Share Your Bonehead Moves
- Thread starter NevadaMike
- Start date
I had a house with a 3 car garage. The third car had a single door that didn't have an opener. Since there wasn't an opener to hold it closed, I used the bolt that interlocks in the rail to lock the door. I didn't use a padlock or anything on it, just slid the bar over into the slot in the rail.
My wife got me an opener for Christmas. I installed it. I then pushed the button to test it...without unlocking the door. Fortunately the screws pulled out and left the bracket at approximately the speed of sound before anything expensive deformed.
My wife got me an opener for Christmas. I installed it. I then pushed the button to test it...without unlocking the door. Fortunately the screws pulled out and left the bracket at approximately the speed of sound before anything expensive deformed.
Within the first month of me finally getting ahold of my second TJ my wallet was found on the road twice. Once by a neighbor and the next time by my sister walking her dog. Not sure if I was on the fender front or rear bumper but thankfully it hasn't happened again in a while.
B00mb00m
The Church of Cutting Brakes of Atlas-Front Digs
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Hah yep been there too. I went through two different locking lug nut keys before I said fuck em and went standard lug nuts.
I drove my TJ for 6 months without torquing down the 4 nuts that hold the transmission mount and skid plate together. Since they're locknuts, they held on, but they weren't remotely tight and at least a couple weren't even making contact with the skid.
AidenC
TJ Enthusiast
I flipped the door handles in my tj and in doing so you have to bend the linkage arms inside the door to make it work like a YJ. For some reason at the moment I didn’t realize you could take those linkage arms out that easily and I just decided to use mapp gas inside the door to heat up the metal and bend it to the shape I needed it.
Anyways mapp gas is really hot and the hot metal being so close to the door panel made the paint chip off on my driver door and there is about a half dollar sized piece of missing paint to this day on it.
Anyways mapp gas is really hot and the hot metal being so close to the door panel made the paint chip off on my driver door and there is about a half dollar sized piece of missing paint to this day on it.
Lastest boneheaded move..... Destroyed a new ratchet and added 1 day to a simple mml project.
I was backing out the passenger motor mount bracket bolt, so i could gain better access to the mml nut.
I inserted the ratchet and socket into an opening and started to back out the bolt.
I KNEW it was too tight... that the ratchet + socket + bolt was longer than the opening... and I would hit the frame/mount. I kept going... I was rushing.
Anyways... the ratchet backed out and got pinned against the frame. The ratchet toggle was inside the cavity, and could not be reached. I essentially closed the cavity with my ratchet and socket, by backing out the bolt halfway.
Some Grinding, filing, drilling, dremeling, hammering, and some jacking freed it up.
Cost... 1 extra day of work plus a lost ratchet and socket. (Thanks to craftsman, they replaced it)
I was backing out the passenger motor mount bracket bolt, so i could gain better access to the mml nut.
I inserted the ratchet and socket into an opening and started to back out the bolt.
I KNEW it was too tight... that the ratchet + socket + bolt was longer than the opening... and I would hit the frame/mount. I kept going... I was rushing.
Anyways... the ratchet backed out and got pinned against the frame. The ratchet toggle was inside the cavity, and could not be reached. I essentially closed the cavity with my ratchet and socket, by backing out the bolt halfway.
Some Grinding, filing, drilling, dremeling, hammering, and some jacking freed it up.
Cost... 1 extra day of work plus a lost ratchet and socket. (Thanks to craftsman, they replaced it)
Last edited:
JLLJ
TJ Enthusiast
mine was the F134 also, it was a great little rig but it was a DD after my divorce and I ended up having to let it go for something easier to DD. I miss that one also.
I bought one of those cool rechargable led ball lights with the magnetic base. It's nice when your under a Jeep, you can stick it to nearly everything and it's easy to aim, but I forget its there sometimes. I knew it was just a matter of time... Last week while chasing down a death wobble in one of my fleet, I hear a few loud bangs under the Jeep, right after the DW shakes the light free. Since I was stopping anyways I retrieved my light from the ditch. The lights cannot survive a tumble down the interstate at 60 mph.
Long story here.
I had an s10 w/ a high-compression 350, got too aggressive with the timing and popped the head gasket. Got it torn down and the heads back on one weekend, and went to finish it up the next. Was just a little hung over/still drunk when I decided to set the lifter preload before putting the intake and carb back on. Had a clever clip-on starter jumper rigged up to make it easy to bump the motor to the right spot for setting the lifters. This is what made setting preload with the carb off a terrible mistake.
With the carb off the fuel line was tucked back out of the way. Right over the starter. Got half the lifters set and bumped the starter and heard a small "whoomp," and saw a 4-inch flame coming from the starter. I barely asked "what the fuck?" before the jumper wires melted and shorted and the gear-reduction starter got to non-stop cranking. That high-volume fuel pump turned the 4 inch flames into 15 foot flames in no time.
