What automotive mistakes you have made and are willing to admit to

[gjmontll]

I'll write this up as sort of a puzzle, see if anyone has the answer.
Background: I had a 1967 Opel Kadett, with a 1.1L engine, dual carb "Rallye" model.
I had made a minor, temporary repair for what I thought was a minor, cosmetic issue.
Within a week, I found that I was having to add a quart of motor oil every few days, yet my exhaust was not smoking or oily. And the driver's side of the engine block was covered with oil, but it was not coming from the valve cover, nor from the front seals.
Q1: where was the oil coming from?
Q2: what had I done to cause the problem
Q3: why did it take two of us to find the problem?

I'll follow up on this in a day or two...
Greg

 

[Aukai]

Trying to get oil pressure in a rebuilt BBC???? forgot to put in the oil pump shaft

 

[Aukai]

Lucky I knew better than to keep cranking, getting distracted is not good.

 

[pontiac428]

I'll write this up as sort of a puzzle, see if anyone has the answer.
Background: I had a 1967 Opel Kadett, with a 1.1L engine, dual carb "Rallye" model.
I had made a minor, temporary repair for what I thought was a minor, cosmetic issue.
Within a week, I found that I was having to add a quart of motor oil every few days, yet my exhaust was not smoking or oily. And the driver's side of the engine block was covered with oil, but it was not coming from the valve cover, nor from the front seals.
Q1: where was the oil coming from?
Q2: what had I done to cause the problem
Q3: why did it take two of us to find the problem?

I'll follow up on this in a day or two...
Greg

It probably wasn't deleting the valve cover breather, because the valve cover gasket was not the source. The oil fill cap is cosmetic and maybe the gasket was missing? The dipstick tube and oil filter are also on the left. Back to the breather idea, the crankcase pressure could blow the dipstick out of its seat, making a mess. Hmmm.

 

[alloy]

Acouple things I’ve learned from the many of clutches Ive done. New build which it sounds like your doing is centering bellhousing to pilot. Check length of input length on trans. And doNot use trans mounting bolts to seat to bellhousing. Can you spin the output shaft on trans if in neutral should free spin.

I used a machinists rule and my caliper and I measured everything, but apparently my math was off.

I was ahead of you when you posted about the trans spinning freely. Was out pulling the drive shaft and put an old yoke in the back of the trans. I could spin it, but it took more force to spin than I felt it should. So pulled the exhaust and cross member and loosened the transmission to bell housing bolts. The trans slide back by itself just a little over 1/8" and there is much less drag turning the output shaft. So that tells the story. My extended pilot bushing/bearing it too long. And I was so proud of it when made it. I got an extended bushing and it was magnetic, wasn't going to use it. Couldn't find one that said it was made from oilite and I'm tired of waiting for parts to come in. I had a new GM roller bearing pilot so I bored out the extended magnetic bushing and put the roller in it. Came out perfectly. I had less that .004 runout on the bore and OD of the bushing.

I'm not sure if any of you have done a clutch on a LS engine. The release bearing is spring loaded and rides on the clutch fingers all the time. I'm old skool and have put many transmissions in and you always wiggle it push it, cuss at in until it's flush with the bell housing. NEVER use the bolts to pull it in. You can't do that with the LS, you have to use the bolts to pull it in. I can't believe someone designed it like this.

So will try to pull the trans tomorrow. Back to the drawing board. But I have a good idea what it wrong. The loose nut (old fool) that's working on it. I hope I didn't mess up the roller bearing and can reuse it.

Oh geez, I just realized this is another admission of doing something dumb

 

[den-den]

Not completely automotive. Many years ago I rebuilt an Olds 455 that was used as an irrigation engine. First V8 I had worked on, I was used to working on chevy 6 cylinder engines. The rotor turns the opposite direction from the engines (not many) I had done before. Timed it perfectly on cylinder # 1 but went the wrong way around the distributor. It took way too long to figure out what was wrong.

 

[alloy]

Not completely automotive. Many years ago I rebuilt an Olds 455 that was used as an irrigation engine. First V8 I had worked on, I was used to working on chevy 6 cylinder engines. The rotor turns the opposite direction from the engines (not many) I had done before. Timed it perfectly on cylinder # 1 but went the wrong way around the distributor. It took way too long to figure out what was wrong.

I like to watch the car builder shows and with all their experience and building 6 figure cars they almost always time the engine 180 out and wonder why it pops and spits back at you. Didn't someone there know about sticking your finger over the #1 spark plug hole to see when it's on a compression stroke?

Hmmm..........thinking about it I wonder if they do that on purpose for the cameras? It sure makes them look incompetent I think.

 

[pdentrem]

Was installing a hopped up V6 for my buddy’s Cherokee. The balancer has 3 slots and we timed it on the wrong one! Called a fellow mechanic for help and it still took both of us an hour to figure it out!
Pierre

 

[epanzella]

My first car, a red 57 chevy ragtop blew the clutch. I didn't know much but I knew the clutch had to be some where between the motor and the tranny. I pulled the bottom of the two piece bell housing and there was the clutch and pressure plate. Hey, that wasn't so tuff! I took all the bolts out of the pressure plate and it dropped down about an inch. I could shake it, turn it, lift it, but I couldn't remove it nor could I see what was hanging it up. I finally decided that if I removed the tranny I could look in the hole in the end of the bell housing and see what the hang up was. You guys are probably laughing already. When I pulled the transmission out of the bell housing and was barely able to support it with both hands, the pressure plate abruptly fell right into my face. I was cut pretty bad but I was able to turn my head a bit before my skull got busted in. Yeah, the transmission input shaft was the thing that was hanging up the pressure plate.

 

[extropic]

My first car, a red 57 chevy ragtop blew the clutch. I didn't know much but I knew the clutch had to be some where between the motor and the tranny. I pulled the bottom of the two piece bell housing and there was the clutch and pressure plate. Hey, that wasn't so tuff! I took all the bolts out of the pressure plate and it dropped down about an inch. I could shake it, turn it, lift it, but I couldn't remove it nor could I see what was hanging it up. I finally decided that if I removed the tranny I could look in the hole in the end of the bell housing and see what the hang up was. You guys are probably laughing already. When I pulled the transmission out of the bell housing and was barely able to support it with both hands, the pressure plate abruptly fell right into my face. I was cut pretty bad but I was able to turn my head a bit before my skull got busted in. Yeah, the transmission input shaft was the thing that was hanging up the pressure plate.

LOL. The situation wouldn't have been better if you had been the other way around. Ouch!