Topic: Shop stories!

[70CB750]

+1 Dave, plenty of examples of American cars spanking the Euros in rallies  (Valiants amd Falcons plus who knows what)  I have driven various 1970's BMW's, Mercedes, Volkwagons...and pretty sure I could beat these over-rated, fragile, under-powered turds with your basic Cadillac Sedan Deville on any road, curvy or straight.  Delta, it sounds like you have had plenty of "ugly American" experiences, and there certainly are plenty to be had, and for that I apologize.  You might want to stop representing yourself as "the cocky little skinny, dickheaded, Euro guy".  You are certainly not winning any popularity contests this way.

 

[MJL]

I was working in a semi truck shop about ten years ago, doing an oil change on a big Cat motor. These big trucks take about ten gallons of oil, so I went to the counter and told him I needed ten gallons. He warned me that the pump I was using sometimes doesn't shut off automatically.  I got the nozzle in the motor and set it to pump while I cleaned. After I had dumped the old oil, crushed the filter, cleaned my tools i heard a drippy sound. I looked under the truck and saw oil coming out of the filler tube. Carp! I shut it down right away and prayed that no one saw what happened. This motor did not fill from the top, but from a tube in the side of the block. I got my oil drain pan back out and filled it probably 4 times until I had the level correct. I have no idea how much oil I wasted (80 gallons?) But I need ver heard anything about it.

Another shop, 6 or 7 years ago, I was told to take the refrigeration units off the front of some trailers. The first one I didn't I had to take all sorts of guards and covers off to get to the mounting bolts. After that I thought I might get to them easier from the inside. I peeled back the fiberglass covering and started chilling at the foam until I uncovered the bolts. I used a grinding wheel and bussed off the heads, and off it came, easy peasy. The third one was away from the building, so I drug a torch out there with me. Again I peeled off the fiberglass and chiseled out the foam, then proceeded to have a whack at the bolts with my torch. I went with little bursts so as to not set the foam on fire. Eventually it did. I dumped my water bottle on it, swatted it with a rag, and tried to stomp it out with my foot, but it was down in a place where I couldn't get my boot. From there the fire spread, with black clouds billowing. Someone called the fire dept and the whole shop came out to watch. The reefer was toast. I got an ass chewing but I kept my job, and someone else was set to take the rest of the reefers off.

[rtbmrgl]

Working at VW shop in mid 70's I was trying to find an air leak on a dual port head Beetle, Its usually at the rubber boot where it goes from single to dual. I have the engine running and spraying Ether, yeah you guest it, the back of the engine lit. Ran to get extinguisher, by time I got back it was out. The funny part was telling my partner and demonstrating what happened, I had the extinguisher not realizing I had pulled the pin out and point to the engine and pulled the trigger. It wouldn't have been bad if it was CO2, but it wasn't, dry chemical is a mess to clean.
I've been in the automotive since '71, a lot of funny stories.

[Deltarider]

I have driven various 1970's BMW's, Mercedes, Volkwagons...and pretty sure I could beat these over-rated, fragile, under-powered turds with your basic Cadillac Sedan Deville on any road, curvy or straight.

Ha, not in your wildest dreams unless by curvy you mean Indianapolis, the dullest circuit on the planet.
 

Delta, it sounds like you have had plenty of "ugly American" experiences, and there certainly are plenty to be had, and for that I apologize.  You might want to stop representing yourself as "the cocky little skinny, dickheaded, Euro guy".  You are certainly not winning any popularity contests this way.

On the contrary, I've met the most wonderful people in the states. I just can't stand:
1. praising cars that have been a waste of earthly materials and that are a threat to people that live below sealevel. But you may try selling them elsewhere. Surprise us!
2. childishly whining over gasoline prices that are a joke.
Remember I didn't start it and kept quiet for a long time.

[70CB750]

Maybe you did not start it, but your contribution more often than not follows the same motif not matter what the topic is.

You certainly make a good impression of a prick.

Oh, and the sea level, now that's a great point.  Dutch from their own choice created this incredible time bomb of claiming the land from the sea and now they use it as an argument against the whole world - if you don't stop doing this or that, we will lose exploits from the days we did not give a shaite about environment.  Nice! 

[Deltarider]

You certainly make a good impression of a p...k.

