The 'I'm a wally' thread
 

Well, as I've done something really daft, I thought I'd tell you all about it. :D
This morning I went to do an oil change on my new ZT-T; the oil was like treacle.
New oil and filter in hand, tools at the ready - excellent. Let's crack on.
Old oil drained, new filter fitted, all hunky dory. New oil in... except nothing showing on the dipstick.

Turns out, I'd not put the sump plug back in, and had no car to go and get more oil with! :D

So, what have you done that's made you feel like a right wally?
I'm now waiting for a taxi... :getmecoat:

Hope you left a container under the drain hole or your drive is going to be a right mess :eek:


As to what made me feel like a wally

Fitted a 16 camera CCTV system and when I powered it up realised I had fitted all 16 upside down! In my defence they were "eyeball" type cameras and its not easy to tell which way is up with them.
Sods law says that it had to be one of those times when the customer was looking over my shoulder when I powered it up.

Considered just turning the monitor over as well but ended up putting them all right :D

Getting married 3 times.


Only kidding .:D

I once sat on the trunk of a fallen 300 yr old oak tree , as I cut off a branch with my
chainsaw the whole tree started to roll , it went one way and I leapt off the other way :o

In my few few weeks as an apprentice mechanic in 1980, I was given mini clubman to drive out of the workshop after someone else had done a service. I drove it out and around the large car park. Then I went in and asked what the orange light was for on the dials.

It was then pushed back in for the oil to be added.............

This was over the past 3 days, I had to pay an extra £50 to the AA because it did not cover my second car, to cap it all he couldnt fix it but I did today, heres yesterdays thread.
http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...d.php?t=187531

We have another contender here - my friend!
After changing his steering rack, he dropped the car down and tried to reverse it off his drive.
Cue a horrible scraping... he'd left the container used to catch the PSF under the car, and it was now about 3" less deep. :getmecoat:

And another from me - while changing the solenoid on my automatic gearbox, I managed to drop the gearbox end plate in the tub of ATF. As the end plate was dirty, I had to replace all the ATF I'd taken the effort to save.

What a wally. :duh:

I jacked up the back of a car (Not the MG!) without chocking the front wheels once...

It was only on a very slight slope but rolled off the jack (one of those crumby windy jacks) and it got stuck under the car.

Had to leave the car there for two days before I could borrow another jack to lift the car off the first one!

:duh:

Perhaps not quite as serious as some of the previous "entries", but pretty dumb anyway:

Today I was washing my '75 using my newly purchased pressure washer. I had just given the car a good pre-wash using some snow foam, and was about to get started hand washing it with a bucket of Meguires Gold Class shampoo (2 bucket method, of course :} )

Anyhow, I thought that the bucket of car shampoo had lost a lot of its suds whilst I was prewashing the car, so knew just the thing to get them back: Fire off the pressure washer into the bucket to agitate the mixture - what could possible be wrong with that? :shrug:

As you can probably guess, firing the pressure washer into the bucket produced a soapy fountain of epic proportions which went all over me from head to toe. Oops!!:o:o

It did produce some nice suds though, just not much water left in the bucket. :mad: At least there were no witnesses.

Cliff

Not me but my ex Mrs, when she was the GF went out with a friend of hers in her friends Vauxhall Viva so the two girlies went to the seaside for the day, when setting off they found the exhaust hanging down so decided to use a cardie and tie it to "the long metal thing" underneath the car to hold it up, then they set off, turns out the "long metal thing" was the prop shaft :duh: I don't need to tell you what happened next!!:eek:

Blondes by any chance....? ?:D

I did the very same when I changed the oil on my bike. what a mess on the floor.
To make it worse when I drained the old the cat litter tray I use to catch the old oil was split, so I ended up with hot oil on the floor to start with

macafee2

My latest - not changing a tyre when I suspected an issue with it, and it blew out today. I'll be more careful in future! :eek:

Did mine the other day on a customers MG TF, I was fitting a new stainless engine coolant pipe, the guy was helping!!
He removed there bleed screw from old pipe and installed on new pipe but forgot the sealing washer.
Run the engine for a while and found it leaked so leaned over engine to remove bleed screw. Found oat stings on cuts, eyes and tastes foul.
Dumb

The last time I used Kwik fit they did that and then tried to blame me.

