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[minifreek]

Not me but a lad round the corner from me, took in a part exchange of a Vectra B (X20XEV) with a blown head gasket.... changed head gasket, replaced cambelt etc.... cranked over the engine on starter.... daft bastard had left the cams locked off with the locking tools, stripped the starter motor and a couple of teeth off the starter ring, along with ruining the new cambelt... he scrapped the car...

[grifter]

Remember when I was about 16 I had got an old monza to work on and practice my welding (good choice) with the added delusion that I would fix the rotten inner wings, get it on the road and afford the insurance at 17. So there I was smart ass, took the front subframe off by jacking the engine and box up then removing the subby, can't remember exactly how I wangled that but I done it.

So engine and box are sitting under nothing more than a jack, and a confidently placed fence post to steady it. Lying under the drivers door I remember looking up and seeing the engine taking a sideways burton towards the inner wing. The only thing that went through my head (apart from the whole body shell nearly!) was that the engine was going to knock the car right off the stands and I'd be canned carrots. It didn't, luckily the jack started sliding sideways and the engine fell flat on the ground. Granted those straight 6s are one heavy bit of kit and should it have hit the inner wing I'm sure it would have popped the car off the stands.

Other near horror story. Working as apprentice and one of the jobs was a rover 820 the guy wanted changed from auto to manual. So started all the stripping, got the box out and was placing a big drip tray under the engine as we were going to drain coolant. Thing is, the torque convertor was still sitting on the flywheel, as I was kneeling down to place the tray, the TC dropped like a brick right towards my nut, luckily the journeyman was standing right next to me and he managed to push it off it's intended course of splitting my skull wide open! It landed with one almighty bang right next to me.

[STEMO]

Seen thst a few times, not by me luckily

You don't get the brown trouser moment on the motorway straight away. It's when you pull over to see what that funny noise is, and the realisation hits, that you fill your keks.

[STEMO]

Remember when I was about 16 I had got an old monza to work on and practice my welding (good choice) with the added delusion that I would fix the rotten inner wings, get it on the road and afford the insurance at 17. So there I was smart ass, took the front subframe off by jacking the engine and box up then removing the subby, can't remember exactly how I wangled that but I done it.

So engine and box are sitting under nothing more than a jack. Lying under the drivers door I remember looking up and seeing the engine taking a sideways burton towards the inner wing. The only thing that went through my head (apart from the whole body shell nearly!) was that the engine was going to knock the car right off the stands and I'd be canned carrots. It didn', luckily the jack started sliding sideways and the engine fell flat on the ground. Granted those straight 6s are one heavy bit of kit.

Some of the things I did when I was younger put the shits right up me now. I tend to think of them just as I'm drifting off to sleep on a night. Cue a restless hour or so.

[Varche]

I remember a bank holiday in the late 70,s. I had bought and rebuilt my first straight cutgearbox for one of my Mini Cooper S,s. Mated it up to the engine droped it in went for a test drive. Bearing noise. Bugger, must have built it wrong. Took it out, split it , back in pieces. Couldnt see anything wrong back in car . Still there. Then i thought, i wonder if it is a wheel bearing. Doh.

[Webby the Bear]

I remember a bank holiday in the late 70,s. I had bought and rebuilt my first straight cutgearbox for one of my Mini Cooper S,s. Mated it up to the engine droped it in went for a test drive. Bearing noise. Bugger, must have built it wrong. Took it out, split it , back in pieces. Couldnt see anything wrong back in car . Still there. Then i thought, i wonder if it is a wheel bearing. Doh.

 

[Sir Tigger KC]

I think we've all forgotten to tighten our wheel bolts. Haven't we? Yes? 

Me and a mate took a Merc 1617 truck for a test drive after an engine rebuild. After a few miles he said the handling was all over the place! We pulled over to have a lookysee, and found all the front wheelnuts hanging off on the last thread! 

We didn't have any tools, but found a pair of mole grips under a seat. So we did them up as best we could and limped home stopping every mile or so to 'retighten'! 

[aaronjb]

Neither of these are really 'bad' because nobody got hurt, but:

Several of us are in the process of turbocharging one friends MR2 Roadster and we're fitting the additional radiator at the front of the car for the chargecooler, drilling through the upper crossmember for a fixing point, directly in front of the a/c condenser.

