O/T Come on Admit it !!

Old Roy · Jul 28, 2009

Ultradog reminded me of a dumb thing I can remember I did many years ago.

In had a Triumph Harold, and changed the points and condenser. Neat little car had the flip open fenders and hood combination, Could set on the front tire and do any work on engine.

Well after changing points and such , It wouldn't start. I checked the points setting and it was right. It had a standard trans so I had my neighbor come over to help, I figured it should start in a couple feet push starting it ,~~~

No it wouldn't so He decided to pull me down the road. we ended up pulling it for a mile and turned around and a mile back, still no start. when I opened the hood again,~~~ I saw It,the rotor was still laying on the air cleaner. Neighbor was upset at me for being so dumb, but he watched me recheck the point gap and put it together.

fixerupper · Jul 28, 2009

Roy, I had that one figured out after getting into the second paragraph, cause I've BTDT. First time was back around 1970 on a Deere 45 combine. Then it was the 62 Rambler.

By the way, when you mention your Triumph car, I used to have a Triumph motorcycle. After awhile I got rid of the shaky, leaky old thing. Now I wish I had it back. Jim

Old Roy · Jul 28, 2009

Know what you mean about the motorcycle I had a Bonneville, basket case and tranny was bad,and Iwasn't smart enough to put it together. wish I just had the parts now.

Junked it [ second dumb mistake, }

S.Crum · Jul 28, 2009

Had a guy call me once about the same type situation. He bought a new muffler from me for his Oliver tractor. He had restored this tractor and when he tried to start it the first time, It wouldn't even pop. After he ran the battery dead, he and his son hooked onto it with his truck and attempted to drag start it, still nothing. So he pulled the cap to check the points and discovered he forgot the rotor. He put the rotor in and used jumper cables. On the first roll he launched the muffler like a rocket and grenaded the head gasket. Guess it was getting gas was no problem. He sent the muffler back for me to re-polish but didn't want the dent fixed in the side as a reminder. Guess he made out OK. I inspected and polished the muffler and sent it back and didn't hear anymore about it.
I personally don't do stupid things (that I readily admit to anyway)....

Allan in NE · Jul 28, 2009

Spent too many years looking at the world thru the bottom of a brown bottle. Stupid, I'll say!

Wasted half a lifetime. :>(

Allan

Old Roy · Jul 28, 2009

Awww come on ! Man up !! We are all human. That was the idea of the topic

Traditional Farmer · Jul 28, 2009

Mostly likely you had a Triumph Herald unless of course you named your TR3 "Harold" (LOL)

Old Roy · Jul 28, 2009

Allan,

I know you probably feel you lost a lot of life in that bottle, But someone turned you around so you could see the real world, I'm proud of you for realizing that you were on a path of self destruction, and could break the chain.

My Dad never could and It killed him. he was only one year older than I right now. He would be 100 in Dec. He died 40 years ago.

Old Roy · Jul 28, 2009

Blame it on my dephective spell check, It wouldn't accept that.~~~LOL

Goose · Jul 28, 2009

When I was in the Marine Corps, I had a Mercury with breaker point ignition. I began changing the points and condenser in the parking lot in back of the Staff NCO quarters one evening.

My roommate was a MSGT and Motor Transport Chief, so he insisted on taking over because he was the professional mechanic. While we were working, several other guys gathered around. When "Ike" was finished, the car wouldn't start.

While Ike was scratching his head, I pulled the distributor cap again and found he had pinched and shorted the hot wire to the points. I "unpinched" the wire and put it back like it should have been. Naturally, the car fired right up. Ike never said a word, just walked back into the TV lounge in the quarters.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 28, 2009

Went and helped a neighbor lady get her lawnmower started. She said when she finished mowing lawn a week ago, she drove it inside the shed and shut it off. It had one of those fender type gas tanks where you could not see the bottom of it, so after a couple of minutes checking it over I had her get me some gas, ended up being that's all it needed. She was a little embarrassed. SO here comes the stupid part,went home to power wash a tractor and could not get the power washer to start.Yanking on the pull cord to no avail, I think I was " cussing a blue streak" After getting tired I decided to check the gas,or the lack of. Fueled it up and it started. Went back to the lady and told her my situation, we both got a laugh out of it.

M Nut · Jul 28, 2009

But, buy golly you sure seem to be making up for lost time. You're one of the most respected farmers/mechanics/and plain good guys on here! What you're doing with your life now is something that most folks will never experience in a lifetime at all.

John T · Jul 28, 2009

Last few times I noticed my 3 blade mower would leave a small uncut streak when in heavy or wet grass but otherwise it did a pretty good job of mowing n the lawn actually looked pretty good. Figuring it was time for a new set of blades as the old ones had bent n broken n missing ears n sections out on the ends from rocks n sticks etc over the summer I went to the lawn mower shop and the owner looked at my old blade n asked why in the world I HAD BEEN MOWING WITH IT ON BACKWARDS (upside down) i.e. that flat blunt curved (no more of an edge then back of my hand) non edge side grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Turns out the last time I sharpened them it was kind of dark n I was in a hurry and I mistakenly put not one but all 3 on backwards upside down lol

With 3 new blades on in the right direction it sure mows easier n smoother with no missed streaks, imagine that !!!!!!!

Ol John T and all

ScottyHOMeY · Jul 28, 2009

We'd had the motor out of one of the Wheel Hosses in my neighbor's stable for a rebuild over the winter. Decided to paint her while she was motorless. Got all carried away, even put new decals on her. Got that honkin' 5-foot deck all in good shape, new belts all around. She was lookin' good, runnin' strong.

