Well i just thought i would share a recent... what was i thinking moment. Well as some of you may know in the pacific northwest... its been lets say cold... lately temps between 8-20 degree's at night and maybe 35 for a high during the days. I knew i needed to go check on my car to make sure the water hasnt frozen in the radiator. low and behold frozen solid. :punchballs: I did get it thawed out enough to drain the motor now im working on getting radiator thawed so i can put in coolant. does not seem to have cracked the motor or popped freeze plugs. so far so good.
Just thought i would share my stupid moment
Ughhhh my God....let's see. Last evening was a culmination of several stupid "moments". But the main thing is that I attempted to start and move my crown vic once in the street, so that it was over the storm drain so I could flush out the AWFULLY contaminated cooling system. I did this after I took the radiator out. So it didnt go into gear, aaaaaand about 5 quarts of ATF sprayed through the grille, got all over the bumper and of course made a nice puddle in the road. I wish my dad were still alive so he could have smacked me the hell upside the head for that one.
The life lessons though....switch your nice car and winter ride BEFORE it gets below freezing, and just because the thing runs mint doesnt mean the owner knows ANYTHING and the oil and coolant are not necessarily uh.....good! (really!??) Might wanna CHECK these things while looking at the car ya know, instead of discovering them 2 weeks after the sale. And then flushing the system and a year later having to do so AGAIN because there was just that neglected lol.
Aftermarket Transmission Cooler FTW! I recently pulled my radiator and while it was out I needed to move it, so it worked great for me.
Seriously though, I'm sorry you learned that lesson, it's very messy.
One of my favorites is when I was going to show my son the proper way to unload a Turbo Coupe from the trailer. I backed the truck up, positioned the trailer where it needed to be, made sure everything in the area was safe, blocked the trailer tires, jacked the front of the trailer up a little bit to give a good unload angle with more clearance, made sure the shop was all clear behind, disconnected the tiedown straps, got in the TC and asked him watch underneath and behind while I coasted it off. I was just ready to push the clutch in and he said, "Um, dad? Aren't you going to put the ramps down first?" DOH!!
See..I neglected to mention, the cougar HAS this! Because of the non lock TC and the degree to which I beat on it, and it being the summer car. So when I do THAT radiator this is taken care of for me. But not now. This I forgot. :hick:
You flush your cooling system into a storm drain?
Shiny Side Up!
Bill
Ah, stupid moments.... there have been so many in my life.
There was the time I installed a new oil pump in my 1961 Impala. This procedure necessitates pulling the engine, which I did, and duly reinstalled it after replacing the pump. I was tightening the alternator belt when I realized that the oil pump drive-shaft was sitting on my workbench. Ever pull and reinstall the same engine twice in the same day?
Then there was the time I shimmed a Big Block Chevy oil pump with a core-plug. At idle, everything was fine, hit the gas and the oil pressure would spike somewhere around "what-the-hell?" causing the oil filter to literally be blown off of its mount. Note to self: when shimming the relief valve on an oil pump, there must be a hole for the oil to flow through. Oh, I got to pull that engine again too.
Shiny Side Up!
Bill
that what I was thinking to... doing THAT would be your "stupid" moment.... I REALLY hope you arent actually doing that?:mad:
I don't know if this qualifies as a stupid moment but....
I was changing the power steering pump on my ranger. Got the new pump and it came with a pully installation tool. The problem was that there was no removal tool.
I run back to the parts store and found out that the tool was $27. The pulley was $8.
I bought the pulley and since is was some sort of plastic I hammered off the old pulley (smashed) to remove the pump from the bracket. When I turned in the core with the broken pulley the guys at the store weren't surprised at all. Apparently it's been done before.
The installation of the new pump and pulley went smoothly.:D
I drain the thing into a container first, so no, I'm not sending gallons of glycol into the storm drain, just water and, the junk that's now getting flushed out.
One of the dumbest things I've done was put the front of my car on ramps and jacked up the rear to try and set the pinion angle.
Having the front and rear jacked up in itself was not very safe but when I dropped the rear of the car down with my floor jack, I forgot it was in neutral. The car started rolling off the ramps (not sure how this happened since the front tires go down into the ramps to prevent this sort of thing). I jumped out of the way in the last second narrowly avoiding getting crunched but my T-bird rolled into the garage door. I was sick with fear and in the fact that I had a baseball sized dent in my 1/4 panel. At least it was before the paint job!
This pretty much says it all for me.
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=17304 (http://"http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=17304")
Lets see, 18 years old and I get my first car, 88 Tbird turbo coupe. Lets do an oil change... okay now lets forget that oil filter has probably been on than engine for years. The gasket stays on after you pull it off the engine. New filter goes on with the old gasket still there.
Lets just say it was an oil "flush" and not a change.
Valve cover bolt. Torque wrench in ft/lbs. Book in in/lbs. Enough said.
