Stupid Stuff You've Done

[CJM]

C'mon fess up gang, whats some of the stupid things you have done in life?

I have quite a few of these :)

-Was working on my pickup pulling the driveshaft. Im thinking, well its kinda hard to get out out but its in park. So I manage to pull it and at this point I notice hmm the truck seems to be moving in my garage (which has a slight incline). OH CRAP! I brace the truck with myself under it as if I dont its gonna roll out and smash into another car! Screamed and my dad came out and threw some wood in front of the tire. Lesson learned-dont forget a wheel chock!

-Wear safety glasses! I was grinding something and squinting so as to not get crud in my eyes. You guessed it! I managed to get a hot share in my eye.. I did my best to flush it out and was ok thankfully.

-Was riding my quad and it was so dusty I failed to realize a small hill you go up banks to the left very sharply. I hit it like topped 3rd gear, flew off the quad and the quad landed upright off the hill and kept going with my chasing after it!

-Was loading an old pos suzuki quad into my truck. I had borrowed some ramps and was trying to push it up b/c I felt the ramps were kinda unsafe (they were designed to clip only onto the guys trailer and had very small ends on them). Pushingit isnt working to well, so I get the bright idea Ill ride it up. In 3 seconds I realize Im now on the ground looking up at the sky wit this quad on top of me...

-Was cutting some bolts down to use for whatever. Ever forget things get HOT when you cut them??? I had a hex shape burned on my index and thumb for awhile..

-One time I was installing a cold air intake on a car I had. I saw the mass air flow sensor and tried to disconnect it from the wiring but was having trouble. So me being young and stupid I yank it out-all seems fine at this point I say as it looks like it plugs in. get the CAI on, go to put it back together and realize-I broke the MAF sensor. Ok so whatever it should run so I can go to the junkyard...nope...I had to find a ride and go to 4 diff yards to find one.

[CJM]

this one deserves its own post. Its very long but super funny (well at the time it wasnt)

-BEST ONE!
I was driving to a buddies house when the truck developed a misfire. I get there and we check it out and he says I should go home or to the shop pronto. Homes closer so I leave. On my way back I notice plumes of white smoke are coming out.. Im like wtf??? So I make it back home (barely) and pop the hood.

Turns out the plug spat itself out of the head somehow and cracked the valve cover. Ok no big deal Ill just repair it.

I remove the valve cover and try and JB weld it back together for now. It had cracked at one of the corners.
Get the repair kit and it basically taps the head out for an insert. So too make sure I have no shavings in there I pull the EFI (fuel injection) fuse (no gas) and crank the engine over a few times.

All of the sudden it sounds different. I couldnt see cause the hood was up but it makes a weird tearing noise. I stop and get out and look.

Had left a rag on top of the intake. During cranking over it had fallen into the exposed camshaft gears (dual overhead cams!) and got eaten up pretty bad.

Proceed to remove the rag but realize that I need to take the cam out to do this right. So I remove the cam. Realize at this point theone cam comes out easy-the other is on my timing belt with a pulley.

Ok no big deal, but then I realize-Ive removed this cam slightly and now the timing belt and pulley arent in line right. NOOOOOO!!!

Alright after much profanity, screaming and doing the pissed off dance I realize I just need to think how to fix this.

I try my hardest to reset the timing belt. No dice, I need a special tool. Call all my buds and no one has this thing. I finally get one shipped to my house in a few days. Thankfully I had a work truck at the time at least.

Finally get this tool. by now the sparkplug is fixed and I bought a used valve cover. Put the tool on and crank the hell out of it. What it does is push an idler near the waterpump to take the tension off the belt so you can set everything in time.

Ok everythings in time....WAIT I cant get the stupid idler in the middle of the pulleys on! I try and try and try eevry which way, its fruitless everytime I try the timing belt is off a tooth or more. Finally after 4 frustrating hours I grab the idler and put the bolt in and push with all my weight on the belt and barely manage to thread the bolt in. I tighten the bolt home and thank god Im done.

Start the truck up and realize-the valves DONT sound right. Im like wtf at this point..this is REALLY getting to me
:mad: I read and re-read the manual thinking I missed something. After much thinking Im like "maybe the valve went out of adjustment when I got the rag stuck in or the plug spat out???" Check the valves, they need to be shimmed slightly. I begin to track down shims when I have an idea.

My friend is a mechanic at a shop, he just so happens to work on this brand of truck. I call him. he goes "wait, so you put it all back together and its tapping?? Your sure its right". Of course its right I tell him. Thats when he asks me "did you put the bolt in the cam?" WTF is that?? Bolt in the cam? "Oh yea its spring loaded!" Much grumbling and cursing later I take the cam out (thankfully that ones not the timing belt pulley driven cam!

