ahhh the distintive sound of tools dropping deep into the engine bay!!!

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by elerner61

Ok, I'll bite on this, but from the other direction..tears of joy.

I was 4 hours into the install of a coldside supercharger on my Miata (on the intake side, not the exhaust side) about 6 years ago, tearing off parts. I had started at about 6:00 in the evening and I was dog tired by about the time I got to the treacherous nuts on the blind underside of the intake manifold. Stories from guys who had stripped these nuts and the 5 hours to get one of those finally off, were dancing in my head. I was on the last nut, and the socket couldn't fully seat on it. I gave the socket a smooth tug and heard a nice "CRACK" of the nut breaking free. I started laughing and almost crying I think out of pure joy!

oh man that sucks. You're gonna love my brake job clip.

Right now its edited down to 10 minutes. Thats probably too long, so I'll make a shorter version. Its not like its gonna be used for the instructions anyway

[ZStig]

I might be the king of repair related injuries and accidents around here. Here is a pic of my hand from 2005. I punched the radio of my m3 engine swapped 318ti, because everything kept going wrong with it. Still have a scar from it

[txz4]

Best. thread. ever.

[Beedub]

well... ive got alittle makeup mirror (from a ex girlfriend to allow me to look under things) i shine my flashlight on this to get a view of things, im trying to find this lost tool... and yupppp you guessed it..... i dropped the mirror too....... so now not only do i need to find the tool i need to find my phsyco ex girlfriends makeup mirror.... at this point i left the car in fear this id kick the crap out of the side panels. The car appeared to be laughing at me.....

anyone lost their iphone/phone in the engine bay.....

haaaaa tom..... what the hell...... knuckle scrap like that WITH gloves is is serious......

go on who ever dropped a nut or bolt INTO the oil filler cap!!! lol

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by Beedub

well... ive got alittle makeup mirror (from a ex girlfriend to allow me to look under things) i shine my flashlight on this to get a view of things, im trying to find this lost tool... and yupppp you guessed it..... i dropped the mirror too....... so now not only do i need to find the tool i need to find my phsyco ex girlfriends makeup mirror.... at this point i left the car in fear this id kick the crap out of the side panels. The car appeared to be laughing at me.....

anyone lost their iphone/phone in the engine bay.....

haaaaa tom..... what the hell...... knuckle scrap like that WITH gloves is is serious......

go on who ever dropped a nut or bolt INTO the oil filler cap!!! lol

LOL WUT?! !!!

I've also dropped a bolt into a sewer drain in front of my garage too. Had to lift the heavy iron cover over it, and find it with the magnet on a stick

that pic I posted is from damage without gloves. Although the new damage I got looks a little worse (with gloves ON). You'll see why, when you see the video of my wrench slipping off about 5 times. Had the Gopro mounted on my head, for a nice perspective

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

LOL WUT?! !!!

I've also dropped a bolt into a sewer drain in front of my garage too. Had to lift the heavy iron cover over it, and find it with the magnet on a stick

that pic I posted is from damage without gloves. Although the new damage I got looks a little worse (with gloves ON). You'll see why, when you see the video of my wrench slipping off about 5 times. Had the Gopro mounted on my head, for a nice perspective

lol.... all motor related i promise :-) i used it when my blower went bad to see where it was leaking from :-)

[Beedub]

tom your starting to worry me...... your mounting go pro's everywhere¬¬!!

how long before you get a penis mount Go PRO!!!!! ha ha ha ha ah lol!!

[Walkurie]

Years ago I owned an MG-TD which I had supercharged. Anyone familiar with this, and there are probably few who are, understand that the supercharger and the carburetor are on the right side of the engine. Usually the carb is mounted to the rear of the s/c, as it was on my car. The carb is most likely some SU model, and they use these COPPER drain tubes when they overflow. It is worth noting that the starter switch, which is independent of the starter but wired DIRECT TO THE BATTERY is within a short distance of this whole assembly.

I was working (as I did often) tuning the carb one morning while my wife slept quietly and peacefully upstairs. I was fiddling with an adjustment screw when it just dropped off the carb and landed on top of the bell housing. Again, in tight quarters. But I thought I could use the magnetized extension stick to retrieve it. Sure enough, I grounded the starter switch to the copper overflow tube. I remember the tube glowing red within milliseconds before it burst into flame like the 4th of July.