Did the same but on a motorcycle with frame oil reservoir and a side mounted sump plug, pouring in the top, coming out all over my week old £70 Nike trainers :duh: Why was I wearing these, cos being a bloke I couldn't be ***** after going out to change into my work boots. :devil::devil::devil:

Why is it that wearing old boots I never splash oil on them but wear new timberlands (£110)
It is a bloke thing

Friend was showing off to his girlfriend,turned his engine off whilst still moving and removed the key.Steering lock engaged,seriously kerbed the car.
I did a naff u-turn in a road which wasn't really wide enough,took out 2 tyres on the kerb.
Pushing a car down the fire up lane with friends at Sant Pod,ran over the owners foot,on crutches afterwards.
Gave a lift into town to a girl I liked from work.Thought she'd be impressed with my 'sit up&beg' hot rod.She got out of the car,shut the door,I sped off,the car hopped upwards,the wide rear tyre ran over her foot..off work for months.
Came home after work,went round co-op as usual for daily supplies.Next morning saw my car had been stolen,rung police.Later dawned on me I'd driven to the co-op then walked the short distance home,the car was still there.
Reported my car stolen at Bluewater shopping mall...was in the next car park along....been working there for years.
Just a few that spring to mind..sadly I'm sure there's more :(

Many moons ago I gave my 1800 Landcrab an intermediate service, something I'd successfully done a couple of times before. Oil and filter change, new sparks plugs, cleaned the distributor and cap and replaced the points, then adjusted the timing. Went to start car and nothing, dead as a Dodo.
Thought battery might have died, connected charger, battery didn't need charging. Maybe a fuse had blown, no all OK. Checked starter motor and solenoid connections, all OK. Car would not start. Out with plugs and re-check gaps, re checked points setting, all appeared OK. Still no life when I turned key. After third check I noticed I'd left auto box in D, moved lever to P and car started straght away.

Not one of mine but many moons ago a friend used to drive round in his mum's mini 850 like an idiot and we were out in it once and he pipes up 'I love this next right hand turn, downhill off camber you can get opposite lock on and a four wheel drift it's soooo cool!! So hang on!!'

Well it did all that and more, like four wheel drift into a six inch kerb ripping off both nearside wheels and the car ending up sitting on the pavement on it's side...

Strangely it was the last time he drove his mum's mini, was actually the last time anyone drove that particular mini tbh...

did the same last time doing my motorbike. oil everywhere.
you're not alone
macafee2

Glad I'm not alone - my friends still joke about it. Oops. :D

Don't try this at home kids!
 

My Dad was helping me with my first car - a non starting Peugeot. Ignition was on ... Click, click when trying to start. Must be starter solenoid he said, pointed to it using a chunky flat bladed screw driver. Big set of sparks. Bang as he shorted it and the solenoid came unstuck. Car started. Worked fine for 18 months after that.

Never seen that one in the repair manuals :D

One of my hidden fears is the power of a car battery, after seeing what happens when you accidentally touch two heavy-duty jump leads connected to a 7.5 tonne van together (not me, I'd like to add!)

Wouldn't catch me with a big screwdriver anywhere near a connected battery. :D

haha was just about to recount my Daimler 3.6 auto wouldnt start waited for the AA for 3 hours had left it in D

I had forgot about this thread and this happend to me last week while checking plenum for water:
It was my saloon the one without the spyhole done yet (since making a mess of the tourer) I prised out the 3 clip/buttons on the long plinth, took off the top plastic grid, slid out the long plastic strip to reveal the plenum chamber, all was good and only a little water after all the torrential rain that week.
On fitting everything I could not fathom out why the strip of plastic that covers the plenum chamber would not fit very good, five minutes later after turning it round this way and that, I realised it was the wrong damn bit of plastic, I was trying to place the top grid one under the long plinth Duh! duh! and double Duh! :duh: My mind is going, I tell ya not a lie :eek:
Ken.

