Your biggest rookie mechanic goof!!

[blacknblue#2]

After reading dxcody dirtbike thread it made me think of a good thread that could turn interesting....What was one of your biggest rookie mechanic goofs when you started wrenching on stuff for yourself or others??? Mine happened about 05 when me and a good buddy tore into my 450R after the first of a couple crank failures....We took our time cleaning, checking and inspecting everything. We were bein all cautious in putting stuff back together, We got the whole bottom end back together and was about to start on the top when i say "Murph what the f*** is this thing?"......."Well according to the manual it looks like its the oil pump and it sets between the cases" :cuss: hahaha. So all the way back apart it came..After that everything got watched even closer, But hey in my opinion its stuff like that that teaches ya how to become a better mechanic...At least the quad wasnt up and running when we realized it :p

[buck440]

with my first 2 stroke i took the cylinder off and filled the case with preemix:blah: i thought that's where it went lol.


found a shop rag in the intake boot and exhaust ports.

had motor rebuilt and they bored it without telling me and they didn't know what size it was.

[dxcody]

I saw the name of this thread an wondered if maybe i inspired it.. :D


Lets see, i have a few.


On my YFZ i took the cams off and dropped one of the half moons down into the cases.. Yep that was fun.

On a 400ex i put the cam sprocket bolts on and didnt use loc tite, well after about 25 mins of riding my cam sprocket fell off eating the head all to crap and ruined my hotcam :mad:

On the same 400ex, i over tightened the clutch pressure plate bolts and the entire clutch blew apart in my engine, snapping the clutch arm, unwinding 2 of the clutch springs and basically killed the right half of my motor, and ate my clutch cover.

expensive learning right there...

But on a different note, i feel so much more in tact with my mechanic skills now.

Nothing has really gone bad for me in a while. I assembled the top end of a z400 since then and nothing went wrong with it.

Now i have actually learned, if you have a bad feeling, or dont think something is right, it saves you big bucks and troubles if you ask or do your research instead of the "Oh well it will be ok."

Man i was stupid.. :grr:

[smr]

This takes me back to the early 90's. I was a young 20 something. I had a 93 300ex that was one of the sharpest bikes around. It had everything down to the works shocks.

This was my first 4 stroke. I had torn apart many 2 strokes so I wasn't worried.

Well one day I decided it was time to adjust the vavles. I put the crank on the T and checked the valves.....WOW was those things tight. I didn't understand how it was even running. Well it took forever to get them adjusted. I was satisfied with a job well done. I hit the start buttun and it would turn over but not start. I set there scratching my head for most of the day trying to figure out what was going on. All at once it clicked in my head. I had adjusted the vavles 180 degrees off. I had overlooked the fact that the crank turns twice to every one rotation of the cam. So I lined it up again this time the piston at TDS. Everything turned out fine I just spent most of the day trying to figure out what happened.

[KXRida]

Dropped a bolt on the magneto and didn't know it until I got everything all back together and gave it a healthy kick. That's such a terrible feeling when the kicker abruptly stops mid way and you hear a loud screech.

[CJM]

Was putting on my piston and I dropped a circlip inside the bottom end, I got a magnet and found it. Ever since then I make it a point to not forget to put a rag in there.

I didnt do it to a quad, but i FUBAR'd my pick up once. Had a spark plug blow out of the head for some reason. They had a good 50k on them and I dont understand why it blew. So I got the repair kit, and realize that the valve cover is also busted somehow (from the pressure IDK?). So I had that off and I cranked over the engine to get the shavings out of the head from when I tapped it for the insert for the plug.

I left a rag on the intake and it went into my dual cams as I cranked the engine over. I had to remove the cams and pick rag out of it for hours. Then i realize the timing is gonna be off b/c I moved the belt by removing the cam. OH WAIT-you need a special tool to take the tension off. Wait for special tool to come rush shipping, put back together and dont realize (at this point I was annoyed and not paying much attention I think) the one cam gear is SPRING LOADED. Take it apart again, reset the cam, put back together and the JB weld I used to repair the valve cover didnt hold up. Finally found a valve cover on ebay and put it on.

That F'n plug is NEVER EVER EVER COMING OUT!

[HondaRacing83]

Lol ive only got a few. My dad catches me. The first one, I was rushing to put a wheel on because i just got my tire patched last summer and was gonna go ride. I didnt put the bolts on so the radiused part is oninside like its supposed to and my dad came out and was like brandon what is this ****! im like damn lol. another was i was putting my protapers back on for like the 10th time and was so excited to get other parts on because i had a bunch, i put them on and didnt realized i didnt centered them. once again my dads like brandon you dumbass look at your quad and tell me whats wrong. im like damn lol

[fastredrider44]

I got one of those nifty aluminum oil fill caps for my 450. I didn't get it tight enough and it worked it's way out and I locked up a brand new motor, top and bottom.