Now this is why it is always a good idea to have a fire extinguisher within reach when working on any car. That fire extinguisher saved the car, the house, and possibly my wife and me from a real disaster. It only needed a good cleanup. That's how I spelled relief.

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by tbalutis

Years ago I owned an MG-TD which I had supercharged. Anyone familiar with this, and there are probably few who are, understand that the supercharger and the carburetor are on the right side of the engine. Usually the carb is mounted to the rear of the s/c, as it was on my car. The carb is most likely some SU model, and they use these COPPER drain tubes when they overflow. It is worth noting that the starter switch, which is independent of the starter but wired DIRECT TO THE BATTERY is within a short distance of this whole assembly.

I was working (as I did often) tuning the carb one morning while my wife slept quietly and peacefully upstairs. I was fiddling with an adjustment screw when it just dropped off the carb and landed on top of the bell housing. Again, in tight quarters. But I thought I could use the magnetized extension stick to retrieve it. Sure enough, I grounded the starter switch to the copper overflow tube. I remember the tube glowing red within milliseconds before it burst into flame like the 4th of July.

Now this is why it is always a good idea to have a fire extinguisher within reach when working on any car. That fire extinguisher saved the car, the house, and possibly my wife and me from a real disaster. It only needed a good cleanup. That's how I spelled relief.

holy crap!

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by Beedub

tom your starting to worry me...... your mounting go pro's everywhere¬¬!!

how long before you get a penis mount Go PRO!!!!! ha ha ha ha ah lol!!

hahaha. I used my headstrap mount that I use for snorkeling/wannabe-freediving

[partlowr]

I have a drawer of my tool box dedicated to magnets and different length rigid and flexible 3-prong grabber tools. The "retractable antena style" magnet definetly gets the most use and has come in handy on many occasions, it's strong to pick up a good sized wrench. I spent all of about $25 for the entire drawer full of tools, I find them in those $1, $2 and $5 cheap tool bins at my local hardware store, cheap but a must for every DIYers tool box.

Heres another tip, go out an buy one of those $10 Lint Lizard "As Seen On TV" things made for cleaning out your lint tube on your dryer, it works perfect for retrieving things you drop down your engine bay or even things that fall under your seat and manage to fall in that one spot your hand won't reach or fit. just make sure you slide a piece of flexible screen or cheese cloth between the Lint Lizard and your shop vac/vacuum cleaner, this will catch the item you are retrieving before it gets sucked into the vacuum. You can also make a Lint Lizard type tool but for $10 why even mess around. You can go buy longer legths of the clear PVC tube is the ones that come with it are not long enough, I have a 3 ft peice for mine.

[Karacticus]

My story--
I'd dropped the engine bay reinforcement plate to test install an Aeroquip oil quick drain-- it was before I'd installed my lift and was tired of the oil mess when up on ramps and it pooling at the sides of the access hatch at the end of the drain cycle.

Anyway, suffered from the "no click at low torque settings" problem while installing the drain valve. Valve body was soft and only partially sheared, but I had to cut the steel shaft of the little poppet valve to extract everything. So now that's sitting in the pan.

After a lot of fishing around able to feel in through the drain hole but no way to grab it, tried bending a magnet on a pole to get it, which promptly broke and added more FOD to the pan.

Eventually dropped the oil level sensor and fished everything out with the fingers and another magnet on a pole.

Gave up on the quick drain after that...

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by tbalutis

Years ago I owned an MG-TD which I had supercharged. Anyone familiar with this, and there are probably few who are, understand that the supercharger and the carburetor are on the right side of the engine. Usually the carb is mounted to the rear of the s/c, as it was on my car. The carb is most likely some SU model, and they use these COPPER drain tubes when they overflow. It is worth noting that the starter switch, which is independent of the starter but wired DIRECT TO THE BATTERY is within a short distance of this whole assembly.

I was working (as I did often) tuning the carb one morning while my wife slept quietly and peacefully upstairs. I was fiddling with an adjustment screw when it just dropped off the carb and landed on top of the bell housing. Again, in tight quarters. But I thought I could use the magnetized extension stick to retrieve it. Sure enough, I grounded the starter switch to the copper overflow tube. I remember the tube glowing red within milliseconds before it burst into flame like the 4th of July.