Ok so now I gotta get the cam to line up a certain way. Its spring loaded and the springs are very very strong. The book shows a special tool. A special tool I dont have and cant find (well I found it, but they wanted 300 bucks!). Friend of mine at the shop is 3 states away. AHAHHAHA I look around my shop and notice-the channel lock oil filter pliers I have have teeth that just so happen to match the cam gears teeth!.

Ok get it setup, bolt in, put the cam back in, remove bolt, it spring loades in place.

BINGO! Truck fires right up and is fine..

[quad2xtreme]

put a 400ex back together but had the offset on the engine spacers wrong which meant I did the same to the swingarm spacers. Everything was ready to go except putting the chain on...when I figured all this out.

The one thing that ticked me off the most was I couldn't get the exhaust back on properly so I was convinced this used frame I bought was actually bent. I ended up bending the exhaust to get it all to line up. That was the point at which I should have realized I had the engine spacers in wrong. Argh!!!

Ah, and I married my high school sweetheart! Two stupid things I did in one thread.

[mike2001400ex]

1) decided to follow my buddy in a wheelie and we were doing 2nd gear wheelies through a tiny field using a little hold to pull it up easier. he stops his and starts to go slow i still have mine and decided i'll go by him and scare him well he didnt know i was behind him and turned slammed on the brakes and t-bone him and bend his hub a little it was all better after he took his wheel off though.

2)tried to climb a little hill it was really small but i went all the way to the side that got real steep. decided i could do it start going up and dodge the thorn bush and when im almost at the top i noticed that the tree roots were out and it put my quad straight up but i saved it and started to roll down but got stuck in the thorn bush so i had to get off and get the thorns and unwrap them from the axel and covered myself in them.

3) going on a rain ride when it was barely raining then when we were strapping down the quads it poured and it was 8:30 and looked pitch black so we couldn't see the straps.

4) going to the Poconos in November for my neighbors birthday and we went on a hiking trail. we all had waterproof boots so we walked through the little streams and then we went in too deep and had to be freezing the rest of the hike.

[TheLane]

One time i bought a polaris.

[HondaRacing83]

id take up a few pages. im a bit of a dumbass

[CJM]

I got more:

1. Was working for a company who does AAA service. The guy had service vans that did basically everything but towing. I was given an older ford van with a 5.0 that couldnt get out of its own way.

I told him the u-joint was going I thought but he ignored me. I pull up to a light and take off a bit hard. U joint busted and the d-shaft stopped dead in its tracks. Entire rear tube spun and I had to limp the truck back.

They fix it by re balancing the shaft and welding the tube back in place. Im driving along and notice an odd vibration after awhile. Feels like a tires flat but I look and dont notice anything. So I figure Ill just stop at another persons shop thats about 1/8 mile from me as soon as I cross over the highway.

I dont even make it to the shop-Im 100ft from it when the pass rear wheel flops off. The van falls on the drum on that side and the wheel rolls over into a sign onthe side of the road and falls over.

I put the lightbar on and call my boss who is gonna send the tow truck for me. Meanwhile a cop had been sitting in front of me at that light and coems over and asks if Im ok. he laughs and says but your the AAA guy.

Owner of that shop laughed his arse off from across the street.

[sexysilverado45]

lol at the tittle of this thread. It could be endless with stories. I suppose I'll throw in one of mine from high school.

Every Wednesday night when i was a freshmen and sophomore our church would have these youth meetings at one of my neighbors house out in the country. And every Wednesday night after this get together we would go down the road a half mile to this other road that was abandoned. It was mild off-roading for about a half mile then there was an area that had a creek washout that had about a 4-5ft gentle slope down into what was turned into a pond. well one of my buddies took his 1960's 2 wheel drive dodge pickup down it thinking he could make it and long story short he didn't so I decided I would pull him out. I hooked up and started to go and my truck started to slide off the road towards a huge drop off where the creek had washed out off the side of the road. At this point even unhooking and trying to drive out my truck would have continued to slide off the road so its now 11pm on school night/work night and I had to call my dad to get out of bed and get the tractor and drive 3miles down the road to come pull us out. We had my truck hooked up to the dodge, tractor to my truck, eventually another truck hooked up to the tractor because it was sliding too. Long story short we didn't get out till about 2 and had to wash the tractor off. Best *** ripping i've probably ever received.

[dxcody]

I seem to recall a thread like this a while back.

I inspired it after I left that 5/16 steel ball out of my buddies dirtbike, but noticed and found it before I did anything dumb.

