Typical bonehead move

[Paul Johnson]

Putting new bushings in the steering column turned out to be easier than expected. However, there was difficulty in wiring up the column, and I'm supposed to be very good with wiring. The colors all matched, doubly checked against a cheat sheet when coming apart and against the shop wiring schematic. Admittedly there is some difficulty with brown/green, especially in old harnesses and older eyes, but still after about 15 double checks it should have worked.

Right turn signal would turn on the headlights, parking/tail lights were always on and the headlamp column switch was non-functional.

You know already what I couldn't see for being so close to it. I had the turn signal and headlamp switches each mounted in the other's place. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/blush.gif

 

[roofman]

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. I bet we have all done a bone head thing or 5 in our lives.

 

[AltaKnight]

That's for sure.
I remember when I replaced the cylinder head on my old GMC Jimmy, got it all put back together except for the carb and thought I'd just turn it over before finishing everything up; forgot the fuel line sitting out on top of the manifold; the other thing I forgot was the HT lead from the coil lying loose in a similar location!

 

[Andrew Mace]

For some reason, I still have a vivid memory of being about 15-16 years old and riding home at dusk with my father in his Herald. The column lighting switch failed, leaving us without headlights, but we got home safely.

Later, this budding young mechanic figured he could save dad a few $$$ by putting in a new switch himself. I managed to figure out how to loosen up the appropriate parts of the column, remove the cowling, and undo the switch. Of course, it was very easy to yank out the wiring bullet connectors. Only problem was that the Owners Manual was for a home market Herald, which had a different switch and, therefore, different wiring. Yikes, what to do NOW!?

Fortunately, there were only three wires, and trial and error finally resulted in a combination that worked. Several years later, I learned that even the Factory Workshop Manual did not have the correct wiring diagram for a US-spec. 1200 Herald. Many, many years later I did discover that there was an original (circa 1960-61) US version of the Herald Owners Manual, and it DID have a correct wiring diagram. For whatever reason, Triumph never carried that US version over to the 1200s!

On the other hand, I've had the Solex carb on my Herald apart several times in the last few weeks, trying to clean gunk out. Two out of the three times I put it back together, I had to again remove the top cover...and reinstall the float. Duh....

 

[DrEntropy]

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

Carb floats and dizzy rotors are my favorite things to leave sitting on a workbench as I install the rest of the unit, then when things go sour I get to feel reeely stoopid. ~again~. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif

 

[TR6oldtimer]

As a teenager, I and some friends rebuilt a CJ5 surplus F-head jeep for the church. Got it all back together, started it up and took off to test it out. Oops, forgot to tighten the oil filter cover. Unfortunately we only found out about the error when the engine seized. Needless to say Father Kraft, the parish priest, had some words to say that were less then expected from the clergy.

 

[TR4]

I once failed to clamp the distributor cap back down and was really surprised that the car ran fine for 3 miles before running poorly. I did get the car back home to find my error so only my pride was hurt.

 

[TR3driver]

I bet we have all done a bone head thing or 5 in our lives.

Or 10 !

Can't count how many times I've left the rotor laying on the fender while trying to start the engine, that's probably my most common D'oh!

But the most memorable has to be the time I spent 3 days standing in the snow trying to get a "barn find" TR3A to run so I could drive it home. Very first thing I did was to swap the distributor cap and wires with "known good" ones from Dad's TR3A. Tried and tried to get that engine to run; made sure it had fuel, spark and compression many times. And it would sneeze and snort and act like it wanted to run, just never quite lit off. Ran down the battery on my support vehicle (and almost had to walk home) from cranking the TR so much (yes, the other engine was running but even a 55 amp alternator won't power a starter). We even tried pulling the TR on a rope to crank the engine, and later running hot coolant through it to warm it up (which ended in my getting a shower in boiling coolant).

I sure felt like a prize idiot when I discovered that Dad's DPO had installed the dizzy drive backwards, and fixed it by swapping the wires around !

 

[14dna]

After 40 years as a mechanic, I've made enough mistakes to tell you stories all evening. Like rotors backwards, or brakes need to be pumped up after you put on new ones,or the big post on a battery is the positive. But enough of me, tell stories all you want, and let me laugh at someone else for a change.
Dave

 

[Tinster]

I filled the passenger footwell with a quart or two
of engine oil after I installed the oil pressure gauge
and forgot to hook it to the oil pipe. I couldn't
understand why I got no oil pressure readings.

What a mess to cleanup.

 

[DougF]

No rotor; no oil filter(could be included in beer related stories); wheel falling off; air filter fire(should have let it burn); broken brake line(not my fault); broken vertical link; disconnected inner tie rod(tab washer broke); pumping a large amount of Dot 5 through an open rear bleeder; and I'm sorry to say there are several more. Some were learning curve, some bad parts and some from dpo poor maintenance.