[Jim Ergler]

This week I had nothing pressing to do so I thought I would tackel the 3-link that I was going to do this winter. Everything went pretty well and I finished the job this morning.I let the car down and figured I'd take it for a ride and see how it feels.Turned the key and the fuel pump comes on but doesn't stop, and the car won't start. Not good I thought.It seemed to me that this happened before and it turned out to be the emergency switch had kicked off, so I pushed the reset and nothing happened. Really not good, being electrically challanged and all.So I jacked the car back up,put it on jack stands and crawled under to have a look around. It didn't take me too long to find the problem. It seems I was one of the lucky ones who put the bolt heads for the upper control arms on the inside before the aluminum was on, which makes it almost impossible to get out later. Being the smart guy that I am I got out my grinder and cut the bolt heads off so I could pull them out the other way.What I didn't know was that I also cit through part of my rear wiring harness including the red wire for the emergency switch and all my speaker wires. What a doumb a$$.
Ergie

 

[Eric Anderson]

I think my dumbest move was to plumb the remote oil filter backwards. It takes at least a master's degree to be able to read ambiguity into an arrow!!

Eric
aka Obsessive One

 

[wnstwolf]

Ergie..

Is this what Retirement does to a person...?

Just think.. now you have a weekend project.. too bad this is going to be a wonderful weather weekend in our parts..

Roger Martin has my body so I to am out of luck for a free November ride.. There is a salvage yard in PA called CB's salvage (towards scranton off of route 11) that will have a new wire harness if you don't want to splice things..

jd

 

[Macho Toy]

Things didn't turn out so bad for you bud, just think what the sparks from the grinder could have done to your gas tank/fumes

Take care,

 

[Snake-4-U]

I once put a clutch in backwards. I was so pissed the brand new clutch was slipping! Tore it down, and low and behold, the disk was facing the wrong direction! Never heard the end of it!

 

[Frank n Sons]

Macho Toy - Just so you know, I actually did that. Grinding on the bench, sparks hit the rag I had in the gas tank opening and the Cobra and me were on fire. Fortuneately, I had an extinguisher nearby and got it put out with only a loss of some wires and the hair on my legs. True story.

Frank no sons.

 

[mike starling]

You guys restore my faith! I am glad to know that I'm not alone in employing some less than successful approaches :>)

 

[Jim Ergler]

Hey Joe, I was able to splice the wires and take the car for a ride, but the tac and fuel gage weren't working.That turned out to be a fuse. The first thing I did was check the fuses and I put one back in the wrong spot.Your right the weather is supposed to be decent tomorrow, so my bride and I are planning to take the car up to Skineatlas lake for a ride.Probably have the top on though.
Ergie

 

[Platt Green]

I was 18, my first car was a 1965 Chevelle Malibu SS, 327, four-speed, 12 bolt rear end. I had already had to re-build the motor because I lost a nut down the intake manifold when I was attempting to put a Holley carb on it. The new motor was hot; 11:1 CR, forged crank, Sig Erson cam, Edelebrock Tarantula manifold, Holley 750 double-pumper, Alliance headers. I decided I needed to swap out the stock 3:31 gears for 4.88s and put in a posi differential. My local Chevy dealer did the work and I re-installed the rear end with my cousin's help. We got it in and took the car for a test drive into town. On the main street some guys in a Pontiac came up next to us and started blipping the throttle so I dropped it into 2nd and took off leaving them in my dust. We pulled over and talked to these guys for a while since they were impressed how fast my car was, and the home-made tilt-up front end wowed them too. When we went to leave the car wouldn't move! I forgot to put oil in the rear end! One of the most embarrasing moments in my life. Until he died a couple of months ago, my dad's standing joke was to ask me "Did you remember to put the oil in it?" whenever I was working on a car.

 

[gordont]

My dad still reminds me of the day that I almost wrecked my car due to an oil change. I was 16 and in a hurry to do an oil change on my family truckster (73 Lemans wagon) to go on a date. I couldn't find a filter wrench, so I stabbed the old one with a screwdriver and proceeded to shear it in half. A quick trip to Sears to buy a wrench only to find out that the remaining part of the filter couldn't support the wrench. It took me the rest of the ninght to unscrew the filter with a hammer and vice grips. Lonely night!

 

[Raddog]

Accidently crossed my cables and fried my MSD box and the fuel gauge, Msd fixed, sent it to Texas, fill up everytime I go for a rip. Oh and get this.. I put my drivers side header on the passengers side and visca versa.
Cheers Ray

 

[Scott L.]

Attaboy Ray but I gotcha covered - pulled my 280Z out one spring, fired it up and went for a twist - neglected to put the battery hold down on and sure enough on the first hard right turn out came the battery.
One post against the block, one against the hood.....it completely melted the wiring!!
That car was never the same - for those who don't know - the hood opens at the windshield and it wouldn't pop up enough for me to get my fingers under it because the battery was trying to weld itself to the underside, by the time I did rip the hood open and pull the battery off the block the harness under the dash was smoking and had melted into one large chunk of copper filled plastic....it was DONE....I mean from the tail lights to the cigarette lighter.

I still have nightmares........

Scott

 

[FACTORYFIVERACING]

Back when I was a broke college student my sweet ride was a fairly new ten speed bike. One night I went to the bike shed to ride to the library and the thing was gone. That's just great, someone stole my bike I thought. Then I saw a bike just like mine parked where I had locked my own earlier... But it was black and mine was red. The lock looked like mine!? I tried the key and it opened... Someone I guessed had painted my bicycle!!!! They were probably going to steal it later my big University brain reasoned... I reached for my keys and began scratching the paint off the frame. Hey, no red under here, now I thought I had just ruined someone elses bicycle whose lock must have been coincedentally the same as mine..

I looked up to see a yellow bug light was all that illuminated a stupid moron vandalizing his own red bike that looked black.

I have since moved on to flipping cars, racing without oil in the rear end and bleeding brakes by pushing on the clutch.

Dave Smith

 

[stan brown]

Hi Jim,
I'm glad you got the 3 link installed. How long did it take to complete? Other than cutting thru the wiring harness how did the installation go?
Knowing Norma the top will be on for your ride to Skineatlas. Maybe you can find a restaurant that has the chicken bosom sandwich

Have a safe ride,
Stan

 

[gordont]

Ok here's another one. Early in my career I got enough to buy a cool lemon yellow Camaro, '75 I think. Well it needed a radiator and I didn't have the $ to buy one so I took the old one out and took it to a radiator shop for repair. The guy called me at work and told me it was unrepairable and to come get it that day. My nose was a bit out of joint when I went to get it anyway. He told me that it was over there by the door and to take it before he threw it away. All I saw was this old radiator kind of tall and skinny. No way that was a radiator for a Camaro, this guy was trying to rip me off. It looked more like something out of an old Ford! We exchanged a few words and the guy goes over to the radiator and picks it up and rotates it to show me that it really is long skinny radiator kind of like for a Camaro! Oh well, see why it's taking me so long to build my Cobra!