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Whats your biggest "oh..Duhh' repair?


JStone
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I'm really trying to make light of my frustration at my own stupidity here,

Since I picked up my MJ in January this year it was leaking oil like a MOFO, The valve cover had no gasket, the PCV valve bushing was worn and the oil cap lid just seeps out a bunch. All I was able to fix thanks to some parts form the CC members parts and info. 

After all that,  I was still dripping oil on to my exhaust system burning it up and stinkin out the parking lot, and the whole passenger side of the engine bay was just a mess, for weeks looking at every seal and plug every nook and cranny..

 

Damn oil filter was super loose..

:brickwall:

top that!

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Sounds like a good excuse to give the engine a good bath on the outside and pinpoint some oil leaks. 
 

Can’t say I have had anything similar except when I put the gasket base on my TB on, which was the wrong one so it had a vac leak. Guess that comes close. 

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I don't think this was as easy as a loose oil filter but I sure felt the same "Duh".  I spent hours trying to get an ignition tumbler in with no luck - once installed into the steering column it would not turn.  Keep in mind we had completely disassembled the steering column to fix a loose pin for the tilt mechanism.  We had to think and rethink all the pieces we had touched and even took it back apart once to make sure we had it right.  A neighbor who is a mechanic was called.  He spent about five minutes looking at it and asking questions, then said "it's acting like it is not in park".  Duh it was not - we had it in 1-2 so we could get dash parts out.  Good times.

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I had my water pump pulley bolted on with 2 of the 4 bolts and forgot that I needed to get the other two. I was driving it to Home Depot to buy some lumber and lost power steering. Thought I killed the pump and started taking it out before I realized that the belt and water pump pulley were both missing. Found them on the road leading into the store and got it all put back together after buying bolts and locktite. I learned that if something is designed to have 4 bolts you should put all 4 in

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Reminds me of when my steering locked up on my Dodge Raider...  the long bolt had backed out of the PS pump and wedged in the steering shaft U-joint!  Luckily I was going fairly slow for a sharp curve and got it locked down before I took the ditch! lol

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1 minute ago, EvilMJ said:

Reminds me of when my steering locked up on my Dodge Raider...  the long bolt had backed out of the PS pump and wedged in the steering shaft U-joint!  Luckily I was going fairly slow for a sharp curve and got it locked down before I took the ditch! lol

:driving: that coulda been bad! Ditches are unforgiving 

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1 minute ago, 89 MJ said:

How about driving your Jeep for 5,000+ miles without an air filter.

I guarantee that if you don't hook up the positive wire from the alternator you won't make it that far.  :peep:

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Perhaps not exactly a repair, but whenever I park my Corvette in a questionable area, I pull the distributor power so nobody can drive off with it.  I very frequently forget I did, and start panicking when the car doesn't start!  Of course, it always happens when everyone is watching so I look like a dork.  :dunce:

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Had to do a heater core in a late 90's Ford F150, which requires total dash removal. Spent six hours or so on the repair, got the whole truck back together, went to fire it up, it cranked but would not start. Turns out when I reinstalled the gauge cluster I forgot to plug it into the main harness. Duh. 

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16 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

How about driving your Jeep for 5,000+ miles without an air filter.

That's par for the course with the rednecks down here in Kentucky!  I'm surprised there's still a 350 Chevy still running!! lol

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Totally disassembled my 5-speed WRX transmission to change gearset and forgot to put a thrust washer back in.... TWICE! Doh!  You don't realized until the case is back together and it won't shift!! Also pinched the speedo gear the second time it was apart. First reassemble took 4 hours, third one took 45 mintues!  I think I could get a job at a dealership now lol

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I had one of our older trailers in the shop this week with non-op brakes. Home-built, questionable initial wiring, lots of questionable repairs, you know how it is. Blew the brake fuse in our test rig immediately.
I found about a half-dozen problems in two minutes of a basic once-over, before deciding it was best to tear it all out and start over. Had to drill out every single fastener for the wiring clamps, etc, it was a major pain the @$$ and I spent an entire day on the job. As soon as I got it all hooked back up I plugged in the breakaway battery and it immediately started cooking the wires off the breakaway switch that I hadn’t touched other than disconnecting and reconnecting. I must have reversed the wires to it, and now the dead short was on the power side instead of the brake side.

Five minute fix to the problem I spent all day “repairing”.

But at least the brake wiring is no longer questionable, which I guess is good.

3 hours ago, scaleless said:

Perhaps not exactly a repair, but whenever I park my Corvette in a questionable area, I pull the distributor power so nobody can drive off with it.  I very frequently forget I did, and start panicking when the car doesn't start!  Of course, it always happens when everyone is watching so I look like a dork.  :dunce:


I do this too with my MJ if I’m in the city, unplug the ballast resistor but leave the wire sitting there on top of the spade terminal so it’s not obvious it’s unplugged. It’s definitely caught me out more than a few times.

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When I swapped the 4.0 into my MJ to replace the 2.5, I got everything buttoned up on the engine/harness/coolant/oil/etc. for a test fire.  Jumped in and hit the key to prime the fuel system before cranking and wondered just what the heck was spewing liquid all over underneath the open hood.  Cut the key back off and jumped out to check.  Gasoline goes everywhere but into the injectors when you leave the fuel line disconnected at the rail.  Who knew? :laugh:

 

That one could have been dangerous.  I was working out of one of them "u-rent-em" storage garages at the time.  Gas went everywhere.  Side note, they no longer allow anyone to store or work on vehicles in them anymore.  I was far from the only guy doing it at the time.  Guess too much liability for them from hacktards like me.  Lol.

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Had an '08 Toyota Tacoma. Was dropping stuff off at storage one afternoon, it wouldn't start, just a single click each try. Clearly a bad starter. Called for a tow truck to take it to the shop I worked at 45 miles away & arranged a ride home. I bought a starter but put it off for a week cause a starter job on those is a real PITA. The day came, got it into the shop, popped the hood. Went to disconnect the battery and that was the moment I realized I had forgot to tighten the negative battery terminal when I replaced the battery a couple weeks prior 🙄

Snugged that up and it fired right up 🤣

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6 hours ago, CRF136N said:

Had an '08 Toyota Tacoma. Was dropping stuff off at storage one afternoon, it wouldn't start, just a single click each try. Clearly a bad starter. Called for a tow truck to take it to the shop I worked at 45 miles away & arranged a ride home. I bought a starter but put it off for a week cause a starter job on those is a real PITA. The day came, got it into the shop, popped the hood. Went to disconnect the battery and that was the moment I realized I had forgot to tighten the negative battery terminal when I replaced the battery a couple weeks prior 🙄

Snugged that up and it fired right up 🤣

Daaaamn! Well I hope you got your money back! Every dog has his day dude! 
At least none of us will let that happen twice!

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