First opportunity he takes her out to cut grass. I heard it runnin' as soon as he kicked the blades in so poked my nose over to see how it was runnin'. He made about three rounds and all he was leavin' in the yard was tracks. The grass in between 'em looked like too-tall hay got knocked down in the hail and wind.

Works better if you run the drive belt right.

cj in wisconsin · Jul 28, 2009

Been a mechanic for 30 plus years, done that more times than I care to admit. Also put a clutch disc in backwards on a 71 Corvette with a big block. Thats a sound you will never forget:>)

Vito · Jul 28, 2009

Allan,
I was doing the same thing until I woke up.Thank God for the wake up call.

Vito

Anonymous-0 · Jul 28, 2009

Hey Allan the little brown bottle bit reminded me. One time I was driveing truck over the road this was about the time everyone even the state boys had cb's in their truck/cars any way there was about three or four of us running togeather and they invited me to stop for some coffee, I said that I was running abit late and that I would just tip up my Little brown bottle and keep on going. about the time I hangup the mike I look out my window and a state boy has his lights on me so I pull over and he wants to see my little Brown Bottle so I hand him my maalox bottle he thought I was being a smart elleck and called his buddies searched the truck no booze but three bottles of Maalox
Oh Well just a thought of days gone by have a good day Jerry from arizonia

Walterdavies · Jul 28, 2009

I bought 1989 Saab 99 and changed the oil on it. I left the Oil Dip stick out to check the oil after i started it.
Darn thing would not even give a whimper of a start almost ran the battery down still nothing.

Put the dip stick back in went into the house. Came back later hit switch and it jumped to life. Guess what the system has to completely sealed or it won't start.
Walt

RBnSC · Jul 28, 2009

Did the same thing on a 58 Opel someone gave dad. My brother and I took it over and put it together but we could not get it to crank. Pulled it around with tractor for several days finally asked an old guy that was a really good mechanic what might be the problem when i could get fire at the points but not to the plugs. HE says how does your rotor look? And I said Whats that? So he described what it looked like. When WE got home I looked in the trunk of the car and found that thing he described put it in the distributor a it fired right up. What happened after that is another long story.
Ron

2x4 · Jul 28, 2009

I could see where I was gonna do the same thing so I sharpen & put'em back on one at a time. Doesn't stop me from doin' other dumb things tho. Took the seat off my old Wheelhorse once, put it back on (forgeting to tighten nut) & commenced to mow. Went a$$ over tin cup backwards onto the ground. Mower keep right on going (as they had no kill switch to the seat back then) & I had to run to catch up with it. Glad no one saw that!

Don-Wi · Jul 28, 2009

I was getting my 66 Chevy ready for homecoming my sophmore year- just over 8 years ago- and I was doing a tune up as it had been running rough. I slammed the hood down and went for a ride. Ran great!!. Get home and open the hood, realize I lost my ratchet and socket. A mile up the road I found it at the lights where I was sitting.

I also found that one of the sparkplug wires wasn't conected. I put it back on and it ran horrible again. Turns out it had the infamous soft cam shaft so one of the cylinders wasn't breathing right.

Donovan from Wisconsin

john *.?-!.* cub owner · Jul 28, 2009

Many years ago, my father in law ( a farmer in central Ar.) had an old 6 cyl. Chevy pickup that was bad to burn oil. he was always reminding the kids (7 of them) to make sure it had oil in it. One day the 2 youngest girls decided to take it to the next town to go shopping, about half way there it died along the Highway (US 67). They remembered his warnings, and looked, sure enough, no oil. They walked to a country store about a mile away and bought 3 quarts of oil, walked back and added it. Still no sign of oil, so walk back to store, and kept repeating till they filled that 6 cylinder engine to the top of the oil filler cap.

Still didn't start, and when a neighbor came by they caught a ride back to the farm and told Dad the truck had died, but didn't mention the oil. He called local mechanic who towed it in, replaced points and started it. When the pistons started moving in that engine full of oil, things got interesting, it blew the filler cap off valve cover, blew the crankcase breather pipe off the side of engine, and even forced oil up through the distributor bushings and blew distributor cap off. He said that was the only Chevy he ever owned that never rusted under the hood. :lol: I always refused to let either of those 2 girls drive any of my v\vehicles.

Bob Kerr · Jul 28, 2009

Buddy of mine had a nice 67 vette about 18 years ago. One saturday he drove it to a couple bars in a rough area of town (he drove a beer truck during the week and it was expected that he go visit his customers once in a while). Before he went in he pulled off the coil wire and shoved it in his back pocket so if someone tried to hot wire it, hopefully it would still be there. After he had his beer he came back out and the car wouldn't start. He thought he flooded it and by then the battery ran down. Just as he was getting ready to call a wrecker a bunch of the dirtiest meanest looking bikers pulled up and asked if he wanted a push to get it going. He said sure and off they went around the block pushing that vette, huffing and puffing and chains rattling until they got back up front. He said well I will just call the wrecker, Thanks guys! and they all headed into the bar. He reached into his back pocket to get his wallet out with the tow truck drivers card in it and felt the coil wire! He put it back on in a hurry and the car fired up and he got the heck out of there. He figured those bikers would have been pretty mad if they knew he was just forgetfull.

O/T Come on Admit it !!

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