A&Q about 350Z
Q:
About five years ago I was installing a boost gauge in my 86T. After running the little plastic line to the manifold, I installed the fitting for the hose to slip into. The hose was held in place by a very small brass compression fitting. So I placed the fitting in my mouth, as the mouth is the universal tool holder, until I was ready to place it over the line. Well, the phone rang and it was a friend of mine. After about a half hour conversation I get back under the hood and I'm thinking to myself, "Where the hell is that fitting?" I'm looking around and then all of a sudden there is that little Kodak moment, where time seems to stand still, when I realized I must have swallowed it! I called all my friends in the medical field and all assured me it was of no danger to me and that it would pass. Then they told me how I could get it back. Needless to say, I bought a new one.
So let's hear it. What'd you do?
John
77280Z (Spooky), 83ZXT (Garage Queen), 86ZXT (Bulldog).
Proud owner of 10/03 Z car of the month.
A:
Check near the phone or in your pocket. I'm sure you just took it out of your mouth to talk.
A:
Nothing like that! Good job you take the cake!! YoU WIN! LoL, hope it "passes" easy
A:
Working on my first 81ZX I couldn't get the rear brake caliper to compress. After cursing and throwing a fit for half an hour I pulled the caliper and took it to Advance thinking it was bad. The guy behind the counter then showed me how to compress a ZX caliper and pointed me to my first caliper cube. Still have it somwhere.
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77 280Z - TEC3 Engine Management, Coil Packs, 3.1 Stroker, 550CC injectors, tripple throttle body FI intake, MSA Stage II Cam, etc...etc...
79 Fairlady - Rusty
81 280ZX - DD
A:
Hybrid77Z,
No really, I swallowed it. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been the dumbest thing I ever did. But thanks for the vote of confidence.
John
77280Z (Spooky), 83ZXT (Garage Queen), 86ZXT (Bulldog).
Proud owner of 10/03 Z car of the month.
Post Edited (Jul 19, 7:08am)
A:
NZR but swallow related. First race on a new CR250 and I forgot to put on my camelbak ( 60 mile cross country race). I'm smokin my class ( B vet ) and when I pull in to pit for fuel, my pit boy is nowhere to be found. A couple of other guys see this and offer to refuel me. I see my boy running across the track towards me with my brand new never been used camelbak and I'm so thirsty, I just grabbed it and started sucking. Well, I hadnt cut the slit in the blue rubber mouth pc yet so nothing would come out. So I just sucked harder, not knowing why I couldnt get any water.All of a sudden the pc popped off and shot staight down my throat...it was gone. So I kept drinking. This was on a sunday...didnt see it till weds. And no, I didnt retrieve it.
1970 240zt 326whp 320ft/lbs @ 13 psi,
A:
Also about five years ago I was stationed at Camp LeJeune. I had a 90 S13 hatchback. I changed the alternator on it a couple of days before I drove up to Nashville (about a 10 hour drive). Well I was in the mountains between NC and TN on I40, and like a dumbass I wasn't paying attention to the temp gauge and I felt my engine lose power (as if it was running out of gas). I look at the temp gauge and it was pegged at the max. I had to get my mom to drive a little over three hours to get me and then come back a couple of days later to get the car and tow it to my uncle Wayne's(he's a mechanic).
WELL, it turns out when I installed the alternator, I tightened down the belt tensioner/adjusting bolt but did not tighten the pivot/mount bolt that holds the alt to the bracket. It took a couple of days for it to unscrew and come out. When it did, the tension in the fan belt loosened (which was also the belt that went around the water pump. Since the water pump wasn't turning, the coolant overheated, combined with my gross negligence of the gauges at the time. I wound up blowing the head gasket and warping the head. I wound up finding another KA24E from a wrecked S13. Cost me over $700 for the engine and install labor.
That's by far my best 'Dee, dee dee!!' moment.
God must love stupid people, he made SOOOOO many of them!
A:
I replaced the cyl head on my 77 with a N47, worked by a local shop, everithing new.