Lol

I will post some later, when I get back on.

CJM you know better than anyone, I can flat screw some stuff up!

haha

[CJM]

^ Yea you can screw some stuff up good man!

Ive done alot of stupid stuff tho, more than I can even remember.

[250x_kyle]

grabbed the wrong can of gas and blew up my cousins cement saw.

my buddie and i decided to go fourwheeling back in the hills where theres no cell service and its a few mile walk in about a foot and a half of snow. all was well till my buddie slid past a turn and decided to drive over the bank instead. next thing i know the trucks pretty much on its side burried in snow and were two miles from civilization.

had my buddy weld a few things together while i preped a few peices to be welded on next and for some reason i decided to grab the freshly welded part with my bare hand.

for got to set my z offset at work one day (was also rushing and forgot to turn rapid down as well) and slammed a pretty expensive drill into a really hard part making it explode.

put a new clutch basket and everything in a yfz and forgot the little ball and had to tear everything back apart.

[dxcody]

http://www.exriders.com/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=493801

This thread, explains all my luck.

If I can screw up a transmission over a CASE SAVER bolt... Well, you get the point.

[blacknblue#2]

My old man always told me i could screw up an anvil with a glass hammer...

[MX MaNiAc 06]

Originally posted by TheLane
One time i bought a polaris.

Yep that's at the top of my list too.

[Lquad71]

Well I was actually with my buddy when this happened but if I had brought my phone then i would say none of it would have been my fault but anyways here goes.

This happened in i think may of 2012 up in some hills by my house. My buddy just got a prerunner off craigslist and boy was that thing a pos and his driving wasnt too great either. I grabbed my moto helmet in fear of him driving off a cliff(pretty much did a few times). So we are out in these hills and the seats sit so low you cant really see over the hood but he decides he should pin it over a crest and turns out it was more of a valley filled with sand and rocks sticking out. We were going to fast to stop and hit all the rocks on the way down and after many horrible slamming and scraping noises later we notice we are in a bit of a pickle. Every time we would try to move it wouldnt go anywhere. We did everything we could think of(ive been stuck a lot and never had to be towed) but to no avail. Trying so many different things we tried one of the lines that was basically up straight rocks and after we did that it started overheating and spewing coolant everywhere. Then yes, we ran out of gas. And yes, his phone that he said we could use, died. and yes, of course i didnt bring my phone. being miles from the nearest lights we decided to take as much as we could that was important and head off into the night to the closest light. After about 2 hours of walking through the brush and hills, we encountered a gas station. At the gas station he got his phone charged and called a friend to pick us up. we went out there, had a little adventure trying get his truck unstuck as he almost did the same thing just not as bad then decided we would try it tomorrow and hope the truck would be ok over the night. After many hours the next day of trying more and more things, we used a 300ft long chain and managed to get a f350 diesel throughout the mountains to finally pull the truck up and out.

Honestly it was fun but i wouldnt want to do it again. and if it was my truck i dont think i would be saying it was fun.haha

[OldGuyonaQuad]

After my last ride I went to the car wash, I had the quad loaded backwards(we had two in the bed so it was easier backwards) and it was pulled back with a tie down so the wheelie bar didn't go through my back window. so i drop the tail gate while washing it and sure enough I forgot to put it up when I left the car wash.

First left turn I took the quad went out the back and landed on the handle bars smashing the starter button and kill switch to a pancake. The steering stem is bent and the wheelie bar needs to be replaced. Not sure if the handle bars are toast or not but luckily by brother and I recently split a parts quad and it appears everything I need is in place. I still feel like a dumb *** and thank god nobody was right behind me ;)

[CJM]

^ That sucks!

Least you had all of the parts tho. Shame it couldnt have landed like my 400 did in PA-amazing only the tire came off the bead and the grab bar was toast in the end.

[dxcody]

I'm sorry Oldguy, but I would be rolling if I saw that. LOL

I mean I have done stuff like that before. Hell I left my quad out in the middle of the road one day after unloading it out of the back of the truck, at a buddies house, and some car was honking and stuff... My fault, but you can bet they still got a middle finger and a big F*ck you!

[hondariderdylan]

Me and a few friends decided to pull a mid 90's kawi bayou 220 out of the woods because we had one extra person with nothing to ride. So we stripped down the negative battery cable and wrapped the wire through the post and held it there with a hose clamp. Then bungee corded a cushion on it because the seat was laying in a 3 foot ant bed. Then after we pulled on the cord for what seemed like an hour, we dumped in a whole bottle of octane booster and decided to drag it around the yard with an F250 to crank it because we were lazy. Well i sat on the back rack so the tires would grab while my friend was sitting on the seat(er, cushion) to drop it in gear. So we get to hauling *** around the side of the house, doing about 15 or 20 and immediately cut to the right........ while i continued to go straight. Right headlong into the ground. And had a crick in my neck for almost a week.