The drill pops through and Stu says "I hope I didn't hit the condenser"
"No," says I, "it'd be going pssshhhhh if you had"
"Good point," says Stu, as he drills the second hole..
psssshhhhhhhhhhhh
"Like that," I quipped.

I think we went inside for alcohol and food at that point!


The other one:

Coming back from a track day at Donnington Park in the M3 having completely cooked the brakes on track.  They've pretty much recovered, as has my underwear after hurtling toward the penultimate hairpin (GP circuit so Melbourne corner) and finding I have bugger all braking, so everything is good.

About half way home (to Bracknell) the car starts making that familiar "wwop wwop wwop" noise of a rear wheel bearing.

Bugger, I thought to myself, that's all I need! More expensive repairs.

Get home and thought .. I never did check the wheel bolts after I'd been on track.

Got the wheel brace out and .. all the rear bolts were finger tight and well on their way out 

[Kevin Wood]

I remember a bank holiday in the late 70,s. I had bought and rebuilt my first straight cutgearbox for one of my Mini Cooper S,s. Mated it up to the engine droped it in went for a test drive. Bearing noise. Bugger, must have built it wrong. Took it out, split it , back in pieces. Couldnt see anything wrong back in car . Still there. Then i thought, i wonder if it is a wheel bearing. Doh.

I'm impressed that you could hear a wheel bearing over the straight cut gearbox!

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

A few weeks before my first child was born (so September 82) I fired up the Chevette HS to take swmbo to her final ante natal class.
Problem was the oil light stayed on, which caused blind panic. Ante natal class immediately cancelled, which went down well, and thoughts turned to engine removal, strip down and rebuild.
I had never done this to any engine before, and didn't really have anywhere to do it, but when your young, minor details like this don't stop you.
I had a 6x6 garden shed with no door or glass in the window, so I decided that would do just fine.
Pulled the engine out and completely dismantled it and then began to try and find out how to rebuild it. Started ordering parts from the local Vauxhall dealer, who always ordered in parts for a single cam engine, so they were usually the wrong parts.
Meanwhile, daughter was born, so I had to get the bus to and from hospital, and she was brought home in the father in laws Capri.
My first borns first car journey was in a Ford. This would scar me forever ! And if my Dad found out, he would never forgive me.
 I never found out why the oil light came on, but it had new big end and main bearings, a new oil pump and god knows what else. Nowadays I would probably replace the oil pump first, as it was a 10 minute job, before stripping the engine down.
Eventually the engine was reinstalled and it fired up and ran fine, but there was a slight leak from the rad. This was a few days before Christmas and swmbo was desperate to get some Christmas shopping in, so I took plenty of coolant to top up and took her shopping. On the way back, about 5 miles from home, the temp gauge started to rise so I puled over to top up the coolant.
I wasn't going to risk warping the alloy 16v head, as a new one was over £1000, which  was easily a couple of months wages at the time.
I made the fateful decision not to switch the engine off in case it wouldn't start again, and instead wrapped a cloth around my hand and gently eased the cap off the rad. The cap shot upwards, hit the bonnet, fell back down, jammed itself between the cam pulleys and cut through the cambelt.
It was left at the side of the road over Christmas - didn't give a toss if someone nicked it - and  towed back home after the holiday.
The outcome wasn't that bad. Two slightly bent inlet valves had to be replaced as well as the cambelt and various gaskets, so another few weeks dealing with VX parts dept. retards. Some things never change.
I learnt a hell of a lot (mostly the hard way) during this experience, but as I'm sure you can imagine, the car was most definitely on borrowed time after all this aggro at the worst possible time. 

[STEMO]

I feel sorry for your wife,  never mind the bleedin car. 

[Webby the Bear]

Albs, that's one of the most unlucky stories I've ever heard 

[STEMO]

Albs, that's one of the most unlucky stories I've ever heard 

The part about the rad cap is quite funny though. 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

It is now. It wasn't at the time. Swmbo hated that car before that happened, but it become utterly unbridled hate after it. 

[EMD]

Capri gearbox removal trapped my fingers while underneath the car , then the jack slipped  .. managed to free myself and lucky i put a wheel under the car just in case .. have used axle stands ever since instead of engineering bricks 
Back wheel came of my Cortina and overtook me down the hill