Embarassing momments

[RUNNERBUN]

The recent post by Rubatoguy "Is there a trick to getting a head on" to which he admitted to an embarassing obvious oversight on his part got me thinking, how many of us have done something rather embarassing while restoring or servicing our beloved Model A's.
I'll be the first, so here goes:
On completeing a rebuild of my Differential (Rear Axle) I was in the process of assembly and just as I was about to insert the axles and diff centre to the diff halves (trumpets) when my wife called me to lunch. After lunch I went out to finish the job. Without thinking I picked up the axle assembly and turned them around thus placing the crown wheel on the wrong side of the rear axle. The result was of course that I finished up having 1 forward gear and 3 reverse gears. What a shock when I went to drive out of my workshop and nearly drove thru the back wall instead.
Believe me, once you make this mistake you will never do it again.

[jimvette59]

LMAO !!!!! I am happy no one got hurt.

[ora masters]

Originally Posted by RUNNERBUN

The recent post by Rubatoguy "Is there a trick to getting a head on" to which he admitted to an embarring obvious oversight on his part got me thinking, how many of us have done something rather embarassing while restoring or servicing our beloved Model A's.
I'll be the first, so here goes:
On completeing a rebuild of my Differential (Rear Axle) I was in the process of assembly and just as I was about to insert the axles and diff centre to the diff halves (trumpets) when my wife called me to lunch. After lunch I went out to finish the job. Without thinking I picked up the axle assembly and turned them around thus placing the crown wheel on the wrong side of the rear axle. The result was of course that I finished up having 1 forward gear and 3 reverse gears. What a shock when I went to drive out of my workshop and nearly drove thru the back wall instead.
Believe me, once you make this mistake you will never do it again.

i did the same thing allmost got a neck whip lash whe i started to back out of shop i still get ribed about this from my freinds

[WTSHNN]

Timed the engine....forgot to put the pin back into the timing cover, took the truck out for a 30 or 45 minute drive. The oil got everywhere in the engine compartment, out the louvers, onto the fender, running board and rear fender. Took forever to clean.

-Tim

[Big John]

Got in car, turned key but did not let it pop out, of course will not start..... Also forgetting to turn gas valve on....

[Napa Skip]

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“Humility” thy name is “working on an old car.”

I have long believed that those who don’t make mistakes probably aren’t doing anything, or at least anything interesting. In my case, as a registered professional mechanical engineer in two western states (Idaho and California) – which means I’m legally licensed to use a pocket protector and tell bad jokes (we won’t get into log-log-duplex-decitrig slide rule use) – it’s sometimes hard to believe that I’ve made any mistakes while working on Model A’s. However, after much soul-searching (and several pointed reminders from my wife) I do recall a couple of instances – some 33 years apart (which points to a VERY slow learning curve) – that I suppose could be considered “mistakes,” so here goes:

After I had to leave my 1931 standard coupe in storage in San Diego because of a transfer back to Idaho, I found that I missed driving an A more than I thought I would. In February 1977, I found a quasi-assembled basket-case 1930 coupe sitting outside a sheep rancher’s trailer outside Idaho Falls. Ignorance and a healthy does of hubris led me to the classic “hey-how-hard-can-this-be-I’ll-just-tear-it-completely-down-and-rebuild-it” approach. Fast-forward to May 1979. Facing another transfer back to California in three months, I pretty much had everything reworked, replaced, repainted and/or reassembled. Three friends, two six-packs, a couple of 4x4’s and all the spare towels I could lay my hands on proved that in fact you could reinstall a freshly painted coupe body on a shiny frame without too much trouble (until my wife found out about the towels, that is). A couple of more all-nighters and I was ready for a test drive. Starting up the highly polished, fully-assembled (more or less) coupe I carefully backed straight out the garage onto our driveway and thence onto the street. Straightening up the wheels to point the car in the right direction, I was pleasantly surprised at how effortlessly the steering was. I carefully shifted into first, let out the clutch, pressed down on the accelerator and watched – horrified – as the car drove into the curb, despite my frantic efforts to steer the other way. Fortunately, all this took place late at night, so none of the neighbors could see that I had left the bolt securing the pitman arm to the steering sector shaft lying on my workbench.

