Quick poll: stupidest maintenance mistake?

heh. The original engine in my beetle did the "drop-off in power" thing
soon after I got it, going up a particularly steep hill in Bath after
fetching the papers. Having got back to my digs, investigation revealed
that despite having the engine running the dynamo pulley wasn't turning.

Initial diagnosis of a sheared woodruff key on the pulley turned into
that of a broken crankshaft. The front two cylinders were running but
not the back two. I ran it for a week like that until a neighbour found
me somebody with a rusty beetle who would sell me the engine.

We went to collect it armed with a scissor jack, two real spanners, an
adjustable one and a screwdriver and I unbolted the engine (4 bolts) and
lowered it down balanced on the jack.

The plan was for four of us to then lift the back of the car up and off
the engine, which went well until the strain of the lift caused somebody
to go paaarp, when we dropped it again in fits of giggles.

Putting the engine back in mine was much quicker thanks to the lack of gas.

 

Heh. A friend of mine with no mechanical ability whatsoever,
used to have a knackered old beetle. He'd bring it round to
my (well, my parents) house to work on it.

One day, after some work was done, I was putting on the wheels
and had just hand tightened the wheelnuts when the phone rang.
I said to Guy, "Make sure you do the wheelnuts up", then went
off to answer the call. On my return the hub caps were on and
Guy duly set off to return to Bridgnorth, leaving me to set
about washing my GSX750esd. 5 minutes later Guy re-appeared on
the drive, looking very pale, holding a Beetle wheel in his
shaky mitts.

We still to this day refuse to accept responsibility for
the incident, blaming each other whenever the tale is
recounted.

Definitely his fault.

 

A couple of mine:

1) Spent *hours* under the MGB getting the sump[1] off so that I could
fit new piston rings and big end shells. Put it all back together, the
engine seemed a bit 'tight' but I thought that was all down to the new
rings etc. Put it all back together, refilled with oil, then the engine
wouldn't turn over at all. Locked solid. Eventually I took the sump off
again only to discover that I had mixed up two of the big ends.

2) I was a lot younger for this one. Spent similar hours trying to refit
the front wheel spindle to my BSA A7. The thread just would *not* start
- somehow the forks seemed to splay apart. Began to lose it - tourniqued
the forks together, began hitting spindle with larger and larger hammer
whilst turning at the same time. Gave up. The next day discussing it
with a much older and wiser biking mate. "Is it a left hand thread?" he
says...

[1] probably some of the most inaccessible bolts I have ever had the
pleasure of.

 

Well, if we're gonna talk *cars*

<rolls up sleeves>

There was the time that I was cutting a rotten section out of my old
1100's floor for the umpteenth time, so I'd got a bit casual about it.
As I was angle-grinding along, I started musing that I couldn't
actually remember where the various fluid lines ran. "Better check, I
suppose" I thought.

I was almost halfway through the fuel line when I stopped.