So after 3 more hours of that we did what any intelligent rednecks would do. We wasted about 6 boxes of 12Ga. shells. Hooked it up between two diesels and managed to stretch the frame out about 2 foot longer and then made a nice bonfire with it:macho

[OldGuyonaQuad]

Yea no worries I had to laugh a little too once I saw that nobody was right behind me, it sucks if the tie downs werent on there it would have probably landed on the wheels, oh well I've done more damage to my old quad just trying to load it ;)

[CJM]

Just remembered this one today:

Was felling trees for a landscaper and we used a machete to cut down the limbs to make them easier to load.

Im wearing those heavy suede work gloves and chopping away. I realize at some point-these gloves dont allow me to hold this thing well..But nah I continue on. TILL I SMACK MY SHIN WITH THE MACHETE!

Sucker was a good 1/4 in there and despite not cutting my pants too much it was about 2 inches long. Wouldnt stop bleeding either. I finally wrapped it in electrical tape.

Continued working the rest of the day and finally got me some butterfly bandages at like 7pm. For the next month I cleaned the wound with peroxide and prayed it wouldnt get infected and butterfly bandages were awesome. I probably needed stitches lol.

[OldGuyonaQuad]

While replying to bucks burn thread I recalled one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I lit myself on fire!

Five years ago following a bad storm I had large tree branches in my yard that I wanted to get rid of before my daughter's 8th grade graduation party. Well my buddy Ron refused to lend me his chain saw because he didn't want to be liable( having been familiar with my obvious lack of mechanical skills) and he wound up with a 1/4" gash in his right shin. So he chopped em up some what for me and lends me his chimney to burn the wood. It had a spout in the top so I was feeding the branches down through the top.

I forgot that earlier I accidentally spilled some gasoline on my t shirt and hands while filling the weed whacker, well a branch got stuck so I banged on it a couple of times and when I pull my hand back it;s on fire & the next thing I knew I was on fire from the waist up. I pulled my shirt up and over my head, dropped and rolled. I'm sure it didn't last more then 2 or 3 seconds but it felt like forever and I for the only time in my life thought for those few infinite seconds that I was going to die.

I ran into the house and got the wife to drive me to the hospital. I was so annoyed I told the same f in story 12 times to 10 different people and the doctor still insisted there was an explosion and I inhaled smoke leading to a chopper ride to Temple. (gotta keep them state grants coming )

By the time we got there my hands literally looked and felt like I had hockey gloves on. I could hardly move my fingers.

Wound up with second degree burns to my hands, arms and face. Heh my face healed almost instantly everyone said it looked like I had a facial (so many membranes in the face aiding the healing process) but my hands and one arm to this day have some scarring. I still consider myself lucky and I maintain a great level of fear and respect for fire and flammable accelerates.

[CJM]

^ never set myself on fire. Came close but never actually did it.

[dxcody]

I just typed this big long then and then accidently hit X... That is one stupid thing... OK here I go again..

When I was in 6th grade, my dad worked as a Manager in the shipping department for a place.

He had these big rolls of stretch wrap, and me and my 2 friends that were always together, always wanted one, so we could stretch wrap something..

Well one day guess what! We got ahold of about half a roll.

We have no idea what to do with it once we get it.. But hey, WE HAVE A FREAKING ROLL OF stretch wrap!

We are sitting up stairs in his room, and we decide, DUDE LET'S STRETCH WRAP ONE OF US! ... I am the guinea pig in everything, so GUESS WHO IS THE ONE GETTING WRAPPED!

So they wrap me from ankle to shoulder in stretch wrap, with my arms down at my side...

Then they say, Hey! Let's go down stairs and show his parents!

GREAT IDEA! I hop over to the staircase, and then it hits me... How the F*ck, Am i going to get down these freaking stairs??

Bingo, light bulb clicked... THEY ARE GOING TO CARRY ME!

So I lay/fall down on my back, My buddy Brady grabs my head, my buddy Darrick grabs my legs... We get like 3 steps down and Brady drops my head, Darrick drops my legs... *CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK* down I go... Like 15 stairs...

Wasn't hurt, or injured of any way... But by the time we get to the bottom I am freaking out ya know, I mean I can't move my arms or legs, I am getting frustrated..

But anyways, we got a picture, they cut me out of the wrap... Then we went and wrapped the neighbors car..

Fun night.. Would do it again, in a heartbeat LOL