Oh dear.
Oh dear.
Oh dear.

:D

I did the same changing the oil on my motorbike a year or so ago. I was lucky as I had more oil but the mess on the garage floor.....

Macafee2

First of all, apologies to DMGRS for bringing back this ancient thread. But I think it's relevant.

I'm still having trouble with Kim's starter motor. I've put a replacement on, which worked a couple of times, then decided to just click rather than work.
So today I went out to remove the two cables from the bottom of the starter motor, give them a rub with wet n dry, apply copper grease, then put them back on.
This is the I'm a wally bit..... As I was unfastening the nut I heard a crack. Wondered what it was, but then continued. Another crack, but this time I saw sparks as the spanner touched the body of the starter motor. That was when I remembered to disconnect the battery before messing around with electrical cables :duh:
Did that, did the job, reconnected everything and tried her.
No click, no turnover. Nothing.
So I came onto the forum to search for fuses or relays relating to the starter motor., which is when I found this thread.

I'm struggling now. I can't find anything on here, and can't find anything in the Haynes manual either.
Does anybody know which fuse/relay I could try replacing?
Thank you.

You may be better off starting a new thread in the technical section as you are hoping people will look at a wally thread in the social section for a non starting issue.

macafee2

I didn't buy the MG TC and bought an 1.7 Austin Princess instead!:duh::getmecoat: (45 year ago!)

Drove the 260 to work and was puzzled that after all the effort to change the plugs ( thread in V8 forum) and put on new coil packs, she wasn't really running very well at all. Poor acceleration, nearly stalling pulling off at low revs in first gear. One sick puppy
Got home and had another look. Forgot to re-connect the MAF sensor!:duh:
Goes like a train now. Glad I didn't post to ask for advice:getmecoat:

Front windscreen: S reg Rover 75

A few years ago I asked a friend to change the front windscreen wiper on the above saloon.

I didn’t watch as I had something else to do in the house. Later on I heard a whack and when I looked out at the 75, the front windscreen was badly cracked after my friend had let go of the wiper with it springing back onto the glass.

Poor chap was mortally embarrassed, as though the world had come to an end.

I was okay and not upset. It was a genuine accident and the insurance company agreed to pay for a replacement windscreen (North London).

Mine is guitar related rather than car. I made an anti noise box to go into the signal chain between the guitar and amp to eliminate any static. I plugged everything in and was a wee bit surprised to hear a traffic report on local radio coming through the amp :shrug: I opened the box up and found I'd omitted to connect the ground wire to the shielding :o

Ouch my poor finger!
 

A couple of years ago I was trying to identify a "clicking" sound from the front wheel.
I jacked up the car and was spinning the wheel to see where it was coming from .... my finger went through one of the holes in the wheel (a Crown) and met up with the brake caliper immediately stopping the wheel spinning :eek::eek:
Flippin' eck it hurt!

(Stop reading if you are squeamish.......)

After a week of intense pain "a friend" said it happened to his friend. A doctor drilled a tiny hole in the nail to release the blood that builds up behind the nail .. so why not try that?
I did.... by hand ....VERY carefully with a clean, new, tiny drill bit...
The kitchen table looked like a scene from the Texas Chain Saw Massacre! How can you store so much blood behind a finger nail?! :shrug:
Two more weeks of suffering I went to the doctors. They took me into hospital the next day and removed the nail.
Do I get a Double Wally Award?

And yet I still like Crowns...! :D

John

John,
I did not even have to read much of your post before I winced knowing what was coming and imagining the pain.

macafee2