All went well, car fired right away, nice idle, very little tapping, off to test drive I go; WITH A LOOSE CAM SPROCKET BOLT!!! Bolt backs out, sprocket backs out, cam stops, crank keeps turning and the valves braced for impact. What a waste of time and money. Now I double check averything.
77z restored, new paint, 83 ZX Turbo Engine. 5spd, Eibach springs, Ilumina struts.
A:
Wow, probably the dumbest thing was after changing the lower manifold gasket on my TBird I opened the garage(It was night time) and proceeded to back out right into my 240Z that I had forgotten I parked behind it as it is usually the one residing in the garage!! UUGGHH
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12.804 @ 107.26 mph on crappy street tires with Dual SU Powered 2.9L Stroker!
ZCAR.COM member since Aug 1998
A:
1. Rebuilt a Honda 350 years ago. Started it up and roared up a hill near our house. Roared back home. Halfway home, engine screeched loudly and seized up solid. Pulled in clutch and coasted home. Pulled into garage and stopped right next to the bench where the bottles of oil sat that I forgot to put in.
2. Had a '64 Ford Van jacked up in the back with piles of 2X4s for jackstands. Wheels off. I was under it doing who knows what when slowly I could see it starting to shift position. I just had time to wiggle into a place between the driveshaft and the side of the van before it fell sideways off the boards. Not injured but not enough room to get out. Laid there for about three hours before the wife got home and I had to talk her through jacking it up again. Main things I remember were how pissed she was and how bad I had to pee.
3. Driving along in a 1950 Chevy truck that a friend and I had just gotten out of an old barn. Hit a bump. Truck dies. Look under hood. Scratch our heads. There's not that much under there to go wrong (carb, plugs, radiator, that's about it). Well what about the battery. Where is that? "Under the floor," he says. We look. Not there. No openings in the bed. WTF? THEN we look under the truck and there's the battery all mangled with water leaking everywhere. Still held on by one wire. He goes, "Well, that could be the problem."
'76 280Z driver, '75 parts car
A:
Dang JR that Van story is a good one!! haha
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12.804 @ 107.26 mph on crappy street tires with Dual SU Powered 2.9L Stroker!
ZCAR.COM member since Aug 1998
A:
took off my dash, and set it by the new one. grabbed the old one and put it on. i still havent changed it.
'82 turbo zx
A:
NZR, but.... I changed the oil on my 1987 Ford Ranger with the 2.9 V6. Even had Ford (is it motorcraft... can't remember as I haven't had a Ford since) oil filter with the nifty ribbed filter wrench that you use a rachet with. Pulled the old filter off, put the new one on. Filled it up with oil. Jumped in, started it up and the pressure came up real nice. Then all of a sudden, "pop" and oil pressure disappeared. Immediately shut the truck off and thought "oh crap, what did I do??" I look under the truck and there is a growing pool of nice fresh oil on my garage floor.
Upon pulling the new oil filter, there were 2 gaskets... the one from the new filter and the old one that was stuck to the engine.
Needless to say, I have NEVER done that again and have checked and double checked every oil filter I pull and the spot where it meets the engine.
Oil stain was on the floor for the rest of the time we owned the house and I'm sure probably is still there today. Least it was fresh oil!
Roger
1999 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 Quad Cab
1986 300ZX 2+2 NA 5spd
It's funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious!
A:
About a month ago I left my lights on which killed my battery... So I end up in a hurry trying to get a ride home from my work and lock my keys in the car.... A couple of days, and 75$ later, I ended up getting the keys back and driving my 280zx home. I try to charge up the battery and it won't charge all the way and the car wouldn't start. I get it to start once and drive it to my work and back but then leave my door window open. I try to shut it but the battery is too dead for the power windows to close. Of course, it rained that night so I ended up tarping it. For the next few days I try unsucessfully to charge the battery up. Later, I notice that my brake lights are on all the time. I found out that they were staying on and draining my battery because of a plastic stopper that had broken and fell directly below the brake light switch. Of course I didn't know that at the time and so I went out and bought a brake light switch that i didn't need. I can't find the plastic peace that is used with the switch anywhere so I just sort of rigged it up by putting some tape and some card board over the hole behind the brake..... pathetic.. i know....