Now this is why it is always a good idea to have a fire extinguisher within reach when working on any car. That fire extinguisher saved the car, the house, and possibly my wife and me from a real disaster. It only needed a good cleanup. That's how I spelled relief.

joint win with tom..... These things are dangerous when things do wrong yo....

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by Karaticus

My story--
I'd dropped the engine bay reinforcement plate to test install an Aeroquip oil quick drain-- it was before I'd installed my lift and was tired of the oil mess when up on ramps and it pooling at the sides of the access hatch at the end of the drain cycle.

Anyway, suffered from the "no click at low torque settings" problem while installing the drain valve. Valve body was soft and only partially sheared, but I had to cut the steel shaft of the little poppet valve to extract everything. So now that's sitting in the pan.

After a lot of fishing around able to feel in through the drain hole but no way to grab it, tried bending a magnet on a pole to get it, which promptly broke and added more FOD to the pan.

Eventually dropped the oil level sensor and fished everything out with the fingers and another magnet on a pole.

Gave up on the quick drain after that...

damn, what a PITA. Thats why half the time, I'd rather pay someone to work on my car.

Based on this tbalutis' luck, I feel like I should have a fire suppressor in my garage too

[mhughett]

Originally Posted by tbalutis

Years ago I owned an MG-TD which I had supercharged. Anyone familiar with this, and there are probably few who are, understand that the supercharger and the carburetor are on the right side of the engine. Usually the carb is mounted to the rear of the s/c, as it was on my car. The carb is most likely some SU model, and they use these COPPER drain tubes when they overflow. It is worth noting that the starter switch, which is independent of the starter but wired DIRECT TO THE BATTERY is within a short distance of this whole assembly.

I was working (as I did often) tuning the carb one morning while my wife slept quietly and peacefully upstairs. I was fiddling with an adjustment screw when it just dropped off the carb and landed on top of the bell housing. Again, in tight quarters. But I thought I could use the magnetized extension stick to retrieve it. Sure enough, I grounded the starter switch to the copper overflow tube. I remember the tube glowing red within milliseconds before it burst into flame like the 4th of July.

Now this is why it is always a good idea to have a fire extinguisher within reach when working on any car. That fire extinguisher saved the car, the house, and possibly my wife and me from a real disaster. It only needed a good cleanup. That's how I spelled relief.

I always wondered why the instructions for most procedures usually start out with "remove negative cable from battery", even for those that have nothing to do with electrical work. It's all starting to make sense now.

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by mhughett

I always wondered why the instructions for most procedures usually start out with "remove negative cable from battery", even for those that have nothing to do with electrical work. It's all starting to make sense now.

Great thread! Lots of good ideas, and lots to think about.

[007MCoupe]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

I could only find motorized licence plates for motorcycles on amazon...

It wasn't Z or even BMW specific, i bought the one the corvette and Mustang guys used. It worked until I lost the fuse, but i didn't like the way it rattled when hidden.

[ZStig]

Here's my recent brake job, edited down to 4 minutes of pain

[elerner61]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

I might be the king of repair related injuries and accidents around here. Here is a pic of my hand from 2005. I punched the radio of my m3 engine swapped 318ti, because everything kept going wrong with it. Still have a scar from it

The best punch I ever threw was actually the back of my hand against the inside of our MDX's windshield to kill a huge mosquito...also cracked the windshield with that one. Oh yeah, and that was right after my wife starts yelling to me about something while I'm halfway in the car in the garage ...which I then forgot to open and then backed into. That was a fun 5 minutes, I'll tell you.

That video is hilarious. Best part is " you gotta put some body weight into it".

[bucko521]

Originally Posted by -c-

got close and tractor beamed that bitch right out! whewww !

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by elerner61

The best punch I ever threw was actually the back of my hand against the inside of our MDX's windshield to kill a huge mosquito...also cracked the windshield with that one. Oh yeah, and that was right after my wife starts yelling to me about something while I'm halfway in the car in the garage ...which I then forgot to open and then backed into. That was a fun 5 minutes, I'll tell you.

That video is hilarious. Best part is " you gotta put some body weight into it".

I thought the funniest part was double checking that I'm turning it in the right direction I cringe watching those hits

[Beedub]

tom..... what the hell are you trying to do in the video???