post your worst idea thread

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
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Whats your worst idea: half baked, semi legit, embarrassed to ask? Post em up for a laugh...or a raised eyebrow?

1. Floater piston pin retention: press pin piston in floater rod. Same pin, just a bushed rod and no circlip grooves in the pistons, right? How about putting a cotter pin in the piston pin just outside the rods bushing? It would be inside the piston, and would prevent the pin from moving either direction. Now how would you make the cotter pin last, remain in position, or would it be an issue? Would the pin be weakened by the small hole?
 
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The cat was walking all over the GTX every night, leaving dirty little kitty prints everywhere. I decided to catch him in the act, which I did. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and gave him a pat on the butt, at which time the claws came out, and he went into full escape mode. Unfortunately, he was on the hood of the car, and the claws did nothin to aid his escape, but did one heck of a job scratching the paint on the hood. We both learned a lesson on that one!!
 
pishta said:
Whats your worst idea: half baked, semi legit, embarrassed to ask? Post em up for a laugh...or a raised eyebrow?

1. Floater piston pin retention: press pin piston in floater rod. Same pin, just a bushed rod and no circlip grooves in the pistons, right? How about putting a cotter pin in the piston pin just outside the rods bushing? It would be inside the piston, and would prevent the pin from moving either direction. Now how would you make the cotter pin last, remain in position, or would it be an issue? Would the pin be weakened by the small hole?
Click to expand...

This post took me back to discovering how hard a piston pin can hit the retaining devise that`s used. We lost the pin circlips on two cyl`s in the ols hemi, the pins were pounding the hell out of them. That's the biggest reason everybody went to spiral locks.
 
A friend was cleaning and re-landscaping a property. He called, offered up some palms and I'm like sure.
While planting 2 of them out on the front lawn I thought, "This tropical plant would look nice by the pool". So the 3rd one was planted there. I don't know the exact name of this species so I'll call it needle palm. Ours is above ground pool. Beach balls, floats, every inflatable that went over that side of the pool.... pishshshshhhh. One new pre-inflated vinyl ball didn't last a full minute. Are you laughing yet?
The rest of the story... A few months later, the wife was push mowing the front lawn. She backed her leg into one of those needle points. It raised a huge whelp. So yeah this species can both deflate and inflate. That needle poke hadn't bothered me much but she is definitely allergic. I had to dig up all of them.
 
Putting a single cylinder BSA motorcycle engine in a Sears mini bike frame was pretty stupid, but it sure was fun.
I had to weld 12 inches of railroad track rail on the front forks so it didn't go over backwards on the shifts.
Every time the engine fired it left a black patch.

Trying snow skiing by myself when I had never skied before was pretty dumb.
First shot down the hill I ate **** and twisted both knees because I didn't know about the tension needed for the releases so I couldn't walk, and had to lay on my stomach on the skies and pull myself back home a mile or so.
It wasn't a ski slope or anything like that as we lived in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and I just took off on my own.
 
air shocks on the front of a CJ7 to get it lifted - mounted them upside down and aired them up, yeah it sat a few inches higher, but that was one HARSH ride.
 
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TrailBeast said:
Putting a single cylinder BSA motorcycle engine in a Sears mini bike frame was pretty stupid, but it sure was fun.
I had to weld 12 inches of railroad track rail on the front forks so it didn't go over backwards on the shifts.
Every time the engine fired it left a black patch.

Trying snow skiing by myself when I had never skied before was pretty dumb.
First shot down the hill I ate **** and twisted both knees because I didn't know about the tension needed for the releases so I couldn't walk, and had to lay on my stomach on the skies and pull myself back home a mile or so.
It wasn't a ski slope or anything like that as we lived in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and I just took off on my own.
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I was on the last run of the day, "Miracle mile" as it was 1 mile long. Lost a front binding, pulled the screws right out. no one on the run, place closing....Had to ski down the entire run on one ski, and I wasnt that good.
 
After putting marijuana in dad's barbeque pit the first time, and getting my butt beaten, putting gasoline soaked wood in it the second time. The man has a PHD, but he wasn't smart enough to smell gasoline fumes while smelling for marijuana. He lost his eyebrows for a long time. I lost my ***, almost my life.

Trying to take a 90 degree onramp at 75 mph in the rain in my 1974 road runner, it finally lost traction.
Driving same road runner 160 mph on moderately populated backroads.

Threading the needle into oncoming traffic with my volare road runner, after I had it up to 140+, blown a head gasket, car filled with more smoke than cheech and chong's, with my head sticking out like a dog. Never checked that only 2 finger-tight bolts held the 727 to the 360. Rolled the last ounce of momentum into my driveway like a shot up WW2 fighter plane with the engine still chugging.

Never again, but I wouldn't trade it for a triple black 69 hemi daytona 4 speed charger.
 
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no amount of convincing could change my friends' mind.He was convinced putting a smaller steering wheel on his camaro would require turning the steering wheel twice as many turns to turn a corner!
...and a 360 stroked to bigger 408 cubes would be much heavier than it was as a 360!
 