'82 280zx coupe
A:
everytime i work on the car, i NEVER remove the gound cable from the battery...
so whenever i take the alternator off, i always end up grounding the wire out, making a huge spark and crapping myself--
goes with the starter too---
needless to say, i still dont take the ground off ;-)
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High Performance NA L28 engine, Performance Suspension, Full Interior, 2500lbs, and room for 3 HOT girls in the car!
shift_2+2
13.9 @102.7 on 205mm street tires and 110 octane :-)
A:
tuning my SU's on the last Z I had, shut it off and it started to diesel, reached through the window and threw it in gear... I was parked right up againts the garage door, car dieseled through the door and hit my moms minivan.. hehehe Crushed my fibergass front end.
SHIFT_PPSSHHHTT... I love it, I love it
1973 240z, 2.8L Turbo, BRE Style
z31 ECCS and MAF swap
Spooled Up Racing ®
http://spooledupracing.tripod.com/home.htm
A:
Oh man wannaBREz that is funny!!!
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12.804 @ 107.26 mph on crappy street tires with Dual SU Powered 2.9L Stroker!
ZCAR.COM member since Aug 1998
A:
Well, while we're confessing, I had a Corolla I put a clutch in. The front wheels were on drive up ramps and the rear wheels were held up with jack stands. Clutch is in and it is time to bring the car down. What I now know happened was the first time I placed the jack under the pumpkin to raise the rear, the arc of the jack brought the car back some. So the second time I placed the jack under the pumpkin to raise it up it moved it back some more. Shortly after I got the jacks out, you guessed it, she came down the ramps right at me. You never saw a middle age man move so fast in your life. I was lucky that the floor jack was straight so the car canm straight out if the one car garage and didn't his the sides. Ever notice how after something like that happens, you look around to see if anybody saw you.
John
77280Z (Spooky), 83ZXT (Garage Queen), 86ZXT (Bulldog).
Proud owner of 10/03 Z car of the month.
A:
When I was younger, before I could drive, my Dad was working on his truck. Truck being a conventional cab International tractor. It was raining one day and he needed to perform some maintenance. He pulled the nose into the detached garage where he could stay dry. He tilts the front open exposing the Detroit Diesel. Now the cab part is to tall to fit in the garage so he puts the windshield about a foot from the garage door opening. Later on after finishing up he decides to check his work by starting the engine. He walks around the cab opens the door, reaches up into the cab and checks to see if the transmission is in neutral. Flips the key over and hits the button. The detroit fired right up and the truck leaped forward into the garage. It scared him so bad he jumps back and stares at the truck as its trying to plow its way through the garage. He finally comes to his senses and runs in and turns the truck off. It wasn't funny then but it sure is funny now. It destroyed the top of the cab and the front of the garage. I can remember clearly all the nice things he had to say about that. Up until then I hadn't paid close attention to those foreign words. Every once in a while when I go over to my parents house I bring that up and we all laugh about it, Well...almost all of us. He still swears it was in neutral when he checked it.
74 260Z (12/73) Pretty Much Stock, 72 240Z Project Car. Zs I have owned, 91 300ZXTT, 88 300ZXT, My first car at the age of 15 (1982), 71 240Z. Williamson, Ga.
A:
Back in high school my best friend had a Chevy 4X4 that we would go muddin in. Yes, there was plenty of places to go in rural Georgia. One day we are standing around in the high school parking lot talking about our vehicles when we notice all the swirl marks on his truck. We start kiddin him about rinsing the mud off first before washing. I do, I do, he claims. One of the guys in the crowd ask then what do you wash it with. He replies, bucket of water, dishwashing detergent and an S.O.S pad. You had to know him to know that it was true.
74 260Z (12/73) Pretty Much Stock, 72 240Z Project Car. Zs I have owned, 91 300ZXTT, 88 300ZXT, My first car at the age of 15 (1982), 71 240Z. Williamson, Ga.
