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Lesson learned!!!!

badmix

badmix

1/2 ton status
Joined
Nov 7, 2004
Posts
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Location
West Virginia
We all consider ourselves somewhat mechanical, we pretty much know what we are doing (to a point, lol). But it seems its the little things that hurt us, screw up our projects or just get us into trouble. Well, I just had a major , OH SH!T!, Moment.

And here is my story..........................


I decided to replace my fuel lines (these are small flex section, lines are only 2-3" long) and vent lines in the back of my truck. The lines are tucked up on the frame rail. I went to West Marine and picked up some Shields fuel line (alcohol and E10 resistant) 1/4" and 5/16" line, I wasnt sure what size I needed.

I had to cut each rubber line off the fuel line to get it off.

So I replace the 1/4" line first, only a small couple drops of gas came out, no biggie. Put the hose on and clamp and was done.

I then replaced one of the 5/16" lines, nothing came out but some slug type crap, no biggie. Put the hose on and clamp and was done.

The 3rd line must have been the main feed fuel line. I went to cut and gas started pouring out. I was trying to move quickly and only to find out that this line is NOT 5/16". So, as my truck is gushing fuel all over the place including me, I thought I was screwed, I had cut the old line off. And then I remembered I had my truck boxes in my work van. I use it as a makeshift garage since I dont have a real garage.

I had never moved so fast in my life. I scrambled out from under my truck, dove into the back of my work van and got some fuel line, some bigger stuff I had for emergencies (suppose to be trail emergency, lol). As I was going back under my truck, I cut what I needed and slipped it over the two ends. Finally capping my version of the Exxon Valdez.

Now I had to put the clamps on. No way I was going to take the hose off, so I just unscrewed the clamp and put it around the hose and tigthened it down. After a major clean up of cat litter and water. I fired up my truck and everything was good.

So, lessons learned, without that extra fuel line in my box. Id been royally screwed. Not sure how I wouldve capped the end other than bending and putting a kink in the line to stop it.

Anyways. this was my dumb move of the year..:doah:


Old rubber lines.

K5rocksliderandfuellines004.jpg
 
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Did something quite similar one time......Heck who am I kidding, did something quite similar several times.

But this one time, I tore the hose off a steel line because it had gotten bonded to it over the years.
Soon as I did, oil started pouring out.
Stuck my finger over it.
Considered the situation.
There were folks in the house, so I started calling.
Tried Hello, Yoo Hoo, Hey, finally had to admit to it, nothing else was going to work.

Yelled help! Really felt like a fool, was not a real emergency, but I could not sit there forever.

Folks came running. Much laughter ensued, finally someone brought out a potato and I stuck it on the end.

So, don't feel too bad. Probably most folks here have done something like that. I think that was about my only one with petroleum products, but I could tell stories forever about water and other liquids.
 
Done stuff like that before! You just always have that near panic and say "$h!t! im really screwed now! What is going to be the lesser of evils right now???"... Fun fun.
 
Nice recovery....stick an earplug in it next time:haha::haha::haha:
 
I was changing out a 50 hp Carrier compressor on a rooftop A/C unit one day...The crane had just set the compressor on the roof runners long enough for me to swap out the crankcase heater that screws into the oil sump of the compressor.....

Knowing the crane was 170.00 hr,,,I decided to just pull the pipe plug and quickly screw in the heater instead of uncrating the thing..re-rig the crane
to lift the end of the compressor so the oil wouldn't run out.....

in my haste......I forgot that the compressor comes shipped with about 50 psi of nitrogen pressure......

yup....my dumb ass pulled the 1/2" pipe plug out and 2.5 gallons of 3GS compressor oil shot out in a fraction of a second.....of course I was right in the line of fire.....total oil bath from head to toe....

As I stood there with the pipe plug in my one hand and the crankcase heater in the other,spitting out compressor oil ,,my helper asked me......did you mean to do that....

:haha:
 
Strange, I swapped out all my fuel lines and had no issues. Had the truck ran recently? I. My rig hadnt ran for a week or so when i did it since i didnt have my license at the time all i could do is sit in the driveway and rev it and listen to the few paper coned ****ty speakers that still worked.
 
It was run the day before. Now changing the fuel lines from pump to carb isnt a problem, I rarely have any gas come out. But this line is a few feet straight outa the tank. I guess gravity wins
 
Once had my first Tracker roll down dad's driveway on my 3 ton jack. Has a slight incline so I pulled the parking brake to keep it from moving. Put the jack under the rear and lifted it up...

