Doh!

[fomocoguy]

So yesterday I got to the point that I was ready to start reassembling my intake on my truck (I'm swapping the 2 barrel for a 4 barrel). After dinner I went out to the garage and started planning things out. I decided to leave out the cork end rails and just do the big bead of black sealant like a lot of us do. I smeared a bit around all the ports on the flat side of the gaskets, pressed them in place, then laid my nice end rails. I slowly and carefully slide the intake into place, attaching the front coolant hose at the same time and laying everything down perfectly. I torque everything to spec and get the pushrods in, feeling pretty good about my progress. I install the distributor and go to get the rocker assemblys to start on those and what did I find in the same box? The valley pan. DOH! I wanted to throw it. At first I thought "gee, do I really need that thing?" but quickly told myself to do it right and went ahead and ripped it all back off. Funny thing was, it took me about an hour the first time, but only about 15 minutes the second time.

So, any of you have any stories like this? It would be fun to hear about it! Mine wasn't a big deal, but I bet on a bigger project some of you have lost a days time or more...

[Ranchero50]

I just replumbed my big welding bottle to only run one welder at a time, drug it across the floor and hooked it to my little welder so I could tack my shifter linkage together. Got under the truck and the weld sounded funny but I got it all tacked together and noticed I had forgot to turn the gas on before welding once it was all out from under the truck. Oh well, it was only an hour of dissassembly and cleaning fittings for the bottle.

This week at work I watched my boss and a fellow employee struggle to rebuild a basic reduction gearbox (ring and pinion, then a reduction gear). Amazing that they managed to take pictures of the dissassembled parts in the wrong order then couldn't figure out how to put it back together. Lots of diplomatic 'I don't think that's quite right' each time I walked up to look at the progress. Reaction was... 16 hours later

Jamie

[AlleyCat]

Just saw a similar thing happen at work last week. Young guy who thinks he's God's gift to Internationals had to change a leaking rear main seal on a DT466. He had the seal changed and the Allison almost all bolted back in when I spotted the flex plate leaning against the jack. I handed it to him and politely suggested he may have forgotten something.

[sargentrs]

Replaced the timing chain and gears on mine a few years back. A friend was helping me. We got it put on and had the timing cover, water pump, fan and alternator back on and was just putting the belts on when he asked, "Did you torque the cam bolt?" I said I didn't remember doing it and he said he didn't remember doing it.... We just stood there looking at each other in silence for about 5 mins and then I said "Let's do it!" Like you, it took us about 2 hours to do it the first time but only 20 mins the second time. I got on one side with the air ratchet, he got on the other with the regular ratchet. He broke 'em loose and I spun 'em out then I spun 'em in and he torqued 'em down. As it turned out, one of us had torqued the cam bolt but neither us remembered doing it.

[woods]

When I was a kid. I put together an old small block, installed it in the car, hooked it all up. Jumped in the car to start it and in the seat was the oil pump for it still in the box. Pretty sure you need that.

[fomocoguy]

These are great! It's funny because I used to do stuff like this when I was younger and in a hurry, so now I try to take my time and be methodical about stuff and it still happens. I think being a little more organized would help. If I had laid out stuff in the order I removed it I wouldn't have missed it.

This week at work I watched my boss and a fellow employee struggle to rebuild a basic reduction gearbox (ring and pinion, then a reduction gear). Amazing that they managed to take pictures of the dissassembled parts in the wrong order then couldn't figure out how to put it back together. Lots of diplomatic 'I don't think that's quite right' each time I walked up to look at the progress. Reaction was... 16 hours later

Jamie

I guess you can't say too much when it's the boss involved. I bet he'll pick a different partner next time!

When I was a kid. I put together an old small block, installed it in the car, hooked it all up. Jumped in the car to start it and in the seat was the oil pump for it still in the box. Pretty sure you need that.

What is it with small block chebbies and oil pumps? I did the same exact thing when I rebuilt the engine in my old camaro, except luckily I noticed it before I put it back in the car.

