man, y'all make me feel a little better now

we've all been there or will be soon if you work on cars enough.

I was grinding without gloves, swapped it from one hand to the other & caught my thumb. I instantly felt like I stuck my thumb in an electrical outlet it hurt so much, a nice line of blood went up the wall & I dropped the grinder,
it was still going a bazillion rpm's so the disk shattered & the shrapnel tore up my ankles...

after a few minutes of horror I realized I'd be relatively "OK" & actually laughed

got a nice grooved scar in my thumb now


then there was the time my jeep wasn't idling correctly, I had worked on the carb & distributor the night before. I was late for work & had to adjust the timing a tad leaner. So in the drizzle I, like an idiot, grabbed the distributor to adjust it as I put my other hand onto the jeep to brace myself (bolt was 'just' loose enough I could turn it a tad) Anyway in putting my other hand down, I grounded myself & got a whale of a shock
yes, it was running & I had done that plenty of times- but not out in the drizzle. I now have the UTMOST respect for grinders & electricity!!!!!!!

 

I thought of another one I did. I'd bought a 68 Pontiac Bonneville with a bad timing chain. I replaced the chain, got it running great and drove it for about a week when I noticed it was running hot. Checked the coolant level and added to bring it up, and noticed there was some coolant leaking by the upper radiator inlet. I pulled the radiator and took it to a friend's garage and we soldered the inlet. Took it back home, installed it, and filled it. Started the car up, and leaned over to check for leaks. There was a little trickle of coolant on the radiator, so I grabbed the rag sitting on the fender and reached in to wipe it away. The tail end of that rag got caught in the fan and sucked my hand right in. I had bandaids on my whole hand after that, and I never put a rag near a running engine again.

 

I'm lmfao over this one!!!!
"Trying to fix my brother in laws Honda, I dropped a small screw into the engine bay. Now you have to know that this is on the side of the road not in a garage. I could not get to the screw with any tools on hand so I put two straws together and while I was going to get a piece of gum to stick on the end... you guessed it my bro-in-law stuck the straws down there and sucked up mouthful of grease and oil. He was coughing and gaging I thought he swallowed the screw. when I realized what happened I almost peed myself laughing so hard. Then I should him the gum I was chewing and the light went on over his head. He then made me promise not to tell anyone else. So I will just spread it on the internet. (SHHHHH)"

I was working at a farm supply store and was backing the forklift out with the forks up in the air with a pallet or softener salt on them. I was lowering them as I backed out thru the doors, and heard a huge crash. Someone didn't open the door all the way, and I tore it off the tracks, and mangled it. I proceeded to walk up the the store managers office and quit before he had a chance to fire me.

 

Damn! I did that too. Forgot to put the throwout bearing in. Got in my truck to test it out and the clutch pedal went straight to the floor and stayed there. I can't believe I just admitted that.

 

Been there done that! Except on my 85 SVO! Me, a little 150lb. weakling, bench-pressing a T5 tranny into place... twice in one day!

 

a brainless move.... anyone ever caught steel wool on fire while using a grinding wheel? if ever i needed to find my steel wool.. i figured out the easiest way was to go use my grinder...and everytime i found my steel wool except when ever i found it ,it was always on fire!i dont know why but i had a knack for always catchin the stuff on fire.. n one time was sittin next to pan of gasoline when caught steel wool on fire
i was sure lucky it didnt blow up
If my brains were dynomite... watchout!

 

I was doing a leak test on #8 on a 87 bronco 351w had the air set to 125psi, I could hear air through the valves, so ok I'll just turn it a bit with the breaker bar on the crank. The air was still on. Turned her just a tad sealed the the valves and WACK! The bar spun with my had still holding it, smashed my fingers between the the bar and the bumper. The sound was pure metal on metal. The pain took a bit to set in, I wondered why my hand felt wet, and were did all this blood come from???
The old lady across the ally is still tossing holy water at me.

I do know all the things I did wrong and I did know beter, but under the gun is when my stupid things get done...

 

drove in to the garage....the door was down at the time. my driveway is on a hill and it was a sheet of ice. I was driving my subaru and got half way and stopped. I decided to find out how good AWD is so i gunned it and it began to crawl slowly. Unfortunatly, about 2 feet in front of me was pavement a light dusting of snow on it. My front wheels grabbed and sent my car forward...it was then i found out that my brakes don't work well while the AWD is working.

 

Here's a boner I just pulled. I had my F250 6 feet in the air on a lift so I could install a new NV4500 tranny. One of the restraints on the transmission jack let go and the tranny slid off the jack. The nose end went onto my shoulder and the tail caught onto a crossmember. Here I was pinned by 200 pounds of tranny, no one else around, and I couldnt reach anything to break it's fall. I stood that way for about a minute but I knew I had to accept the inevitable so I jumped aside and watched my brand new 1800 buck tranny plummet to the concrete floor. And guess what-didnt hurt it a bit, but the concrete floor has a nice 2 inch divet in it. Those NV4500's are pretty stout.

 

well i have one to add in here but it didn't happen in my shop. the other day we where nailing up skirt boards around the bottom of a new pole barn and where using my tailgate to cut the boards. had the mitter saw set up there and all the saw dust was blowing into the bed. cleaned everything up and headed home. got cleaned up and went out for dinner. well it was a nice nite so i opened the rear slided. well all the sawdust came into the cab and all over me and my truck. guess it didn't blow out on the way home.

 

How many of these exact things can I do and still be allowed to work on my cars and trucks???

Al...

The more I read the higher the count...

 

My father-in-law works for Dot. Anyways he finds this massive roll of plastic on the side of the road. Him and his partner both have to put it on the truck with their cherry picker. So he gets home and shows me what he found. Now he has a one car garage, you can't even get out of the car when you park it. And on top of that, it is a wooden one that is leaning and looks like it is about to fall down. So he gets the brainstorm to hang this roll in the rafters! You see where I'm going (LOL). I help him, and everthing is fine! A couple weeks later he has the car out and the hood up banging on it with a hamer. I ask what happened? The roll of plastic broke the rafters and caved in his hood and fenders. I had to leave right a way so he wouldn't be mad a me for laughing so hard!

 

I manufactured forkift batteries for a few years.
When U charge them, a gas builds up around the vent cap...a horribly flammabe and stinky gas. I had a charger hooked up but it wasn't making contact so I jiggle the positive cable and a spark ignites one of the cells. For those who haven't seen a forkilft battery, each cell is usually 4 feet high and the total package can have up to 48 cells weighing in at over 2000 pounds.

So the cell blows up as I am leaning close enough 2 the top aka Blast Zone!
I get a face AND mouth full of battery acid travelling at mach 2. Sadly it wasn't the only time I "did" acid at that job.

Mean Jean

 

Be warned......even if battery acid smells like eggs...it doesn't taste like eggs.

Mean Jean

 

here is one very stupid, my brother-in law, added oil to this truck, well it had 4.5, plus
what he added 5L of oil, the truck does not now start, i was lauging at him!