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

[rockhopper]

Originally posted by chief
Changed the cam belt on my Escort RS2000 rally car. Shut the fiberglass bonnet.
Started it up........only to see a 19mm ring spanner smashed through the said bonnet at great speed hit the ceiling of my garage and come down with such force it smashed the windscreen

moral of this tale....dont leave a spanner on the front crank pully bolt

Pure class!!

[BDG]

Any confessions from Nelly or Shazaam?

Where are You Shazaam, been very quiet of late?

[gasmanrus]

decided the chain & sprockets on my old fzr400 track day bike could do with a clean up.
got bored quickly & decided while it was on the paddock stand why not start her up, put it in 1st and let the engine do the work?

3 seconds later i'm running round my neighbours kitchen with a mangled index finger.

never mind, chicks dig scars

[Loz]

I once re-connected the HT leads on my Suzuki GT750 in the wrong order and started it.
I never knew a motorcycle could make that much noise. I didn't know anything could make that much noise.

My local dealer told me what I'd done wrong (the first of many similar embarrassments, it should be said).

[Tantrum992]

Come ere... theres more When i was 18 i had a Renault 18 GTX (you can stop laughing now, it was all i could afford at the time) was supposed to be a sporty model yo know twin Webbers and go faster stripes , any way it had been running a bit crappy for a while, felt starved of fuel.....i couldnt be arsed with pulling the webbers apart to take a look at the jets so i purchased some Wurz carb cleaner!!!!!! with my wife in the driver seat and me under the bonnet i proceeded to spray the carb cleaner into the carb as she revved the engine, go on i yelled, give it some......and she did just as i sprayed for my life into the carb trumpets.............aaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuggghhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!! the whole lot i sprayed blew back into my face, or more procisely my "f" ing eyes.........you may well sit there and laugh but i was in agony!!!!! i couldnt open my eyes, and as i stumbled across the road screaming and tripping over the curb, all i could here was that cow i married laughing her double D's off!!!!!!! whats that all about ?????? after a trip to the local quacks and then A and E i came home.......................but not as the same man i was earlier........ after having several eye baths with various solutions i was left with bright orange rings about 1/2" thick around both eyes.......... the skin was stained for about 2 weeks, so for 2 weeks i went about my normal life looking like an "f" ing panda only the rings around my eyes were orange

this is one sparkin may well remember as i new him in those days:P

[Ains.]

Early 1980's serviced my old H*nda 400/4F2. Fitted a new chain and sprockets.
Just about finished fitting it and got called in fer mi tay.
Next morning out to the bike and sets off for work.
Gets to the A2 bow-water roundabout, slings it in left and then right. Next thing i know I'm on my ar*e watching the 400 slide up the road bounce off the kerb and cause all kinds of damage. I follow suit and end up in Gillingham hospital with the biggest bruise on my ar*e ever seen.

Yup you've guessed it; I fitted the front sprocket but failed to do it up tight having got called in for tea, then forgot all about it. It came off and it, plus the chain wrapped round the swing arm and locked the back end up.

Ains.

[adam]

Tantrum, that was a tonic reading that, excellent.

[andyb]

Originally posted by adam
Tantrum, that was a tonic reading that, excellent.

Adam......surely yours involves a big hammer?

[Ains.]

Or better still. You know the chemistry O Level experiment at school where you get a lighted wooden splint and poke it into a test tube of hydrogen and you get a 'pop'.

Well, having charged the battery up over night I said to t'other arf and the bros-outlaw who was down for a visit; hey watch this.
Match across the top and a neat little machine effect of popping across the open filler vents.
Oh yes very good. Linda is not impressed and the bros-outlaw is mildly amused.

So, gets the other battery that had been on charge and did the same thing. KA-BOOOM .Sulphuric acid all over the place. The end cell had exploded and was all over the kitchen, that's right not in the garage.
I'm splashed with it, so are the ali cooking pots and the new kitchen knives. Ooh ow that smarts.
We still have the bread knife 23 years later and it's still got the acid stains on it!

Ains.

[Herb]

A guy I knew lost the end of his finger when he stuck it between the chain and front sprocket (no shroud) whilst on the move. He was trying to push the gear lever back on the splined shaft. I think it was a KH250.

Worst I have done is to strip the thread on the cam cap putting my honda 250 back together. Had an insert fitted and promptly stripped the thread on one of the other caps. Bought a torque wrench after that.