Most embarrassing DIY maintenance moment

[Bdozz]

I bought my first sailboat in April, it has a volvo md7 diesel , I put a battery in it ,cleaned the water seperator, changed the fuel filter , pumped up the fuel system and it fired right up, but it would die every time I pulled the throttle. After about a half hour of this I realized I was pulling the fuel shut off. This wouldn't seem so stupid, except I am a professional mechanic who grew up on a farm running 2 diesel tractors that both have manual fuel shut off valves , and I also have been running power boats for over 30 years , all of wich worked the throttle with the shift controls.

[jongleur]

Before I knew how to bleed a brake
system, I had a very embarrassing
episode. That is all I'll say about it.
Still too embarrassed. Nobody was
hurt though.

[Fiveslide]

A friend and I rebuilt a little two stroke dirtbike one day. His kid got on it and rode around our track. Suddenly, he went down. We got to him and he said it just stopped and caused the crash. The back wheel was locked up, we couldn't get the engine to budge, nothing. We called a real bike mechanic after we failed to find the issue, and from thousands of miles away he diagnosed that my friend didn't tighten the rear axle enough and it slid back causing the chain to get so tight nothing would turn.



This nearly got me hurt. My friend hit the button on the car lift before I was ready. He lifted a minivan about 6 inches with my hand between it and the lift. My thumb was numb for a couple of months.

This friend's Dad owned the shop we were working in. He was always making little mistakes that cost the business money. He now owns his own repair and detailing shop, I'm headed over there later to put a clutch in my old truck. Here's hoping I don't return with another story.

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[exMaggieDrum]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

We had a guy who was climbing down a vertical ladder on a sub when his feet slipped off and he grabbed with his hands, the only thing that caught was his wedding ring, which ripped all of the skin off his finger! I don't ever want to see that again!

We had a very complex radio that had hundreds of thousands of RF and low voltage pins on all of the connectors. One day one of our fellow (slower) instructors was in the PT lab and using a dental probe and found the ONLY RF connector in the entire system with 110v on it (no one knows why) but it knocked him on his butt and all of the students were getting a good laugh when he had to go to medical to get checked out.

As a reward, they made him Command Safety Officer. Just in case anyone was wondering how one gets such a prestigious position...

The Admiral is always scolding me because I don't wear my wedding ring. I have to reluctantly admit that I am a loyal true blue hubby who goes out of his way to praise her to everybody and anybody, including otherwise very desirable new friends. It not often you find a mate who will go with you over the ocean and love it as much as you do. She understands that I don't want to lose my finger or get it burnt to a crispy critter while I work on the boat, which is most every day. Not good to wear a ring around lots of moving parts and high amp circuits.

[zeehag]

reading about your car fun and games-- what kinda tranny was on your chest--mine was buick gs 455 stage 1, 1970, tubo 400. heavy mutha.. whew.
what else--
i havent had too many oopsies--mebbe my diesel peugeot i bought for 450 usd, used haha ha ha--that was an electrical nightmare--in rain the dash lit up so bright i didnt know if i was low on oil or had a short. the guy i was rooming with decided to borrow my car, aka peugeot, and blew it up as he didnt check oil as i requested oops i guess the brightly lighted dash WAS low oil alarm ha h ah ah a never did that before.....
had a radio light up on me once, in rain--in a kharmann ghia convertible rewired by an electrical engineer-- backwards ha ha h ah a hot tunes-- turn off radio and make it home alive.. also my opel gt, aka oldpile gt-h aha ha the head light assembly decided to cut through the wiring harness, which occasionally occurs--and to put out the flames i turned off headlights in darkness in downtown long beach. ca.. i was blinded by the city buses that decided i needed to be reminded to turn on my headlights--hell , blinded me for a block. i guess i was driving while blindfolded that time....got the car home and repaired it...
had my chitty luv truck towed to riverside raceway by the tow crew when they found me on side of road on my way to racing weekend....and back home. free. awesomeness, but i was part of emergency crew for scca then.
now i only drop tools into ocean and bilges and other consequences of disabled paws syndrome.

[socaldmax]

A friend of mine got married and his wife left him, he was devastated. So while he was at work at an aircraft plant, he got distracted and dropped a huge block of steel on his middle finger of his left hand. The last joint was flared out like a lollipop and he got a few weeks off to recuperate.

I wanted him to rebound quickly, so he decided he'd buy a Datsun 280Z to attract women with, so we went to a used car lot. He met a really pretty blonde salesgirl that he instantly fell in love with, but he was missing all of her come-ons and double entendres. I kept telling him she was into him, he was so clueless she finally just came out and said, "I don't care whether you buy the damn car or not, but you're taking me out dancing Friday night!"

I brought a date, his doc told him to keep the finger wrapped and elevated, so the 3 of us wrapped our middle fingers with napkins and danced with our middle fingers raised straight up like his. After a couple of songs, we noticed a whole bunch of other couples were out there with a napkin wrapped on their middle fingers and dancing like us! It was hilarious!

They're now happily married with 3 beautiful kids, he's an executive with Boeing in Seattle. It all started with a work accident...