Different 450, didn't tighten the drain plug after putting a new motor in the frame. I assumed it was tight, and locked up a different brand new motor.

I left a tranny gear out of my g/f's CR85 that I rebuilt the other day. Didn't catch it until I had the cases back together and top end on. Got it all back together only to realize that the washer for that same gear that had stuck to the bearing with oil fell off, and had to split it all over again.

I've broken two clutch hubs using an impact to tighten the outer ub down to speed things up. I have found that those hubs get fatigued and to never use an impact no matter how slow or light you try to go.

[Tommy Warren]

I dropped valve shims down the timing chain hole more times than I can count.

right now I'm doing a frame up build on my raptor....I tore it apart a year ago and never wrote down where all the bolts go...:rolleyes:

over tightened a-arm mounting bolts so when the suspension goes down it doesn't come back up.

[buck440]

forgot to put the castle nut on the rear hub...ruined axle and hub.


forgot to put master link clip in chain...undone chain and wicked bind between case and front sprocket.

[Tommy Warren]

Originally posted by buck440



forgot to put master link clip in chain...undone chain and wicked bind between case and front sprocket.

I did that on my old Trx.... cracked the case pretty bad... I slapped on some JB weld and sold it

[Ruby Soho]

believe it or not when i started wrenching i didnt **** much anything up. i was to cautious. although ive done some of the dumb too. dropped wristpin clips in bottom ends (yes retrieved without splitting cases), assembled a klx110 transmission together with 1st gear upside down (in my defense the engine was purchased in a million pieces...) stripped spark plug hole while unthreading a plug that had mushroomed from a detonating piston. (how was i supposed to know..it locked up!)

[madskrillz2]

I still do dumb stuff if I'm in a hurry. Like, for example, not checking bolts and having your a arm come out on the face of a jump making you lawn dart into the ground head first. My very first mistake was probably having a stripped dipstick (don't ask) and losing it half way through a race, blowing smoke and oil everywhere. What made it even worse is having to explain what happened. "Hey man did you blow your motor?!" Me saying in a mumbled voice: "Ilostmydipstick"

[01boneless]

the time i worked for 5 hours trying to figure out why the cam chain on my 450 was so tight even without a tentioner.... well the cam chain guide was in upside down hahahahahah

[atvfrk10]

I can only think of two that I've witnessed.

The first, I wrecked my quad. When I got back on it, the front brakes weren't working so I called it a day. I went home, re-bled the brakes, nothing. So we got a brake rebuild kit, re-bled and still nothing. After about a day of tinkering we found that the spindle broke in half and when the brakes were pressed, the spindle pushed the brake pads off the disk....

The second, which I'm still a little pissed about, we just got a swing arm re-powder coated and we put it back on. We couldn't get the rear brake caliper back on, so we thought, hey maybe the power coat is to thick, thus not allowing enough clearance to bolt it on. We grinned it down still nothing but a lot closer... So for some reason we ground the swing arm just a bit and WA-la it fit. Then we put the chain on and adjusted it, noticing that by moving the bearing carrier, the brake caliper raised up...
:(

[zyoung04]

Ill share one of mine and a couple of my friends deals bill will know who im talking about my first experience with rebuilding a honda 450 ended with me and a buddy forgetting one of the 2dark timing chain guides it wasn't ours so we just ground the nub off got it in there and bolted it back together and everything was fine lol

A buddy of mine put together a cr125 and put rear end grease on the wrist pin thkinkg it would work and needless to say it didn't

Another friend the one I helped put the honda 450 together with has always had a problem with over tightening bolts still to this day well the drain in the bottom of his case now has a 9/16" bolt in the bottom of it bcuz he has twisted it out so many times

[01boneless]

Originally posted by zyoung04


A buddy of mine put together a cr125 and put rear end grease on the wrist pin thkinkg it would work and needless to say it didn't

Another friend the one I helped put the honda 450 together with has always had a problem with over tightening bolts still to this day well the drain in the bottom of his case now has a 9/16" bolt in the bottom of it bcuz he has twisted it out so many times

:eek: on the wrist pin lol
and yup when i bought my 450 it had a striped drain plug...come to find out it was tapped out to a 7/16 (ask bill hahah) and u couldent go bigger without hitting the other case. so it now has a 7/16 helicoil in it..

[tjsdaname]

I have been pretty lucky... worst I have had is a rear tire fall off during practice lol.....