Earlier this year, our car club got together over several weekends to make a concerted effort to get one of our member’s Model A back on the road. The work list included rectifying a hydraulic brake conversion gone bad and numerous other items, among which was a chewed up and virtually useless crankshaft (ratchet) nut, so badly mangled that the engine could not be turned by hand using the lug/crank starting wrench. Lacking any experience in hydraulic brake conversion repairs (and being an engineer, which does not garner the respect I expected from the other – all much older and experienced – club members) I was relegated to replacing the crank nut. On the workbench, as evidence of much preparation and forethought – were three brand new and two very serviceable used crank nuts, along with an array of the proper tools. To aid things, the radiator had earlier been removed, so I envisioned a relatively straightforward swap-out-the-nut-and-get-on-with-it task. Taking the lead (did I mention I’m a mechanical engineer?) I removed the chewed up crank nut, handed it to someone, and – noticing a large chunk missing from the two-piece crank pulley – set about replacing that. Having done so, and being bent over the front of the engine, I called for the crank nut which I thereupon reinstalled. We had just enough time to reinstall the fan belt, radiator, hoses and support rods before lunch. After lunch, we reassembled in the shop, whereupon someone commented that “Hey, I thought we replaced the chewed up crank nut!”

Sure enough, would you believe it? During lunch, someone had snuck back into the shop, drained and removed the radiator, taken off the hoses and support rods, and replaced the new crank nut with the old chewed up one!

Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it, despite continued, repeated (and increasingly embellished) ribbing by the other club members. And I keep the chewed-up crank nut, now mounted on a walnut plaque, on my workbench as a reminder…

[msmaron]

Called everyone to help me get started....THEN realized i forgot to turn on the fuel!

[gweilbaker]

Hmmm- if a tree falls and no one hears it does it make a sound? Physically, yes and psychologically no.

I ain't telling anybody about the time I changed a clutch and after putting away all the tools, stands and jacks I find the throw-out bearing still in the box on the bench.

GRRRRrrrr.

[MikeK]

OK, Runnerbun. You just had to start this thread. Read it this morning, had a little chuckle. Then I went out to the garage. Ever blow a 300 Amp fuse? I just did. Irreplaceable blue, bakelite smelling electric smoke escaped, never to be recovered! I have two A's in the garage, and I wanted to check up on the one I'm taking to the Illinois Region garage tour this saturday. I wheeled my big 300A boost 60A charge 6/12V machine with heavy #4 cables up between them. I guess I had a brain freeze. (senior moment??) Well, one car is 6+, the other 12-. I think you can figure what I did. Correct ground polarity, wrong car, or was it the other way? Yep, flipped the switch and the charger went WHAM, melting and spattering a heavy internal fusible link. The A is fine. I'm still picking melted fuse link particles out of the charger.

[Doug in NJ]

Originally Posted by WTSHNN

Timed the engine....forgot to put the pin back into the timing cover, took the truck out for a 30 or 45 minute drive. The oil got everywhere in the engine compartment, out the louvers, onto the fender, running board and rear fender. Took forever to clean.

-Tim

You're not the only one to do that!

Doug

[Greg Jones]

Hmmm, so far the dumbest thing was when I was tuning up my Model A watching the engine purr, when lo and behold I saw the nut was loose on the top of the spark plug. Without so much as a nanosecond's thought, I reached over and grabbed it to tighten it. Let's just say my ignition system was certainly cranking juice...

[Napa Skip]

It's really hard - when firmly connected to the spark plug on a running Model A, even at idle - to yell out (between the 20,000-volt jolts) anything intelligible (such as "Turn the f#$%ing thing off!!").