3 fire extinguishers didn't do jack to that fire. Fortunately I didn't had a garage and was parked in the yard so I didn't burn the house down and was able to put it out with the garden hose once the battery stopped cranking. Was very scary but once I replaced wires and belts I got it running again.
tldr: did a step out of order changing head gaskets and set my truck on fire.
I had an s10 w/ a high-compression 350, got too aggressive with the timing and popped the head gasket. Got it torn down and the heads back on one weekend, and went to finish it up the next. Was just a little hung over/still drunk when I decided to set the lifter preload before putting the intake and carb back on. Had a clever clip-on starter jumper rigged up to make it easy to bump the motor to the right spot for setting the lifters. This is what made setting preload with the carb off a terrible mistake.
With the carb off the fuel line was tucked back out of the way. Right over the starter. Got half the lifters set and bumped the starter and heard a small "whoomp," and saw a 4-inch flame coming from the starter. I barely asked "what the fuck?" before the jumper wires melted and shorted and the gear-reduction starter got to non-stop cranking. That high-volume fuel pump turned the 4 inch flames into 15 foot flames in no time.
3 fire extinguishers didn't do jack to that fire. Fortunately I didn't had a garage and was parked in the yard so I didn't burn the house down and was able to put it out with the garden hose once the battery stopped cranking. Was very scary but once I replaced wires and belts I got it running again.
tldr: did a step out of order changing head gaskets and set my truck on fire.
One time* I read all the procedures on removing a transmission and decided that I wasn't going to drain the thing first. Now I know why you need to drain the thing first.
* yesterday
* yesterday
I didn't realize that the Currie trackbar I got second hand had a different ball in it that wasn't the standard size for the rear axle. I tried to bend my bracket for about an hour or so before thinking about buying a different bracket (as if that was the issue). I measured the ball as I looked for other options, and yep - the ball was for a non-standard TJ sized bracket.
Winner I got a visual can’t stop laughing glad all good in the end
Gravelhack
Member
My 05 khaki Rubicon had nearly flawless paint when I bought it. First time I washed it I had the wipers pulled off the glass to wash the windshield. I thought after I wash the hood, I'll open it up so the water runs off....first push , I felt resistance, without thinking I rared back and did it again..... Two matching lightning bolt scratches smack dab in the center of my pristine khaki hood paint. Sometimes I cry.
Last edited:
Not mine: A friend of my then next door neighbor pulled this one. Neighbor was a shadetree mechanic of some skill. We're all over in his driveway shooting the shit, while he's casually wrenching on the project of the day. The friend spies a V8 on the ground, bare engine with exhaust manifolds. Don't remember what engine it was - probably an AMC of one sort or another. So he gets the bright idea that he's gonna start this thing, he dumps a bit of gas in the carb, works the choke once or twice, drags a battery over and jumps the starter. Keep in mind he was standing there, straddling the engine, with his feet behind/under the outlet of the manifolds. Engine turns over momentarily, fire shoots out of the manifolds, is deflected upward by the ground and his shoes, and shoots up his pants and out the top of his shirt! It was only momentary, he didn't really feel anything and didn't get burned - but it flash burned all his body hair off!
Once we were sure he was OK, the laughter didn't stop for quite some time! Guy also had a '48 Merc hotrod that was to die for.
Once we were sure he was OK, the laughter didn't stop for quite some time! Guy also had a '48 Merc hotrod that was to die for.
Last trip was a Crosby bow shackle, heard it fall off but never found it. Fortunately it was in the dirt and not on the highway. Definitely grade-A bonehead on that one as well.
That reminds me of another one. Back when I was a teenager, about 16 or 17. My parents and I were going on a camping trip in our 29 foot fifth-wheel. We stopped on the side of the freeway to eat some lunch. I pulled out one of those plastic Radio Shack 5 D-cell flashlights, and discovered that the cells were all completely dead. So I take them out, and put them on the bumper of the truck, one in the middle, two on the outside corners, and the last 2 in-between. Things had a tendency to stay on the bumper of that truck ('63 GMC 1 ton).
So several hours later, we're almost to our destination, I'm riding in the trailer (Legal in California for 5th wheels), and I hear a WUMP! Something hit the bottom of the trailer. I immediately knew what it was, I look out the back window of the trailer and see a D-cell bounding down our lane in 6 or 8 foot high hops! It bounced over into the next lane, where it tagged the front passenger quarter panel of a Pinto station wagon, who tried un-successfully to avoid it.
Oh shit! If that guy figures out where that came from, my ass is toast! He didn't though, went on and passed us. We got to the campground, 3 of the D-cells were still on the bumper where I'd left them - the other one obviously came off somewhere, presumably with less drama. I very quietly disposed of the 3 remaining cells...
Boneheaded kids!