Why so sensitive? Hey, it's only cars.

Oh, and the sea level, now that's a great point.  Dutch from their own choice created this incredible time bomb of claiming the land from the sea and now they use it as an argument against the whole world

Since a couple of years Dutch engineers are 'doing a helluva job' in New Orléans and they'll soon do the same in the vicinity of New York. Remember Sandy? BTW, the Dutch still have the centuries old maps. Isn't that a coincidence?
You, in the meanwhile just drive on. Why don't you bring the gospel to the Chinese? Would you like to see them commuting in the sponges on wheels you call cars? Would you really?
But let me end with saying something nice.
Just around the block Tesla has opened it's first showroom in Europe. Now that's a an American car I admire. Yes you can.

[750cafe]

I was working in a semi truck shop about ten years ago, doing an oil change on a big Cat motor. These big trucks take about ten gallons of oil, so I went to the counter and told him I needed ten gallons. He warned me that the pump I was using sometimes doesn't shut off automatically.  I got the nozzle in the motor and set it to pump while I cleaned. After I had dumped the old oil, crushed the filter, cleaned my tools i heard a drippy sound. I looked under the truck and saw oil coming out of the filler tube. Carp! I shut it down right away and prayed that no one saw what happened. This motor did not fill from the top, but from a tube in the side of the block. I got my oil drain pan back out and filled it probably 4 times until I had the level correct. I have no idea how much oil I wasted (80 gallons?) But I need ver heard anything about it.

Another shop, 6 or 7 years ago, I was told to take the refrigeration units off the front of some trailers. The first one I didn't I had to take all sorts of guards and covers off to get to the mounting bolts. After that I thought I might get to them easier from the inside. I peeled back the fiberglass covering and started chilling at the foam until I uncovered the bolts. I used a grinding wheel and bussed off the heads, and off it came, easy peasy. The third one was away from the building, so I drug a torch out there with me. Again I peeled off the fiberglass and chiseled out the foam, then proceeded to have a whack at the bolts with my torch. I went with little bursts so as to not set the foam on fire. Eventually it did. I dumped my water bottle on it, swatted it with a rag, and tried to stomp it out with my foot, but it was down in a place where I couldn't get my boot. From there the fire spread, with black clouds billowing. Someone called the fire dept and the whole shop came out to watch. The reefer was toast. I got an ass chewing but I kept my job, and someone else was set to take the rest of the reefers off.

You REALLY NEED to find another type of work. The boss is a relative, no doubt.

[John Eberly]

In the words of the great Nigel Powers - "There are only two things I can't stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch."

I'm just sayin' - hope you can take a joke 70CB750.

My shop story is really my dad's. Dad was the best guy you'd ever meet, but attacked motor problems with a big hammer first, tried to figure them out later.

His late 60's black Chevy stepside pickup stopped on the road just after fueling it up. He could not get it to so much as cough, so he went to the junkyard and bought a used six banger and swapped it in. Same story, would not fire. He then took the engine back to the yard and got another one - swapped that in too.

It STILL wouldn't run. I was home from school and thought I'd check the "fuel-spark-air" status. I climbed into the engine bay and pulled the fuel line and had him crank it over. Fuel splashed out, but it smelled funny.... kind of like diesel fuel.....

Dad had pulled up to the wrong pump and flled it up with diesel. We drained the tank, got one of the engines running, and never spoke of it again.

Probably ten years later, I pulled a similar stunt. I had a mid 80's Buick LeSabre with a 5.7 liter diesel - a particularly bad GM product. I was fueling it while running, you didn't want to use the starter any more than you had to.  I put in about 10 gallons of fuel and it quit. It NEVER quit, but I finished filling it up and sat in it to start it back up. Cranked and cranked but wouldn't start. Then I got out of the car, went to the fuel filler cap, turned around and reached out and my hand fell on the "premium" pump handle.

I had filled my diesel with gas. The apple fell real close to that tree. I ended up cranking all of that fuel out of the fuel line and into a couple of waste baskets right at the gas station. Refilled with diesel and off I went.

[750cafe]

I have driven various 1970's BMW's, Mercedes, Volkwagons...and pretty sure I could beat these over-rated, fragile, under-powered turds with your basic Cadillac Sedan Deville on any road, curvy or straight.