Or so I hear...

[jojofilo88]

Originally Posted by Greg Jones

Hmmm, so far the dumbest thing was when I was tuning up my Model A watching the engine purr, when lo and behold I saw the nut was loose on the top of the spark plug. Without so much as a nanosecond's thought, I reached over and grabbed it to tighten it. Let's just say my ignition system was certainly cranking juice...

I've done the same with a snowblower in high school! Learned not to do that again pretty quick! haha

I went to take out my A this weekend and she wouldn't turn over. I said no problem, I'll roll it out of the garage and down the hill and roll start it, as I've done many times before. I pushed her down the hill and she wanted to catch but just wouldn't. Brought the Explorer down and towed her up again, thinking it was me that was the problem, and maybe one more roll start would do it. Had my mom steer the A while I towed it and got to the top of the hill. Same thing happened on roll #2. I thought, I've never had to tow it up once before, let alone twice! What's going on!! By that time, my cousin came down to see why I was driving up and down the hill. He jumped in the Explorer, and I steered the A back up. Confused, I rechecked everything on the way up the hill and found I forgot to turn the gas on!!

[RUNNERBUN]

Isn't it amazing, when we do these silly things how angry, annoyed, frustrating and embarassing it could be. Time heals all wounds and when we look back it all seems so hilarious.
I'm enjoying the chuckles.

[Chris H]

I have found that my Model A will make it just to the end of my drive way before it quits, with the gas valve turned off! No one around to see it but me, thank goodness.

[Dick Deegan]

Wondered why the passenger side brake on the front vibrated a little. Checked and found that I had not tightened up the backing plate nuts and inserted cotter pins - about a year earlier!! DAHH

Dick

[Richard Wilson]

Originally Posted by Greg Jones

Hmmm, so far the dumbest thing was when I was tuning up my Model A watching the engine purr, when lo and behold I saw the nut was loose on the top of the spark plug. Without so much as a nanosecond's thought, I reached over and grabbed it to tighten it. Let's just say my ignition system was certainly cranking juice...

I know an old man that will grab a spark plug connector while the engine is running just for fun. He says the secret is to not hesitate and to grab it firmly and hang on. That way he does not get the shock that the rest of us get when we accidently bump a connector on a running engine. The worst or funniest (depending on where you are standing) is when he grabs a connector and then touches someone with the other hand.

[[email protected]]

Some of the "old guys" would also put their hands across all four plugs at the same time on a idling engine to shut it off. Their hands would short out the plugs killing the engine. Remember this was normally done back in the days before pace makers...

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by WTSHNN

Timed the engine....forgot to put the pin back into the timing cover, took the truck out for a 30 or 45 minute drive. The oil got everywhere in the engine compartment, out the louvers, onto the fender, running board and rear fender. Took forever to clean.

-Tim

I've done that twice, so now as soon as I find the dimple in the cam gear I remove the hand crank and reinstall the timing pin.

[1928Pickuppain]

The bigest opsy i did was when i had the body off my frame doing the restor, i needed to rebuilt the stering box. I had one good box with bad threads one bad box with good threads so i cut the threads off and tack welded them to the new shaft (nuthing big just for a short time so i could roll the chasse around the yard). Well fast forward 3 months and i had forgoten that i had tacked the shaft like that. I drove out to east boston to get a 2 ton press in her. On the way home about 3 streets away from my garage theres a really shap corner as im taking this corner at about 25MPH with my buddie steve in the pasenger seat and my buddy ron trailing us the stearing wheel snaps off in my had and we proced to travel though the corner though the intersection and into some old mans lawn. Meen while as were going though the intersection my first instinct was to pass the wheel to steve as if to say i give up your turn!! now at the same time my mother happened to be at the intersection and saw this whole thing unfold. So steve my mother my buddie ron and the old man all got to see this very very hysterical happening and i have never lived it down sence. lol