[Ranchero50]

Chebbies and oil pumps indeed. Watched from the sidelines a few years ago as my buddy kept blowing oil filters apart in his '69 Chevelle with a 454. The third time he stood under it while it was on the lift just to see exactly what was going on even though his buddy kept saying just pull it and swap the oil pump, the pressure relief was buggered...

Yes, it was YouTube worthy.
Jamie

[tmcalavy]

The year before I learned how to drive, Granddad made his best wheat crop in years. All the family turned out to help bring it in...me, Dad, cousins, and two Uncles. We were running three combines (small by today's standards) and four grain trucks. A chain pulley broke on the bottom header shaft of the smallest combine, so we drug it to the shop and three of us went to work taking the header off and getting the shaft and pulley out. Had to go in from the top...we removed four other shafts to get down in there. Got the pulley/sprocket changed right before lunch and everything back on but the header. Just as we were putting the top dust cover on, I knocked the world's largest crescent wrench off and it went clunk, clank, clunk, clank, clunk...bounced off each shaft on its way to the bottom. We put a light in there and it was leanin up against the shaft and pulley we worked so hard to get to. My Granddad looked at me and said..."We're goin in for lunch. I want that wrench out so I can go back to the field in this at 1 o'clock." Guess who got to eat Sweetarts for lunch? Had some in my pocket. Got the wrench out and everything back together just in time...just me and the dogs. Granddad never said anything about the missing pack of Luckies on the combine seat...I learned how to chainsmoke and fix an old Allis combine that day. Every time I see a straight smoke...filterless, I think about that day.

[woods]

Chebbies and oil pumps indeed. Watched from the sidelines a few years ago as my buddy kept blowing oil filters apart in his '69 Chevelle with a 454. The third time he stood under it while it was on the lift just to see exactly what was going on even though his buddy kept saying just pull it and swap the oil pump, the pressure relief was buggered...

Yes, it was YouTube worthy.
Jamie

I had my 428 pull this just last month. I was lucky that I was still going down my driveway. The filter looked like a gutted fish.

[Bob]

Had a 70 or 71 Slug Bug Convertable (VW Beetle) back when I was about 17-18 yrs. old. Was driving down the road and it just quit moving. Was running fine and revving and all but wouldn't move. Being ignorant to VW's and always in a hurry back then I dove into it assuming something was wrong with the clutch. Went and bought new clutch and p.plate and whatever else my "How to Keep Your Volkswagon Alive" book told me to get. It was winter and cold and snowing out and I'm jackling the car up off of the motor. Had the motor dropped onto a tire and kept adding bricks under the body to get it up enough to slide the thing out and have a look. Everything looked fine? Cold and ticked off I decided it was time to consult someone and admit I didn't know what I was doing.

Turned out the brake drum splines were stripped. DOH...!! The odd little cars had splined drums to make the wheels go round and round...

Could've pulled a wheel and drum and been finished for twenty bucks back then and maybe a half hours time but NO... !!

Then the icing on the cake... I have it back together with new clutch etc. and about a week afterward a guy runs a redlight in a pick-up truck and totals my bug.

[woods]

I still have one (kinda).

[Bob]

Neat...!
But where are your heater boxes? (humor)
There's a trip down memory lane... I remember the boxes would rot and then you'd freeze in the things. Used to have to keep an ice scraper handy inside to hit the windows as you drove. Good thing was... it was easy to reach all the windows from the drivers seat... except the back but I never drove down the road backwards anyway....

If you had good heater boxes they were actually quite toasty. Although your bug looks like it'd be a blast to run in the snow, I'm guessing it's not your winter ride.

[woods]

These days...my heater box is under the dash, because I put a turbo charged Subaru engine in it and plumbed in a heater core and fan.
Yes, the old ones (when working right) would really burn you out of the cab.
No, it's just a summer time toy...That I hardly even use anymore (guess I'm old).