A:
On man I knew a 14 year old that once used an SOS pad on his Dad's car.......Dad's still pissed about that!! hehe
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12.804 @ 107.26 mph on crappy street tires with Dual SU Powered 2.9L Stroker!
ZCAR.COM member since Aug 1998
A:
Was driving a GMC cabover box truck. You pulled a lever behind the cab to raise the entire cab, which was hinged at the front, in order to access the engine. Went through an intersection which had severe double dips. Next thing I know, I'm still driving down the street, but the rear of the cab had lifted and I'm staring straight down through the windshield at the street; had forgotten to lock the cab lever in place!
JR in Tulsa (4EVER Z)
73 240Z - L28, Triple Miks, 5 speed, 3.9.
83 stock 280ZX
Chaos, panic, and disorder---my work here is done!
A:
NZR and not really working on the car, but dumb none the less...
I bought a '88 SC MR2 that had a lot of rust on the metal strip between the windshield and t-tops.
The PO said when I bought the car "carefull it leaks under heavy rain"
So, I drive to BC to see a chick I'm runnin around with and decide I need to wash my car in Kelowna. I pull into one of the touchless high pressure washes at Esso. I'm not in the wash 5 seconds when a waterfall starts coming down into my lap...What do you do?...you got it, nothing. By the time I got out of the wash me and the car were soaked and I still had another 2 hour drive ahead of me.
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1990 300zx NA
- Custom Exhaust
- JWT Pop Charger
A:
Not really working on a car but. . .
My dad, uncle, and I were getting our ski boat out of the lake and had gotten the boat onto the trailer and had pulled up slightly on the ramp to put the tie-down straps on. (busy 3-lane ramp on a late sunday afternoon, many people waiting in line). This is a '90 F-150 which at that time has the power door locks/windows switch right by you knee on the door. You guessed it, my uncle when getting out of the truck, with it still running, unknowingly hit the button and closed the door. A minute later when going to get in and get off of the ramp, we found ourselves locked out with lots of impatient boaters around!
Lucky for us this truck had the back-sliding glass and we were able to pop the latch in a minute or two and I was small enough at the time to climb through the opening! Ford has since relocated those freakin' switches!
My guardian angel has twin turbos. . .
1995 Cobalt Green NA
1988 Maroon 300ZX NA (sold)
A:
For me -
just about anytime I open a hood and stick my hands in the engine bay -
yeah - like I know what I'm doing.
Wife's ball cap logo " I'm Meachanically Inclined I Screw Everything Up"
Ed and Jeanne's
ZXelda 1981 280 ZXT: ZXena 1990 300 ZX
1941 Buick Special Sedanette (Betty)
1956 Dodge Royal (Dorothy)
1971 Buick Riviera (Rita)
1975 Ford F-150 Stepside (Fiona)
1992 Firebird (Frieda)
A:
about 9 years ago i had to do my first tranny swap on my first z . a 76 that i had jacked up in the car port at my moms house . every thing was going fine untill it was time to drop the tranny. as i pulled out the tranny i thought it would be a good idea to lay under it and ease it out . well as i catch the tranny while it free falls on my chest i realize laying under it that i cant lift it up or get out because i didnt lift the car high enough ! as i sat there trapped in the tranny well with the tranny on my chest and the tire i planned to put it on on my left i had lots of time to think of other ways to do this job.about 30 mins later i hear my neighbor get home and i yelled for help , he then grabbed my floor jack that was just at my head and lifted the car so i could roll the tranny on the tire and get out! that is just one stupid story of many.
76 280 all stock exept full bushings,qwuik knuckles,tokico struts&springs,3-2 header,k&n cai,msa sway bars,konig rewinds with toyo proxis ra1.
78 rust bucket. (4 sale!)
