Do You Have Any Embarrassing Repair Mistakes?

[Zebrafive]

I would not have beleived that you could do it but I did. --My dad called and asked me to look at his car not starting. --sure no probelm, I was a trained diesel mechanic at the time. Went over to his house and his 1978 oldsmobile had a dead battery. ---told him i would take it home with me and charge it up and bring it back in the morning. ---must of been a little tired because I hooked up the charger backwards and because the battery was so dead it din't spark or short out. -- Well I charged up the battery and I put it back in the car and it would turn over fine but not start! Had the hei ign system and I checked for a spark and had none. ---Well now I get out a volt meter and start to check things and find that my analog volt meter wants to bottom the meter backwards. --This was 30 years ago,--I remove the battery terminals and check the voltage with the meter hooked up backwards and it dawns on me that the battery is charged up backwards ---- Took the battery back home and hooked up a headlight on it overnight to drain it. Then recharged CORRECTLY! --- Then I loose some sleep thinking of all the things that will be burned out or not work. ----Put the battery back in and it started and ran fine. -- No other problems. --Still seems strange that it turned over but i guess the starter din't care about polarity. --DUMB!

I wonder if it had started, would it be running backwards?????

 

[Ken]

I wonder if it had started, would it be running backwards?????

There is several tractors that used to be positive to ground and when converted to 12 volt and were connected to neg. ground. the old ignition system really didn't care other than the points burned quickly.so coil needed polarity change. The starter bendix would only engage spinning the correct direction or stay disconnected. the new hei. ign. system maybe was reason engine didn't start. The battery plates were getting a shock by the current reversal of being discharged and recharged would think the color of the cell fluid was black charcoal looking.
ken

 

[Ehanson]

How about rebuilding your first V8, getting it back into the truck, oil, water connections, fired initially one rap, then cranked and cranked? After several hours, woke my dad up (it was 1 am), first thing he said - Did you time the cam to the crank?
Yes, the heads came off and eight new intake valves were installed, cam gears lined up, back together.
I kept one of those valves as a keep sake, don't think that will ever happen to me again.

 

[z28clone]

Replaced the garbage disposal and hooked up the dish washer drain line to it. I was impressed that I didnt have to read the directions. Until I noticed the water all over the kitchen floor. The water moistened the tile subfloor and now I have 6 cracked tile. Turns out I forgot to remove the plug that the factory puts on the garbage disposal tube for a dish washer drain line. Shouldve read the directions.......

 

[brain55]

Replaced the garbage disposal and hooked up the dish washer drain line to it. I was impressed that I didnt have to read the directions. Until I noticed the water all over the kitchen floor. The water moistened the tile subfloor and now I have 6 cracked tile. Turns out I forgot to remove the plug that the factory puts on the garbage disposal tube for a dish washer drain line. Shouldve read the directions.......

Hahaha, I've done that too.

 

[bcp]

I replaced about a 15ft section of field fence between two wooden posts, while I was thinking of some other problem at the time. A few weeks later I noticed it was on upside down.

Bruce