...sat still for about 15 seconds, long enough for me to grab my tool box, scoot it next to the vehicle, grab the jackstands, get on my knees to roll under the Tracker and then I realized it was moving!

Whoops.
 
I personally know of three people who put the car in park, slid under and removed the driveshaft.

One guy was in a ditch under the car and it rolled back and crushed his chest but he survived.
Another was under it on a creeper, and he hung on to the frame and went with it until it hit a phone pole.

The third one, came up to me and a friend putting a transmission back in a Mustang in the apartment parking lot and wanted to know how to pull a driveshaft out of his big Pontiac.
I showed him how the u-bolts came off and he left.

Came back, and said that the u-bolts were off, but the cross would not come out.
He borrowed a big screwdriver.

I got curious and wandered over. His car was backed up a steep incline, in park, and he was prising on the cross with his head chocking the back tire.

I grabbed his legs and pulled him out before it came loose.......
 
A buddy of mine was putting a carb on his Demon,he had shifter problems and had bypassed the neutral safety switch and would slide under the car and put it in drive with the E brake on....well he hadn't put it in park OR yanked the E brake before starting his project...he got the carb on and without putting the spring on it he crossed the solenoid to start it....needless to say it started up full throttle in gear...his brother told me he looked really funny hanging onto the fender until it hit the tree a hundred feet down the road
 
While mine is not an automotive story......I was cleaning out the gutters on my 2 story house with a garden hose. I gave the hose a tug for more slack and it pulls over the ladder.:eek1:

It was around 9 am in the middle of the week. No one home but me. No cell phone.

I have never been so glad to see the electric meter reader......lol
 
ya stick a bolt or screwdriver in that sucker.. actually in the boats i use the fancy schmancy hose crimpers...

that type 2 marine hose is beef...
 
I snip rubber hoses in the middle,and keep my needle nosed vise grips or a bolt the right size hany to plug it if it decided to release a gusher....

I had a bad experience with a 110V droplight and a fuel injection hose once--thats all it tok for me to be VERY careful fooling with gas lines..I cut the hose to a fuel filter that was leaky,it squirted gas right into thr drop light's bulb,which popped instantly..WHOOOOF !..luck al that caught fire was the spilled gas,and I had a garden hose about 30 feet away,and it was turned on!..almost torched the car AND me!..:eek:
 
when i was younger (14ish) and just a pain in the ass at my dads shop i was watchin him torch a swaybar link out of a junk taurus and the grease was on fire so i got a gallon of washer fluid and started pouring it on.... yea dont do that! thankfully we got the methanol to go out quickly!
 
about 5 years ago I blew the motor in my 75 monte carlo, so because i didnt want it to sit in a snow bank all year me and my buddy decided to throw it up on jack stands...on the wet lawn on an incline. When she hopped it was about 2 feet and if he hadnt yanked me out of the way i would have been a pancake.

She sat in a snow bank all winter. Never again.
 
Pulled up to my (at the time) girlfriends house in my old 87 Brat 4 speed manual (important to the story), pulled up the parking brake handle, went inside and grabbed a cup of soda from the fridge. Came back out and the car was gone! Slowly turned my head down the driveway and there it was, in the front lawn of the house across the street. Luckily, no one was driving down the street or walking down the sidewalk at the time. Lesson learned, pull harder on the parking brake handle and leave it in gear next time.

Ever hear the one about the guy looking for a fuel leak under a car with no drop light? He was using a lighter to see the fuel lines up into the frame rails. Burned down the car... and his shop. I heard about this one at school while they were teaching us the importance of having the proper work light while working around combustible liquids.

Ever hear the one about the guy who tried to stop the "runaway" diesel? Thing was just running and running and he thought if he sat on the throttle opening it would cut off the air supply and shut it down. Sucked his insides out. Heard about this one while going to school too, different school. Teacher said it happened in the shop he worked at.

So,to the OP, things could be worse.
 
Fordum said:
I personally know of three people who put the car in park, slid under and removed the driveshaft.
Click to expand...

When I was visiting Pauly383 my rear driveshaft was about thrased.

Drove to the driveline shop and asked if they could put new u-joints on and re-balance the driveshaft.

I start to unbolt the driveshaft... then realize the bad thing that's about to happen.

So, I lock the hubs, engage the transfer case and had to have a little faith...
 
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