2000 v-dub mk4 jetta vr6
2005 titan 4x4 with nismo cai,banks exhus
A:
Oh man that's scarey! I actually get a claustrophobic feeling from reading that post! NO THANKS! lol
85' 300ZX NA
86' 300ZX Turbo
88' 300ZX Turbo
89' 300ZX Turbo
300ZX Turbo Project
A:
when i was 16 i spent 1/2 a day trying to get my dodge to time right ( by ear - couldnt find dads timing light). i had it running the night before and that next morning it wouldnt start so i figure since i had been playing with the timing a few days earlier that i had gotten it so far advanced that it wouldnt start. so ive taken the dist. in and out several times, changed the points and condensor and rotor. im sitting in front of my car grease up to my elbows lokking at my dist. cap in the sun light for a crack or something. my dad comes home for lunch walks by and asks whats wrong? wont start i reply. dad asks does it have any gas?
i guess you know how this one ended. everytime my dad saw me working on my car for the next 2 yrs his standard response was- is your car out of gas again? and walk away laughing!!!!!
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1980 280ZX coupe
2001 maxima
1994 F150 4x4 van works custom truck
170000 and never needed mech repairs
1996 ford explorer -they cant all be good
A:
When I was buiding the L28t for my 260z I was an idiot, no simpler way of putting it. I sent the block, crank, pistons and rods out to an engineering joint to check it all out. It came back with it all ok, but the report was a little weird as it had things like "Crank will linish to 0.020" " So I thought ok said will linish to, does that mean they have done it or not. I think nothing of it and I go and buy Standard L28 bearings and Rings.
Well I got the motor together with the ebay turbo (I bet some of you are laughing right now). I started the car and yay, I was so damn proud my 1st motor build works. But when I started it I herd a knock knock knock, but it faded off (I did crank the motor without starting it to move oil around) which I was going that didnt sound good. Then the smoke came along and I expected it but there was heaps...too much and it didnt taper off.
I yanked the motor and read the report, I had the wrong sized rings in it, I was ment to have 0.040"oversized rings, so I had a ring gap of 4mm, instead of the 0.4mm or something I cant remember. So I got the right rings put them in and tried again, but the knock was still there.
Called up the engineering joint and asked them what the "Will Linish too" crap was about. And yep, you guessed it, I had under sizedbearings in it. So out the motor came again, for its 3rd rebuild in a week. The motor was fine after that apart from the turbo which was stuffed from the word go.
So I learnt after that, if you dont understand the report...ASK SOMEONE.
1990 300zx TT Manual (2 Seater)
Sold - 1976 260z 2+2 Turbo, I'll miss you ol friend.
Post Edited (Jul 19, 6:56pm)
A:
While stationed in West Germany from'83-'85 I had a 1975 Ford Capri. I drove a buddy of mine up to Frankfort so he could fly home. Just outside of the airport, the right rear wheel bearing gave out. I parked the car at a gas station and called another friend to pick me up. 3 days later at a cost of 10 DM to park the car, we arrived with replacement axle shaft and new rear brakes pads. Axle went in fine. Fritz sold me the wrong pads and I now saw that I also needed a new wheel cylinder. I decided to drive the car back to post - about 120 miles away. The plan was to do 60 and use my buddies car to slow down if need be. 10 minutes into the trip, we said the hell with it and made in back to post in just over an hour. 100+mph on the Autobahn. No brakes. I had to start slowing down to make the exit a couple of miles before the exit.
80 280ZX - E Stock Autocross - Team Zip Tie
69 Firebird 400
A:
did a total rebuild on a small block chevy and it wouldnt start looked for hours trying to find the prob..seeing it wasnt getting fuel i removed the fuel pump thinking it was bad ,to find the push rod behind it was never put in...after putting it in. it fired up first try..what i waste of a half day..
A:
Dumbest thing I ever did - I tried to work on a 1976 Datsun 610.
Pellius
Twin Turbo/N2O 73z; "fulcrum"
car info at: http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~jthagard/3liter/newengine.html
car builder info at: http://www.speedshopthagard.com/
87zxt; no mods. Well, I was thinking about a barefoot gas pedal mod.
A:
i was planning to do a simple oil change, i drained the oil, took off the old filter and put a new one and filled the crankcase with water
73' 240z: F54 4.2L, OS Giken LY DOHC Crossflow head, 17:3comp.ratio, N33, Tripple SU's, T10 Hybrid Draw-Through TT @ 47pds, Roots&Centrifugal Type supercharger, 3-2-1 headers, Centerforce 4 clutch, 6oz flywheel, R300 differential, Super-Hicas
A:
hahahahahahaha why?