Ha, not in your wildest dreams unless by curvy you mean Indianapolis, the dullest circuit on the planet.
 

Delta, it sounds like you have had plenty of "ugly American" experiences, and there certainly are plenty to be had, and for that I apologize.  You might want to stop representing yourself as "the cocky little skinny, dickheaded, Euro guy".  You are certainly not winning any popularity contests this way.

On the contrary, I've met the most wonderful people in the states. I just can't stand:
1. praising cars that have been a waste of earthly materials and that are a threat to people that live below sealevel. But you may try selling them elsewhere. Surprise us!
2. childishly wining over gasoline prices that are a joke.
Remember I didn't start it and kept quite for a long time.

How about ALL of the toxic pollution that is produced to make those batteries for hybrid cars/trucks? Burning fossil fuels does not even come close to the pollution that those factories produce!

[70CB750]

John, I am Czech, delta is Dutch 

750cafe, I am afraid that is too complicated for the "yes, you/we can" mentality.

[Pecantree]

Grew up in my dad's Gulf station, mid 60's. It was right across the street from my school.
Would hang out with the guy's, do things like refill the coke machine, add water to the tire leak tank.
My dad would give me a ride on the car lift in the bay. When it was fully up he'd tell me I'd have to jump up and down to make it come down. Made sense to me!
Good thing my mom never walked in while her 7 year old is jumping up and down on that little 18" center part.
Maybe that's why they split.
Now I look back and think it was pretty stupid, but I wouldn't change it for the world!
Steve

[Retro Rocket]

I have driven various 1970's BMW's, Mercedes, Volkwagons...and pretty sure I could beat these over-rated, fragile, under-powered turds with your basic Cadillac Sedan Deville on any road, curvy or straight.

Ha, not in your wildest dreams unless by curvy you mean Indianapolis, the dullest circuit on the planet.
 

Delta, it sounds like you have had plenty of "ugly American" experiences, and there certainly are plenty to be had, and for that I apologize.  You might want to stop representing yourself as "the cocky little skinny, dickheaded, Euro guy".  You are certainly not winning any popularity contests this way.

On the contrary, I've met the most wonderful people in the states. I just can't stand:
1. praising cars that have been a waste of earthly materials and that are a threat to people that live below sealevel. But you may try selling them elsewhere. Surprise us!
2. childishly wining over gasoline prices that are a joke.
Remember I didn't start it and kept quite for a long time.

How about ALL of the toxic pollution that is produced to make those batteries for hybrid cars/trucks? Burning fossil fuels does not even come close to the pollution that those factories produce!

That is your opinion, not a fact, actually you couldn't be more wrong........

[John Eberly]

John, I am Czech, delta is Dutch 

750cafe, I am afraid that is too complicated for the "yes, you/we can" mentality.

My apologies for confusing you with he. No offense meant in either case.

[70CB750]

Non taken - it is not like you took me for Russian or something like that

[Bailgang]

And now back to our regularly scheduled programing.

I once had to borrow a friend of mines truck which happened to be a 4wd, lift kit, big tires and all of which had seen much better days. I hopped in it and started it up but realized I had left my keys in my car so I hopped out to get them but as I was walking back to my friends truck I see that it's going down the road in reverse ..... with nobody in it. Now I'm no top class track sprinter but I can run when motivated and when I saw that truck going down the road all I could think of is that if i don't stop it, it's either going to wipe out someone parked car or punch a hole in the side of someones house and that's all the motivation I needed. I was able to catch up with the truck, dive through the drivers door which fortunately for me was wide open and brought the truck to a stop but that was after it had already wiped out 2 mail boxes and was going across a neighbors lawn. It wasn't until I told my friend about it that he said "oh yeah, I forgot to tell you the shift linkage was shot and has a habit of jumping into reverse on it's own".  Yeah, I kind of figured that out the hard way.

[70CB750]

Not a shop story but still amusing.  My CJ has mechanical clutch linkage and before I replaced the crankshaft it would pop the linkage in bad moment every so often.

The best one was when I was pulling a trailer through the forest to move some logs and sure enough the crankshaft popped and Jeep was puling through the bushes, in low gear and 1st brakes will not hold it;  I always had to turn of the ignition, fix the clutch and try again.  It happened three times before I got the load out of the woods.

