC Steve! CM

This post was edited by chuck machinist on 02/24/2022 at 07:16 am.
 
At age 19 the quarry I worked for had me overhaul a V6-53 Detroit diesel. Had no manuals so I installed the sleeves then installed the pistons from the top. Engine smoked like crazy. Pulled it back down and all the oil rings were all broken during installation. Found out you have to install the pistons in the sleeves from the bottom to prevent that. Then drop the assembly in the block. The only overhaul failure I have ever had in 50 years of building engines that was my fault but I did have some others that were not my fault.
 
First motor replacement, I installed a junk yard motor in a friends 68 Grand Prix, being a Chevrolet guy I installed the plug wires in the wrong rotation. When it didn't start we went and got another one. Every motor I bought off the garage floor, as opposed to out of a wreaked car. Every last motor I bought just sitting on a garage floor was a disaster. On the other hand just about all the motors I have got out of a wreaked car have been absolute gems. That's why when I raced, I always did my own final assembly. I swear just about all of the small block Chevrolets you get that someone has worked on will have a rag in the valley area and a 7/16 wrench in the oil pan. Back in the day I was called in to help diagnose problems on engine start up and failure to run correctly usually for SB Chevrolets. The common practice of just twisting the distributor back and forth while cranking the engine will often cause cam failure with high performance flat tappet cams and valve springs. Failure to use actual cam lube didn't help. I know everybody believed that pouring a can of STP down the lifter valley was the way to go, it is not. Nobody appreciated being told they had wiped a cam lobe. That's why if I built someone an engine I always started it. How come nobody ever knew how to static time? I guess you need to start out working on a 46 JD A with a mag.
 
Ha Had a battery bolt in the wire and let go the bolt flipped into the carb air scoop. After a 1/2 hour of looking and arguing with parts to give me a new battery bolt { we don't have any they come with the battery]. After installing a new bolt I went to kickstart The piston came down on the bolt now hanging into the intake port Piston skirt shattered. Boss very angry.
 
Timing chain for an ungrateful friend.

Quit doing repairs for the guy, so could he borrow my timing light for another friend to fix his truck. Sure, no problem I'll be in the area Sundy night and will pick it up then. So, 10p.m. Sunday, stop by and Mr. ungrateful is in a snit. Other guy tore it apart and left. He has to work the next morning and doesn't have a way to get there. Me being the nice guy that I am, I put the thing together, which wasn't an easy feat considering that I hadn't seen how it was put together in the first place and there were missing parts and pieces (bolts). So I had to do a little Jimmy-rigging, had I been at my shop, or any self-respecting shop for that matter, I would have scrounged up the proper bolts instead of cobbling it together. Throw the timing light on it and it's dead on! Plug the vacuum hose on, rev it a little and the advance works just fine. Turn it off then hit the starter without touching gas pedal and it firers right up and purrs. 2 a.m. Monday morning and I done and gone. Never ever even touched the distributer! Probably should have checked to see if it was tightened down.

Going over railroad tracks the next day, the thing sputters to a stop. He calls a garage and has it towed. Told them to go ahead and fix it as his friend isn't the best of mechanics, which is true, but I am not incompetent either! They tell him they had to tear the whole thing apart because the timing gear was installed one tooth off (B#@%*$*#%!!!). Either they're liars or they're not a self-respecting shop...or both. A couple days later I got a chance to look under the hood, not one bolt had been changed, all the dodgy stuff I did was still in place. This particular shop I'm familiar enough with to know what they did. They charged him 280$ realign the distributer and tighten it down. Heck if this guy was so darn smart about automotives then why didn't he diagnose the problem on the side of the road and set it by ear to get home...like I've had to do once or twice.

No good deed...
JD
 
'grabbed a beer and took a big swig, yup, wrong bottle.'

Reminds me of a time pulling an engine, alcohol was involved...

One of the 'helpers' sat his beer on the front bumper, the engine came out
hemorrhaging antifreeze. I saw it go in his beer and told him he better dump
that one.

He didn't listen or care, drank it anyway. Next day he came dragging in about
noon-thirty, sick, hung over. Said he had the worst hangover of his life! I
asked if maybe it had to do with drinking the anti-freeze beer?

Naw... What anti-freeze???
 
(quoted from post at 22:30:20 02/23/22) Whats the worst mistake You ever made mechanicing ?
Click to expand...
Boy, am I glad you narrowed it down to only mechanicing :) Two come to mind. Both many many years ago when I first started.

Put a release bearing for a diaphragm clutch on the carrier backwards. Squealed lik crazy. Obviously had to redo with a new bearing.

Put some BlueDevil Head Gasket Sealer into a freshly rebuilt C123 to stop an external head gasket leak. Didn't work. Tore it completely down again, what a mess

Neither had horrible results, just stupid and a lot of rework
 
V12 Lamborghini engine with six Weber carbs. I was doing a tune up. Had all spark plugs out, and was cleaning the BRASS carb main jets. One fell out of my hand and 'tink!' fell into the #11 plug hole.

Remove the batt so the car wouldn't be cranked, then carefully rotated the engine until I could barely see the jet inside. Used a long piece of solder wire and a tiny dab of glue to fix on the brass jet.

Let it sit for 12 hours so it was glued well. Carefully withdrew solder wire, and just as it cleared the plug hole, the jet fell off the wire, hit a metal brace, and promptly rolled into a floor drain. At least it was out of the cyl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Converted a LP tractor over to gasoline. Made new fuel fittings and plumbed to the carb. One of the old LP relief fittings leaked, and it was directly over the dist. I cranked up the engine, and it was running ok, went to the left side to adjust the carb, and the ign was on the right side.

Saw and heard a very loud WOOOOF! of flames up the right side of the tractor. Shut off ignition, grabbed a hose and luckily got it out in a few mins. Was in a plane hangar with a Beech and Cessna parked 15 feet away.
 
Not me, but a farmer had his hired man overhaul his 2470 Case engine. They got it together, but it would only start
with ether. They got it to our shop (Case Dealer), and I started checking it over while the guy was there.
I casually mentioned I hope they got all the gears in proper time. The farmer said, Oh, yes. We put marks
on all the gears. They had mixed their marks with the factory marks!!
Fortunately, I was able to pull the front cover, align the proper marks and it ran like a top.
They were lucky they didn't take out some of the valves!!
 
I was 16. I had unstuck a John Deere 2130, new bearings and rings.
I was tightening the oil drain plug when my mom called me to answer a phone call.the oil drain plug was loose.


Tractor stall during test driving it. Then I discovered oil on the ground behind me.
I was mad at me, I put oil back in the motor and had someone pull start me.
I had to put the diff lock to avoid wheels marks on the road in 8 gears.

That tractor ran great after that. Never opened again!
 
My biggest mistake was not being willing to take engines apart and attempt a rebuild when I was young. I send out most of the auto / tractor mechanic work.

Vito
 
Did a valve job on my 69 Marquis Convertible in 1976.bolted everything back down with correct torque sequence . i put the distributor back in and it would not hit a lick . And Here we were planning to go to OPREYLAND the next day My b-I-l came over and looked at it , pulled the distributor and spun it 180 degrees , set it back in and she fired right up .. We had a nice time at Opreyland then and the Marquis got 19 mpg down there and back .
 
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