'82 turbo zx
A:
WATER! DOH"!!!
A:
I was doing an oil change /w on my turbo i bought 5 quarts of Castrol Syntec and one quart of lucas oil stabalizer and an oil filter (~$40 total) drain the oil and pour all 4 1/2 quarts of Castrol Syntec in before I relieze that I forgot to put the drain plug back in..........back to Autozone for another $18 in Oil.....
'74 260z TURBO
'86 300zx N/A (SLOW!)
"All your base are belong to us" - God
Suck. Squeez. Bang. Blow.
A:
Back in 93' I rebuilt an F-54 block E-31 head, complete new build. Me and a buddy dropped it in my 72. I spent the following evening finishing up
the install. Added 5 qts of oil. Started it up and it sounded great, however I noticed some fuel squirting up from my back carb so I shut it down and
started to tighten it. That is when I noticed a big gold spot on my garage floor, turns out I forgot to install the oil filter, dammit!!!
71 240 L28 1mm overbore flattop pistons N-42 head, header, SU's, pertronix ign, 835sp, r180 3.90 Suspension Techniques swaybars, urethane everywhere. Needs paint, runs strong
A:
This thread (at least for me it did) should make everyone that has posted a story in this thread feel better about themselves; knowing that they aren't the only otherwise compentent person who has done stupid **** in the past.
God must love stupid people, he made SOOOOO many of them!
A:
I was finishing up a rebuild on a Honda B20A (I know, end of story right there, huh?) and was in a hurry to get it done. Get in the car and start it up with no problems, so I get out to look at the engine and check for any leaks and the damn thing is shooting oil all over the firewall and everything else. Doh! I put the damn head gasket on upside down.
'79 280zx (gone - head-on collision)
'73 240zt - currently in pieces
A:
Mike 240,
You beat me to it but you hit the nail right on the head. After I read these all I could think was, "Thank God I'm not the only one who does these things." And, I did a few that I read here and had forgot about them.
John
77280Z (Spooky), 83ZXT (Garage Queen), 86ZXT (Bulldog).
Proud owner of 10/03 Z car of the month.
A:
I don't have any real story that compairs to most of these but I have one recent and one of teenage ignorance.
1. I was changing the steering rack bushings on my 300 and I used a marking pen to mark the orientation of the sterring column pinion to the rack. I then decided to clean the surface rust off with the knuckle with PB blaster which of course removed the pen's marks. After getting everything done I could not tell why you even need to mark it since there is a plastic alignment tab so I decided to turn the steering wheel left and right to see if there was a positive stop! I stopped turning when I snapped the clock spring.
2. When I was young I had a Toyota Celica with 170k miles on it. She ran great and never broke down. The 22R engine seemed so bullet proof I guess I stopped changing the oil at around 180k miles for reasons I cannot fathom now. Ran great till I blew the head gasket at 225K miles.
1993 300zx NA
A:
Around the time I first purchased my z31 I had a reason to look at something underneath the rear of the car. I proceeded to jack up the rear of the car without placing blocks in front of the front tires while also neglecting to set the parking break.
The jack started to lean and dropped my z31 back to earth. The wheels were on the car and it was slow enough that it landed gracefully. That was the good news. The bad news is that it began to roll forward at about 5 mph towards the downhill 15 feet ahead.
I ran at blinding speed after it and jumped into the open drivers side right foot first and nailed the brake and saved her. If the door hadn't been open and I hadn't been so use to getting in and out of the car it probably would have ended up in the side of someones house :(.
-Stu85na
* KN air filter w/resonator removed, Maxima Alternator swap
A:
My Dodge was overheating so I popped the hood and touched the radiator cap. It was cool enough to hold onto so I thought no coolant? So I took the cap off to take a look. And now I know for a fact that coolant has a very sweet taste.
3 Zs, 1 "Rusty", 4 more to go
A:
^Hahahahaha...that was a good one!
