This wasn’t my booboo. One of my brothers had the front brake hub off of our family Dodge van for some reason. When he tightened up the spindle nut, he read the shop manual for the tightening instructions. He torqued the nut to 25 ftlbs but forgot to do the rest of the adjustment procedure i.e. loosen retorque to 6 ftlb, loosen one flat, and loosen enough to get the nut lock cotter slot to line up with the spindle hole. He did put the lock on it and a new cotter key. The van made a 200 mile trip. When it got to its destination, the front wheel was leaning at an ominous angle. The whole steering knuckle had to be replaced as the outer cone got welded to the spindle shaft. The van was out of commission for a couple days till the part could be obtained.
Done it too. My brothers car, infact I blame him. 
Maybe it was the time I went to add a little R-134a. I tipped the can upside down for a second to see if it would go faster and the HP line blew instantly,(found out later it’s lucky the coporesore didn’t get hydralic lock). Of course this gets out of the back yard and into a shop where they find fittings with the condencer are galled and it gets to be $700 for a little recharge. or
The time I had to see a girl in NJ and drove an 80 Camero that I hadn’t gotten the new shocks on yet. lol “neet, it bounces!” I lived anyhow. or
Useing the old trans off the v six when I droped in the 300 hp 350 in the Camaro, oh that was because I broke the pump on my good one putting on the tork converter, and the headers didn’t fit because it was a FWD 4X4 case. Lets not eaven start on the whole monumental dumbness of swapping a 350 HO into a six cylinder car. the mounts alone…
Lemme tell you,that is a lesson from the school of hard knocks-Kevin
Man you know how to live it up!-Kevin
my worst dumba** moment was when after my first jensen-healey burned up…i turned right around and bought ANOTHER one !
I pulled the head on my '71 Datsun 510 for a valve job. When I got the head back, I replaced it and torqued it down. THEN I realized I hadn’t put the camshaft back on the head and I had to remove the head, replace the camshaft, clean the surfaces,
get a new head gasket, and FINALLY reassemble the engine.
While I did turn a left-hand-thread lug nut to butter on my 1955 Studebaker Commander, my dumbest move was attempting to remove the mounting bolts on my radiator with a tiny carburetor wrench. After I punched the fins on the radiator, I was able to get the bolt out. On cuts like that, the heavy bleeding doesn’t start for about 30 seconds.
Hmmm,keep the bandaids handy-Kevin
Doing my own oil and filter change. Having difficulty loosening the filter. Leaning into the engine compartment, and leaning heavily against the corner of the fender. Struggling when WHAMMO, God answered my prayer and loosened the filter. My weight came down mightily on the fender and a rib bone broke. M’Gawd did that smart!!
Well JoeMario, although I can’t tell you HOW, I can tell you that it can be done! I have managed to blow TWO mufflers wide open this year! One on a Dodge Dakota and the other on a Cadillac DeVille! Both suffering a stalling and backfiring issue that I have yet to figure out! I had never heard of someone doing such things on purpose!! When the Dakota blew it lifted us off of the ground just over a foot I’d say, coughed once more and then ran like a champ to our destination! It was quite a ride!!! Lol
It was fun to see all the old posters going back ten years. Where are they all?
I must have been busy back then and never said anything. I know there have been a number of errors but I just dust myself off and forget about it. Putting in a new axle, I pulled the CV joint apart. No option but to go get another one. Taking my seats out to shampoo the carpet I somehow lost the ECM fuse. Towed out and fixed a $100 later.
Non car related working on my basement, I punched a nail with the nail gun through my gas pipe going to the fire place. No way to shut that line down but the hardware store was still open and the guy loaned me the flaring tool. Finishing the bath I also missed and punched a nail through my air conditioning line. Wow, cloud of smoke for a long time. It was fall so wasn’t funny when I got the bill for repairing the line and filling it with some kind of gas, then in the spring having to have the freon replaced. Painting the cupolo on the roof of my folks house, I spilled the can of white paint on the black roof. A little black paint took care of it-for a while. I dunno, stuff happens.
I wonder what CrowMagna is going to think about an email response to a 10 year old post .
Wasn’t the Minx a Hillman?