Bill

Probably my worst screw up came on my Magnum. It has the old three chain system and I was adjusting the center and front chain. The front chain adjuster was moving really hard so instead of continuing to coax it, I thought I would use the motor to gently move it. I put it in gear and gave it a little gas. The first time I gave it gas, it tightened the chain a little. I only needed a little more, so I gave it a little more gas. Except this time it tightend up real fast and broke the front sprocket into about 5 or 6 pieces. About $50 later for a new sprocket, I now gently roll the machine backwards to tighten the front chain up. Sometimes brain cramps really hurt

PS. Bill, why the name change?

 

I just experienced my dumbest mechanical goof up. I had just put my Scrambler back together after having it ported and I put in a new Wiseco. I had problems with it right after I put it back together, which turned out to be electrical, but before I knew what was wrong I had put my gas tank back on and taken it off about a dozen times.
The gas lines running from the tank to the gas on/off **** were only about 3 inches long and were a pain to connect and take off because they were so short. I had the bright idea to put on longer gas lines which would allow me to move the gas tank back to get to the gas connection easier. I finally got my Scrambler running good and put it all back together. The next day we went riding and my son pulled it off the trailer and it died and wouldn't start.
I couldn't figure what it could be because I had just topped off the gas tank and put in a new plug. I swapped in a new plug, checked for spark, checked my compression and everything looked good. I finally pulled the gas line off the carb and guess what, no gas came out. Upon inspection I found that my new longer gas lines had been so long they kinked when I put the gas tank back in place for the last time and they basically just cut off the gas flow. DUH!

 

A ten minute job gone bad.

I was replacing the stock struts with the new fox ones. I did one side it went fine the other side I got it in and to my surprise the drive shaft came out of the hub. I had one hell of a time getting it back in. If anyone has done this before you now what I mean. My ten minute job took about 2 hours!!

I hate screwing up

 

Hey guys~
Here's my most recent goof up...When my dad and I installed the clutch kits in the Scrambler and Explorer, we did them at the same time. Well, everything went in great, less than an hour to do both machines! We put everything back together and went for a ride. The Explorer had developed a clunking noise in the clutch for some reason. So we went back to the shed to think what we could have done wrong and after a little thinking, we realized we only finger tightened the bolt holding the primary clutch on! DUH! So we had to tear both machines apart again just to tighten the one bolt!

 

I got two good ones that will make you laugh. One near drowned me! How you ask? Well the drowning incident was on my Seadoo but we'll get to that one later after the ATV screw up I caused.

I had the clutch cover off my wife's 91 Trailboss to change the belt and check clutch alignment. While it was apart I decided to give it a real good cleaning in there as well. I put the clutch cover in an Industrial Parts Washer at my work. It is huge like a giant dishwasher for cleaning
diesel engine blocks, hyraulic cylinders, you name it, anything found on huge construction equipment. I have used it many times before and is great for cleaing almost anything. I put the cover in there and set the timer for 5 mins.

This parts washer works like a dishwasher with pressurized jets blasting liquid everywhere. I put a piece of round 4" stock steel on the cover to keep it from being blasted all over in there like a tennis shoe in a dryer. When the 5 mins was up I opened the door, as all the steam cleared I could see my clutch cover...Flat as a pancake. Like it had been heated with a flame thrower. Several dollars later I was able to laugh, I looked later at the temp. gage on the parts washer...90 deg. celcius! No wonder it gets everything so clean. Just under the boiling poinf of water!

On my Seadoo I almost sunk it. There is a neat vacuum system T'd into the jet pump on Seadoo's to scavenge water out from in the hull. The pick up lines for these pumps are really long and do up near the top of the hull under the seat, then wrap back down around to the jet at the bottom rear of the hull. I was thinking what a waste of good tubing, having these so long was not needed.
I cut them way shorter and made a direct line to the jet pump.

The next fine hot day that summer I was out with friends on the local Nechako river. It was hot and we were getting tires. We Shut off the Seadoo's and laid back and drifted down river falling asleep in the sun. I awoke to my hull 1/2 submerged in the water. I ripped the seat off to look inside the hull and saw that the water was almost as high as the air intake for the carbs!
I was sinking! I was able to get it started but it ran like a tug boat. I was able te get most of the water back out through the dain lines to the jet pump. I figured out that those long hose lines are so long so that the water cannot creep back in through the jet and into the hull. They are up high inside to stay well above the water line, not under it....Doah! I felt like Homer that day.

Learn from other's mistakes.... I try but sometimes we just have to learn the hard way.

Keith

 

Bill,
I refer to those moments as "senior" monents.
My favorites:
I worked with a nurse who thought she would change her car's oil. She drained the oil, then drove to the store to buy the oil. Dead engine.
I once helped a friend work on his 1977 Dodge Van's tranny. He miss read 60 inch pounds and tried to torque the adjuster to 60 foot pounds. Broke the bolt, had to tow to tranny show for a total teardown.
Life is never boring.

Weetoots

 

Man! I can't think of a thing, Bill... Let's see, haven't had brake problems, tire problems or running outta gas problems. How about plain old getting lost problems, I've had those too... Nice post...
Chuck