While starting on a camshaft change in my 340 Dart Swinger back in the early 70s, my buddy and I were unable to break the crankshaft bolt free to remove the harmonic balancer. We just couldn't figure out how to keep the crank from spinning so we could break the bolt free.
A collective bright idea led us to jam a spare wrench between an upcoming cam lobe and the block.
Hey, if the cam lobe gets damaged it's no big deal because we're going to put in a new cam anyway.
So, wrench installed so cam won't turn and it's holding the crank still too. Outstanding!
Now both of us are under the car with a cheater extension on the ratchet and socket that's on the crank bolt. Start to really put some effort in to break that bolt loose and...

What was that noise and where did it come from?

Broke the block right through the wall of a lifter bore.

Now we can't install the new cam until I go out and buy a new block. Yeah, that was a great idea...
 
some of you guys might be aware of the loft im building for my little girl
im gonna move the stairs from the garage into her room TODAY
in order to get it in the room we need to go through a window, about 7 feet of the ground, and it will need to go in on a 45 degree angle, and being tipped up as it goes

so i asked 4 of my buddies to help me put it in

the wife couldnt help but point out all the buddies i invited are mexican, and about 5 foot tall
 
Not me but when my son was in high school he came home with a buddy in the Barracuda. He came inside his friend was outside and while he was upstairs I hear the sound of my engine starting. I walked (more like ran out) to find this stupid kid backing my car out of the driveway and stopped him. He looked like a dear in the headlight. Motor still running and window down. I asked him if he had his diaper on, because if you don’t get out of that car I’m gonna kick the **** of you. Then my son came out and looked at me then looked at him and when he got out my son did the job for me. Later he told me he didn’t want me in jail.
 
I replaced some air ride shocks on an Audi with coil overs all four sides, I did the front driver side first and put the wheel back on and did not tighten the lugs. Took two days, well when all done I had three wheels off and put those back on and tightened them forgetting about the first one. All excited to do the test drive got to the end of the neighborhood and car started shaking I was like what the hell is that. Went a little further and thump. Wheel came off. Luckily the rotor landed inside the wheel. No damage.
 
loganscuda said:
I replaced some air ride shocks on an Audi with coil overs all four sides, I did the front driver side first and put the wheel back on and did not tighten the lugs. Took two days, well when all done I had three wheels off and put those back on and tightened them forgetting about the first one. All excited to do the test drive got to the end of the neighborhood and car started shaking I was like what the hell is that. Went a little further and thump. Wheel came off. Luckily the rotor landed inside the wheel. No damage.
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I put a wheel on my Honda and got half way to school and the vibrations caused me to pull over, 3 of 4 lug nuts were missing! I too 1 off each of the other 3 wheels to get me to school. First day and all...
 
Priming a carburetor with a beer bottle while drinking beer. You can figure the rest.
 
As a kid had a 64 Impala with a 409 and 4 speed. was showing off to a friend took off in first with the throttle to the floor shifted into second without letting off on the gas peddle and heard a big bang as the car coasted to a stop.
Blew the drive line, tranny and rear end all at the same time. My luck.
 
pishta said:
I put a wheel on my Honda and got half way to school and the vibrations caused me to pull over, 3 of 4 lug nuts were missing! I too 1 off each of the other 3 wheels to get me to school. First day and all...
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Untighted wheel bolts

I had a 4 day off liberty while stationed here on the east coast, just north of jacksonville, florida.
I wanted some grace with my mechanic who was going to rewire my 1978 D300 crew cab, 360/NP?435? dually ($600).

We talked, he loved and worked on those VW pickups which look liked the VW bus/vans/hippie transport.
My grandfather had one rotting in the field, in San Antonio.
My buddy wanted to see his internet girl near San Antonio (1100 miles)-he had a pickup.
So I coordinated a trailor, getting the vw pickup & bringing it back for the mechanic-whom paid for the gasoline.

THE TRAILER HAD THOSE mobile home AXLES. DONUT rim with rectangular clamps for the axle-my GOD what a PITA.
We stopped for gas in Pensacola, FLorida.
One tire from the trailer was gone. My buddy was going to abandon (someone else's) the trailer.

I got the spare, removed one clamp & bolt from each of the 3 remaining trailer wheels. It got us to San Antonio, Texas until we got more over a weekend.
It is a 18-26 hour drive one way. We got there. He got laid. I got the VW pick up, and more trailer wheel clamps.
We drove back.
I fell asleep at the wheel on I-10 in FLorida.
We made it. I got my D300 rewired for a few hundred bucks.
That mechanic nearly disowned me and swore up and down against Painless wiring harnesses.
The truck drove more reliably after that.
Stupid thing I'll never do again, fall asleep on the road. We could have killed hundreds.
 
Bodyperson said:
Priming a carburetor with a beer bottle while drinking beer. You can figure the rest.
Click to expand...
ouch! We were stripping a floor in our barracks and had to bring back enough stripper to our room from the locker in any sort of container, a sprite can! Well, I was drinking sprite at the time and.....yeah, stripper tastes like floor stripper.
 
pishta said:
ouch! We were stripping a floor in our barracks and had to bring back enough stripper to our room from the locker in any sort of container, a sprite can! Well, I was drinking sprite at the time and.....yeah, stripper tastes like floor stripper.
Click to expand...
Glad you survived the after taste pishta. lol
 
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