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1990 300zx NA
- Custom Exhaust
- JWT Pop Charger
A:
i used a coat hangar to hold the battery down in my 240z. at some point while driving it made contact with the metal on the battery. i noticed smoke coming from my hood and then, as i slowed down, saw the flames.
eek
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'05 350Z Chrome Silver Touring
'73 240Z
A:
was finishing up the header and exhaust install on my 82 and had reconnected everything and was letting it run to see how it sounded. well it had started raining lightly...no big deal, i'm a trooper, lol. well i'm looking at the engine admiring my work and awesomeness and notice that the coil wire is only half on the coil so of course as my brain is yelling stop and turn the car off i grab the wire for what seemed like an hour of pain but was probably more like a half second, lol. not the first time, probably won't be the last, definitely hotter than that volvo that got me a few months before, hehe
82 NA 5 spd
77 4 spd
A:
1973 - First car and first oil change... forgot the drain plug! DOH!
1975 - Replaced 289 cid motor in a '67 Mustang with a junkyard find. Tried to start but no dice - won't even roll over. So I ask my friend to pull me and I'll pop the clutch to at least get it moving internally. No way, this motor won't even turn over in first gear! I popped the clutch so many times and so hard that I broke a leaf spring support. That really sucked! Tell the junkyard that that motor must be seized up. They agree to give me another. I replace the motor again. Hook everything up the same way again. I start the car - i'm thinking great! I put it in first gear and the car went backwards. DOH!
1976 - replaced in-line fuel filter on my '72 Mach I. The car ran ok for about 10 miles and died. No way that car would start and I figured that it couldn't be the new fuel filter as it ran fine for awhile. Towed the car home - friend says "the arrow is pointing in the wrong direction on this fuel filter". DOH!
1977 thru 1997 - many more stupid mistakes.....
1998 - I replaced the 2 liter in my '73 Fairlady with an '82 ZX motor. Everthing went real well and I spent a a lot of time figuring out the wiring. I cut the whole harness from the donor and used only what I needed. I hooked up all the FI relay stuff and associated wiring for the fuel pump with aligator clips. I put the gas tank end of the fuel pump in a coffee can half full of gas. I turned the key and the fuel pump did exactly what it was supposed to do. Turned it to start and she fired right up! I now go back and hardwire everything and get the fuel pump all hooked up to the gas tank line. A few days later the car won't start - no way. I start going back thru all the wiring I did and troubleshooting the FI system. A couple of MONTHS later, I found that the gas line to the fuel tank had came off! DOH!!!!!!!!
2006 - WannaBreZ and I are installing new MSA bars on the Fairlady. I snapped off a bolt on the frame rail clamp! Aaron somehow got the snapped off stud out with a pair of vice grips!!! YEA!
Post Edited (Jul 21, 7:32am)
A:
While putting a new alternator in my wife's VW Rabbit back in college I dropped and lost a nut from one of the mounting bolts (was working in the parking lot of our apartment). Looked everywhere - literally - for it. Had to run to hardware store to get a replacement, put it on, all is well - or so I thought. Found out otherwise when I started the car. Very bad noises and then nothing, engine dies.
The nut had fallen into the timing belt cover, got pulled against it, shredded it.
Expensive mistake.
I hated that car, too.
77 280z - getting refreshed/restored
My Z and its restoration progress is at :
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2125287
A:
I Just bought my car , drove it home about 15miles .... Parked it took a friend for a ride . down the street. it spit sputtered and died... fired back up got it home. looked at the gaue it said about a 1/4 tank even loosened the drain nut on the gas tank. still no start. went through all the
checks EXCEPT for putting more gas in the tank so the fuel pump would prime... @ 250.00 for a fuel pump that you cant return once you buy.
i think this is the first of a few Boneheaded mistakes
Ok the Word for the Day is "Z". I will use it in a sentence
Today 6/19/06 I bought my First "76" Z. Its a 280 4spd.
A:
once i was cutting fuel lines on 87 pathfinder with an angle grinder :)
www.BilletClamps.com
1990 NA soon to be TT!