So, I was installing a new distributor in one of my cars yesterday. Makes me feel better to roll the motor over to TDC, just in case something happens, I know where the motor is at. I stab the distributor in and turn it over. I hear a small noise but, nothing too concerning. I get out and put a little more advance in it and fire it up. Let it run for about 20 seconds, get out of the car and put a timing light on it to check quickly while letting it warm up. I look down and notice that my fan and clutch isn't turning, so; I quickly shut the car off.
Oh, gosh, I forgot to take the half inch ratchet and socket off the crank bolt before firing the car. The ratchet was stuck between two of my fan blades. I reach down and there is no bolt head where the crank bolt goes. At first, I'm thinking something snapped; I hope I didn't booger the crank up. I get down on the floor and find that the crank bolt simply backed out and is still in the socket, which is laying on the k member. No threads are messed up and there are no marks on any of the tools or really anything on the car. One fan blade is slightly bent and that's it. That could have been really bad.
Put the crank bolt back in, set the timing, and took the car out for a long drive; all is good.
This made me think, there has to be some good stories out there of bone headed moves.
I have a few more I can think of, when I worked for some shops. Guy lets original paint mid 80's Mustang down off the jack with the door open, and jack stand right under the door. It crunched the door pretty good. Another guy had a trunk lid open, when closing it, he forgot to remove the butane torch from the trunk gutter and the back window shattered. Prep guy in the paint shop backs a freshly painted van out of the building and backs into another freshly painted car. Guy reinstalling under hood mat on freshly painted, brand new hood; clips are too long and put out-ee dents in the hood.
Anyone care to share some of their not so bright moments or those of others you know?
Back in the 80's, a buddy and I towed over to Tri State in Ohio with my 340 Dart. First pass, it blew a head gasket. He starts tearing it down while I go into town looking for a head gasket. Luckily, I find the same one I was using. As we're getting it back together, a spark plug gets broken. My truck had a 360, so I just robbed one from it. Everything was going well until it wasn't. A piece of ring gear came off the converter and among the damaged items was the battery cable at the starter. We were dead on the track. They said they didn't have anything to get it off the track, so I had to go back and get my truck and trailer. I just set the ramps up on my open trailer, put everything that was on the fender ( from the gasket job) on the ground and hopped in the truck. When it starts, I hear pop, pop, pop,. SOB. That one spark plug is in the car. Now I'm looking through all the stuff I put on the ground for the broken spark plug so I can at least have something in the hole. I go get the car, and as we're heading back to the pit spot, we see the car is now smoking. We stop and jump out and can smell it's an electrical problem. I'd put the battery in the trunk, but no disconnect. I don't know if it was required then, but I didn't have one, yet. It had a stud top battery in it and I'd done a great job of making the cables. I needed a 9/16 wrench, but it's all back at the pits. It's starting to smoke pretty good and I'm trying to tear the cable off the battery. I finally get it and we get back to our spot. The ring gear had not only severed the battery cable, but stuck into the frame rail creating a really good dead short. Oh, the good old days.
