Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Your worst ever dumb ass mechanical mistake

[sparkin]

Tantrum That is so funny now,wasn`t at the time tho(nah it was),you gave me a right load of ear ache for telling you to use that carb cleaner on that french peice of crap,if you weren`t cleaning the carb, you were changing drive shafts

I was no better tho,I was welding them bloody old minis up
Those were the days

[crm250]

Back in 1986 i had an AR80, nice bike when 17 years old but needed a bit more go so it was treated to the following. Autisa 93cc barrel and allspeed pipe and K&N filter.

Sadly it was a tad unreliable (but damn quick) and used to detonate badly and overheat big time. The airfilter stopped you riding it in the wet.

Now as for bodges, firstly the kickstart stripped its splines so i inserted needles into the gaps, tightened the pinch bolt and snapped off the excess pins after.
Secondly, i stripped the barrel stud from the crankcase, so to put the barrel and head back on inserted a coach bolt from the top, removed the flywheel and gene, and put a nut on the underside and ground off the excess.
And sadly the worst one was as follows. on the AR the primary drive on the end of the crank was secured by a rubber / metal star type bush. These shattered under the massive HP hike of the said 93cc kit. Anyway i welded the primary gear to end of the crank directly. did the job but sadly you needed to grind away the end of the crank for each rebuild - which was every 1500 miles with the amount of seizures.
I have a good school friend to thank for the above tips, sadly he is no longer with us and some of you may have heard or remember him. His name was ian dugdale from dugdale motors in helsby. He came to my rescue many a time in the van and we took the poorly AR back to the workshop for its welding / bodging.

[Jon]

No mishaps wih bikes but I did once ( never again) change the cam belt on my Renult traffic. like others I was called in just as I was putting the pully back on. Whan I returned I tighend the pulley nut up, put all the other bits on and then tried to start it. It wouldn't fire up so I called the wife to start it while I took a look under the bonnet. It soon became clear that the pulley was not turning STOP I shouted, but it was all invain I#d already done the damage myself. 8 Bent valves The bloody woodruff key had slipped out and i hadn't noticed.

[Edited on 3-3-2006 by Jon]

[nelly]

Originally posted by BDG
Any confessions from Nelly or Shazaam?

Like i'd own up to that one

[rockhopper]

Originally posted by crm250

I have a good school friend to thank for the above tips, sadly he is no longer with us and some of you may have heard or remember him. His name was ian dugdale from dugdale motors in helsby. He came to my rescue many a time in the van and we took the poorly AR back to the workshop for its welding / bodging.

Blimey, Ian Dugdale is a blast from the past. I didn't know him personally but i knew the shop very well.

I used to go out with a girl from Frodsham and she knew the Dugdales. What happened?
Do you know the guys who used to own Ellesmere Port Motorcycle centre?

[Edited on 4-3-2006 by rockhopper]

[Monty]

Not a bodge of mine but a funny story just the same. I used to have a VW beatle which was well tuned up, 1600cc engine, 4 barrel holley carb, the works. Anyway I was doing something to it and had both front wheels off, mate of mine came round and said he'd give me a hand to refit them. Usual story, my mum called us in for tea, my mate then went home and I went out. I got about 2 miles before the nearside front wheel (the one he didn't tighten) came off-first I saw was the wheel flying over the roof just as the car crashed down on the brake drum-bloody sparks everywhere. Anyway once it had ground to a halt I retrieved the wheel, robbed a stud from each of the other 3 and refitted it and carried on-tough cars beatles.............

John

[uncle porry]

One of my customers tried to fit his own sat nav & hands free kit....he gave up, and called me in to put it right....this is what greeted me !

[crm250]

Originally posted by uncle porry
One of my customers tried to fit his own sat nav & hands free kit....he gave up, and called me in to put it right....this is what greeted me !

what the hell, looks like the making of a thin blue flame running round the length of the car

[Rob B]

BDG,

This has to be one of the best threads in ages.........

Rgds, Rob

P.S. Just off out now, but I'll jot down a near miss later.

[Paul James]

OK hands up. I once reassembled the crancases on a pre unit Bonneville but forgot to put the crankshaft back in.

Car wise I recently undid the top nut on front suspension strut on my lads car to replace the coil spring. Wondered why the nut seemed a bit tight until it came of the thread sending the top spring retaining plate at some velocity straight into my face. Got to admit that my blood ran a bit on the chilly side as this has been known to kill before now !. Waited for the blood to come pouring out of my nose and eyes but it didn't happen. Quick change of underwear and mental note not to forget the spring clamps next time !!!

Tin hat on

[Edited on 4-3-2006 by Paul James]