[blacknblue#2]

Originally posted by zyoung04

Another friend the one I helped put the honda 450 together with has always had a problem with over tightening bolts still to this day well the drain in the bottom of his case now has a 9/16" bolt in the bottom of it bcuz he has twisted it out so many times

I can picture him in my head now, drainplug bolt, half inch drive ratchet, 3 foot pipe and nothing but teeth while he is torquing that beetch down

The worst thing about this statement is this same dude works for GE aviation, Think about that next time you step foot on a GE powered jet

[CSR400EX]

Hmmm.... ive got a few.

Forgot to put cotter pins in the hub nuts on my old 400 twice, needless to say i got passed by my tire.

Didnt tighten the cam gear bolts on a raptor 660 and after 5 mins they backed out and snapped a brand new cam in half lol.

Dropped bolts, shims, clips down in the bottom end of a few of my quads.

Didn't know that 450R's had two drain plugs for oil and only drained the motor, overfilled the transmission and it blew out my countershaft seal and covered me in oil while riding.

Most recent one was re-used thrust washers in my Quadzilla and they came apart and destroyed a BRAND NEW piston and bore within two weeks.

[TheLane]

Dropped a ***Copper*** washer down the spark plug hole.

Forgot to tighten down the nuts on my valve lash adjustment screws... and they came off....inside my motor...while the bike was running.

[sangheraent]

I have been very unlucky.
I have improperly installed a c clip blew my motor with 10 seconds of run time.
also rebuilt a motor and didn't put new fuel in the tank detonated and blew it in a minute.


actually the funniest thing I have ever done is use a drill to install a very expensive sub woofer and then slip and put a drill through a brand new sub woofer.

[finsteratv]

Putting the wrong bolt in the wrong hole..It was to short but was the standard 8mm honda engine bolt..went to torque it down and POP..broke off in my case. I had to go to NAPA since the day before I snapped my bolt extractor also..Went and bought those only to not need em and get the bolt out fine..haha..I also cross threaded a 400ex oil line after putting on new headers at the top of the tank. Thread chaser fixed that all up.

[THARNESS]

I finished a brand new 90mod build at 2am the day before Lorettas. All that was left was a gas cap which I forget to buy so I grabbed the one off the riding mower. It fit perfect, so I put the quad in the trailer and hit the road. It would start and run fine in the trailer and pits, but on the track it would make about half a lap and die. I spent so much time that day taking carb apart looking for debris, grinding the powdercoat off where the ground wire bolted, jetting and re jetting. Changed coil,stator,cdi you name it. I finally decieded to look inside the tank for any possible obstruction. When I began to open the cap I heard the air get sucked in from the vacume that had been created. Boy I felt like a doofus.

[BlaineKaiser450]

I forgot to put the torque converter in the transmission before mounting it in my Plymouth, felt like an idiot after that one

[atvnut22]

rolled the 450 at a riding park breaking off my handlebars and twisting all my controls. after rigging my bars back on enough to ride it out, i start it up and the throttle sticks. for 2 weeks i piddled with it taking the throttle apart, cleaning the springs, put a new cable on it. turns out the throttle lever was rubbing on the brake clamp causing it to stick...:o

[buck440]

forgot about this one...took motor out of 01 cr250r to replace cylinder gasket. spent about an hour scraping the old gasket off. put cylinder on, motor back in and when i was looking for my torque wrench i noticed that i forgot to put the damn gasket in.

i was so mad at myself and it was such a pain in the *** to pull the motor out and put it i just left it for a week before i fixed it.

[88redrocket]

The other day I started my LTR with the butt plug still in the muffler......twice :ermm:

[rbgnwa45]

I put new spokes on both wheels on my dirtbike and realized after I finished I did it wrong :o.

[russellsroost31]

well one of my "greatest" things that ive done on many occasions is i forget to put the nut on the end of the bolt so i dont f@#$ up the threads when i hit it with a hammer :o
or another one is i didnt tighten the main jet
so that night during pratice at summit i cam around the cornor to and pinned it and all of a sudden the bike just bogged out and i cased it so badly
so then i had to rebuild the carb in the trailor and as soo as i put the las plastic bolt in my buddy came running from the building yellin that our race was up, i ended up with 3rd

[Tommy Warren]

the valves where screwed on my old 300ex so I had to hold the gas to get it started. So I pulled the clutch and hit the gas....she fired right up into a high rev and I let go of the clutch but it was in gear.....away it went all by itself into my house smashing out the basement window...

[finsteratv]

Originally posted by Tommy Warren
the valves where screwed on my old 300ex so I had to hold the gas to get it started. So I pulled the clutch and hit the gas....she fired right up into a high rev and I let go of the clutch but it was in gear.....away it went all by itself into my house smashing out the basement window...
We're talking about mechanic mistakes...Not drunken mistakes ;)

[axellmusic19]

Originally posted by 88redrocket
The other day I started my LTR with the butt plug still in the muffler......twice :ermm:

HAHAHA story of my life!