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

A friend of mine got married and his wife left him, he was devastated. So while he was at work at an aircraft plant, he got distracted and dropped a huge block of steel on his middle finger of his left hand. The last joint was flared out like a lollipop and he got a few weeks off to recuperate.

I wanted him to rebound quickly, so he decided he'd buy a Datsun 280Z to attract women with, so we went to a used car lot. He met a really pretty blonde salesgirl that he instantly fell in love with, but he was missing all of her come-ons and double entendres. I kept telling him she was into him, he was so clueless she finally just came out and said, "I don't care whether you buy the damn car or not, but you're taking me out dancing Friday night!"

I brought a date, his doc told him to keep the finger wrapped and elevated, so the 3 of us wrapped our middle fingers with napkins and danced with our middle fingers raised straight up like his. After a couple of songs, we noticed a whole bunch of other couples were out there with a napkin wrapped on their middle fingers and dancing like us! It was hilarious!

They're now happily married with 3 beautiful kids, he's an executive with Boeing in Seattle. It all started with a work accident...

Are you saying "dont underestimate the value of failure"?

[Patchy]

I've been a mechanic now for 25 years. Here is my wedding ring


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[jibstay]

Just in case...

Men's Silicone Wedding Ring by Proof | Protects Your Hands & Proves Your Commitment with Unique, Sleek Design for Your Active Lifestyle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017TGANHC..._v2pPxb1E46BDX


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Are you saying "dont underestimate the value of failure"?

Something like that! Or maybe there's a silver lining behind every cloud, etc.

[tankersteve]

Darn, all the way to page 7 and no bikini pic!

I've done the freezer cleaning with a screwdriver thing. I've drilled through something and not realized what was on the other side before too.

I spent 22+ years in the Army, much of it on tanks, and we aren't always regarded as the smartest folks (DAT - Dumb Ass Tanker). When someone makes a boneheaded error, usually it involves mentioning 'operator headspace and timing'. However, the best ones are when the maintenance team shows up, finds out the issue actually wasn't an issue, and writes it up as a "C-R-U" malfunction. When pronounced, not read, it makes complete sense.

Once, in Ramadi Iraq, in absolute pitch black, I took my very nice aviators gloves off to find my intercom cable and connect it to my headset. My maintenance team had just installed a small power inverter. They left some contacts exposed. My wedding ring arced across them, creating a flash that looked like an IED went off. My hand was black with soot, my ring looked like some kind of Salvador Dali sculpture, and we quickly hustled back to base. My ring, after a professional reshaping, still has a tiny void that I note grimly from time to time.

And since I don't have a really awesome DIY story of the levels already revealed, I'll share a funny tank story. We often slept on the back deck of the turret. When the gun is toward the front, you can step off the back of the turret onto the 'back deck', which is the hull where the engine compartment is located.
One very dark night, I woke up to respond to a radio call. For some reason, during the night a crewmember rotated the turret by the handcrank - very slow and tedious, but does not require the noisy hydraulic pump. They put the gun over the side. So the back of the turret was hanging out into space over the other side, turned 90 degrees from its normal static location. I decided to pee off the back deck, so I stepped off the back of the turret... oh... DAMN. That kinda hurt. It was a very long fall but the ground was freshly churned mud, so I was fine. Just the wind knocked out of me. The gunner couldn't look me in the eye for a week.

Tankersteve

[zboss]

Pretty much everything I do on the boat is an embarrassing DYI amateur moment.

[Reefmagnet]

My boat looks like a monument to embarrassing DIY. I've lost count of how many times I've thought to myself "I'll blame the PO for that one".

[ardoin]

Originally Posted by Patchy

I've been a mechanic now for 25 years. Here is my wedding ringAttachment 129046


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

I had a boat inspection in May, I made the inspector remove his rings and watch before opening the 1000AH LiFePO bank. He didn't understand until I showed he the batt bank... no metal when working on the engine or batts!!!!
I have a neighbor with a welded watch band and a scar cause of an accident with an alternator.

[Sailshabby]

The hits just keep on coming...

Decided to take down a large tree the was right up against the house. Being the genius I am, I realized the potential for it trading said house if it fell in the wrong direction, so I looped a heavy cable up high and secured the other end to the hitch of my pick up truck. In my mind's plan, I'd cut a little, hop in the truck and pull up a little to take up the slack, repeat as necessary until the tree dropped between the house and the truck. Figured 100' of cable would do the trick, completely forgetting about calculating the length of triangle sides, because hey, who needs math, right? Twenty or so cuts later, I was on the verge of victory. The tree was angling nicely away from the house, the cable was taut and holding, so I closed in for the kill. One final run of the chainsaw brought the sweet sound of the cracking wood as the tree starting its death dive, so I quickly scampered away to witness my brilliance. The tree took a minute or two to realize the futility of remaining upright and gave into the inevitable. Being the vindictive f*cker it was, I stood horrified as it sloooowly spun on the cut, and dropped squarely - you guessed it - on my shiny relatively new pick up!