Some light hearted end of year fun. List a few of your favorite car repair experiences that drive you crazy.......such as....

When working face up on a creeper, the only place where your wrench will reach, always dislodges a shower of grit and dirt with every turn.

Any dropped small tool or nut immediately finds the most inaccessible area in the engine bay....always!

No dropped nut or bolt will ever land by your feet....ever.

The closer your wrench is to a hard to see nut, the more like your precisely aimed trouble light will shift....

Transmission fluid is like quicksilver, it winds up going everywhere....your bench, the floor, tops of your boots, the ceiling......

 

It actually goes like this, Dave: "The closer your wrench is to a hard to see nut, the closer is your knuckle to the muffler."

 

Why is it that oil pan drain plugs always forget to put themselves back in just after the garage floor has been cleaned and washed?

Wife coming home, "OK, WHO SMEARED THE BLACK GREASE ON THE DOOR ****?"

Why does one always remember the safety googles AFTER getting the blazing hot drill bit cutting in the eye under the truck? And no one in the house answers the screams of eyeball pain and stumbling around falling into everything in the shop blinded in agony?

The one bolt that has to strip, jam and snap is the one size that's not in the spares bins and no one in 20 miles carries it. It's the ONLY thing keeping the damn rig from being drivable.

Why do they all always have blank stupid stares on their faces when I go through the house looking for my one quality pair of needle nose pliers and finally find them in the sewing desk along with my missing small screwdrivers?

Ever ask the wife for the 7/8" box end wrench? End up crawling out and getting it myself, wife "It doesn't look like a box?" sheesh, god save me from stupid zombies

 

I had just been replacing the oil pan gasket on my 1990 Aero, and experienced most of these travails. I've done this before 5 years ago, but it seemed like I'm re-learning it all over again, so it's taken a long time.

The fastener/small part that drops onto the floor seems to have an unstoppable desire to get as far away from you as possible and hide. If you happen to be on the floor reaching up to the fastener, it will fall and hit you in the eye first, then disappear.

I stripped the head of one of the nuts holding the torque converter to the flex plate. The previous times I've removed them, I thought they were metric, as a 14mm socket just fits over them. I tried to get them from the local Ford dealer, but they had to be special ordered, and were $12.50 each(!). So I went to the local salvage yard to strip them off of Rangers, Explorers, and other Aerostars, where I finally realized that they were 9/16".

I was using a piece of 2x6 on a jack to hold up the engine while I removed the transmission. When I used another jack to reposition the engine, the 2x6 fell right into my face, breaking my glasses. So I was blind and in pain, absolutely filthy, trying to find an old pair of glasses in the house so I could sort of see again.

Next, I will replace the upper end gaskets, as they're leaking again. I don't know how much more of this fun I can have...

 

(Refer to original post about transmission fluid.) Took down the Christmas tree yesterday and caught holy he... from wifey, "How did this black stuff get all over the carpet????!!!" I had used a piece of black plastic from the garage that had transmission oil smeared all over the back side. Just happened to put the clean side up, so it looked okay to me. I really hate transmission fluid!

 

You did that to the carpet, and your wife found out? You are so dead, Dave!!!!!!!!!!

I would leave the house without a forwarding address if I were you.

Happy New Year.