[Don R]

A new guy at our shop was early one day, he saw a pheasant get hit by a car and went back to get it. It looked good so he bagged it and took it in the shop to clean it before anyone showed up. As soon as he opened the bag it took off flying around the office, he thought omg what are these guys going to think of me, eating road kill and cleaning it in the sink? He grabbed a broom and finally swatted it down, killed,cleaned and had it in the freezer before anyone came in. He worked there a couple years before he told anyone about it.

[Bob Wessner]

A new guy at our shop was early one day, he saw a pheasant get hit by a car and went back to get it. It looked good so he bagged it and took it in the shop to clean it before anyone showed up. As soon as he opened the bag it took off flying around the office, he thought omg what are these guys going to think of me, eating road kill and cleaning it in the sink? He grabbed a broom and finally swatted it down, killed,cleaned and had it in the freezer before anyone came in. He worked there a couple years before he told anyone about it.

Was his hunting license current? 

[rtbmrgl]

I got in a Audi 5000 in the mid 80's, woman going on vacation was told to top off the coolant. She took the oil cap off and filled engine with a garden hose then ran the car for a short time. After towed into the shop we pushed it out back. Pulled the drain plug, the oil came out like cake batter, it piled into a pyramid. Two hrs later I added AFT, ran for about 30sec, Drained and refilled this 4 times until there was only ATF came out. Changed the oil filter and filled with oil, everything fine, when on her vacation.
Lucky 

[lucky]

While I was working at a shop back in the day.....

Motorcyclists could go at night to gas stations and fill up their tank with what was in the hoses of the gas pumps.
The pump was turned off, but you could fill up the tank if you went to all the pumps at one station.

I had free gas for years until they locked the handle for the gas hose and nozzle to the pump. Some of that gas was the premium stuff.

See- the old days WERE better!

[lucky]

Working at VW shop in mid 70's I was trying to find an air leak on a dual port head Beetle, Its usually at the rubber boot where it goes from single to dual. I have the engine running and spraying Ether, yeah you guest it, the back of the engine lit. Ran to get extinguisher, by time I got back it was out. The funny part was telling my partner and demonstrating what happened, I had the extinguisher not realizing I had pulled the pin out and point to the engine and pulled the trigger. It wouldn't have been bad if it was CO2, but it wasn't, dry chemical is a mess to clean.
I've been in the automotive since '71, a lot of funny stories.

NEVER point a CO2 extinguisher at anyone.
A young man killed a friend when the CO2 froze his lungs. True story.

[rtbmrgl]

While I was working at a shop back in the day.....

Motorcyclists could go at night to gas stations and fill up their tank with what was in the hoses of the gas pumps.
The pump was turned off, but you could fill up the tank if you went to all the pumps at one station.

I had free gas for years until they locked the handle for the gas hose and nozzle to the pump. Some of that gas was the premium stuff.

See- the old days WERE better!

I do remember those days, 

[jonda500]

A couple of decades ago I had a favourite gas station to fill up my DR250 at- one day I had somehow noticed that if you trickled the fuel out slow enough the $ stayed on 0.00! Not wanting the management to notice, I always allowed the numbers to click over to at least 50c - not bad for almost 10 litres of gas! Since then I'm always hoping to come across another pump fault like that, but no such luck...

[evanphi]

A couple of decades ago I had a favourite gas station to fill up my DR250 at- one day I had somehow noticed that if you trickled the fuel out slow enough the $ stayed on 0.00! Not wanting the management to notice, I always allowed the numbers to click over to at least 50c - not bad for almost 10 litres of gas! Since then I'm always hoping to come across another pump fault like that, but no such luck...

Damn these digital doohickeys.

[magnum56]

When I was a young lad, I worked in a engine rebuild shop. 
Big Block Ford motor came in from a small dump truck.  Owner described the problem as "had a knock, then the knock went away, but misses."

Tore it down, and found it had broken a rob bolt.  They had ran it "knocking" for so long that it eventually hammered the rod cap open enough that it could push the connecting rod and piston up into the bore and out of the way of the spinning crank.   

Yup ... that cylinder isn't firing.