Just Wednesday....at work...snowstorm. Trying desparately to remove ice on windshield of wifes car I took to work. The blade on my ser was as flat as the edge on a hardcover book cover (I later discovered). A lady half my size and half my age next to me came over with her ser and in a few strokes had removed half the ice on one side of my car, without effort--! I was so embarassed I left the lot (in the dark) and drove 4 miles home without headlights in moderate city traffic---in the midst of a snowstorm. It didnt help that I was unfamiliar with the car----pulled into our driveway and noticed no lighting in front of the car. That's probably why I couldn't see the dash controls on the way home. Man, I am getting old..... I do not recall ever driving a car any notable distance at night without headlights and/or not discovering that --shortly after departing somewhere. :punchballs:
here's one for the books.
I once drove from Buffalo to Daytona Beach only to find out, I had left the socket set and ratchet on the fan cover the night before the trip. I wouldn't had known I left them there, but I decided to check the oil while getting gas. I already had driven about 1000 miles with them exactly where I set them the night before. lol
....in 2000 drove from Chicago area to Arkansas in T-bird. One of the last big trips with the '88 T-bird. Along the interstate 1 hour into the trip noted 2 starlings swoop down in front of the car as I'm doing 65. Noticed only one fly off. Days later in Arkansas noticed a putrid odor coming from the car--couldn't understand it. Didn't run over any dogshiznit. Once home a week later, discovered that one of the birds somehow got under the wind dam and ended up under and inside the area below the grille--laying dead and completely intact there. I wonder what his bird buddy thought? Where the hell did Charley go??!!!! Don't know if this is stupid, but I certainly felt that way about 500 miles after first smelling this. No damage to the car--weird! The dead starling got a send off free 1,000 mile free trip... :burnout:
Over torqued the transmission pan bolts on my Nissan, luckily I sold the car 5 days later lol. My list will grow, I'm sure I'll do dumber things.
Harhar. I was changing the wiper blades just before the rainshiznit this year, and it was dark, and getting cold, so I changed the DS and said ok fine I'll do the PS as well, get them changed, and dispose of the old DS one.....Anyone notice the problem. Next week I drive back to my buddie's place, and his girl says, "Oh by the way, you have three windshield wipers" ....
I apparently set the old blade on the cowl about two thirds under the hood, and it just stayed there for 2-300 miles. I've done the same with tools though, that cowl holds things real nice.
When I was 19 I had a '87 Mustang GT conv. Well, one nasty winter night A couple friends and I were driving around and decide to put the top and windows down in 10 degree weather to see how far we could drive on the highway. :crazy: We drove all over for about an hour before having to quit because the tops of our heads were blocks of frozen flesh, go figure.
Well, as the top gets about half way up, the frame breaks in two spots and falls back down! Not only was I totally frostbitten it seemed, I HAD to drive back with the top down now. Oh, talk about being cold! The heater on full blast was futile and even when I got home finally I don't think I have ever shivered so bad in life. As far as the car, I ended up spending $850 for a new frame and canvas.
STUPID. lol
Can we talk about what the "significant other" has done now?:giggle:
i think significant other is fair game :-p
Your are still flushing Glycol down the drain dumbass. if I ever seen you do that I would kick you in the bag...:beatyoass::punchballs::toilet: Do you think that is how garages do rad flushes?....
LOL I had that happen once when I was swapping my 3.8L for a 5.0L I just got done removing the driveshaft and unbolting everything and dropped the back down and forgot to have a block there to prevent it. I litterally held the car and yelled for the wife in the house to help me. she came out and threw a brick behind the tire.
once when I was working on my old '85 cougar I couldnt get the bolts out of the rear lower control arms so I was trying to cut the arms out.... well I put a slit in the underneath of the front bushing with an angle grinder and a cut off wheel, and decided to try and pry it open with a big pry bar... The way I was laying I was thinking to myself... If this slips it is going to hit me in the face... sure enough, at that moment, it happens and hits me right in the eye brow directly above the eye... When I recoverd from the daze I crawled out from under the car pouring blood all over the place. I was home alone and had to call my dad to come and take me to the hospital for stitches....
i dont really have any interesting stupid moments. oh i know one..
i was up in Salisbury NC, im pretty sure that when i found this site. well i needed something from walmart and it was pretty much just 2 streets i had to take to get there. theres a college riight there. well im in a 35, going 75, and i see 2 cops sitting facing window to window talking. i jumped on the brakes (he said he saw the front end dump, worn out OE struts!!) but here's where it gets stupid. instead of admitting defeat and pulling over, i stomped onto it, rolled through the intersection taking my left, punch it again, take a right to the street my apt was on and punched it.. i parked and i got out of the car as soon as the door closed they caught up with me. i got ticketed of course, im just surprised they didnt get me for felony evading... i was a step ahead of them, they saw me at the corners but only for a split second.. thats enough i would think for evading -facepalm-
depends on the garage :toilet: