Thread: Big screw up

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Here's my personal favorite: I was helping my brother in law pull the drivetrain out of his 88 Suburban to rebuild the engine. He has a flat concrete driveway with a steep hill on the back that goes to a looong sloping yard and meets up with a wooded area at the back. It was late at night, and we were pulling the drivetrain with a cherry picker and it was stuck on something because it was starting to lift the front of the truck. "here it is," I said, "we forgot to unhook the speedo cable." He handed my a pair of lineman's pliers and said to cut it, because it didnt work anyway. When i cut it, the truck bounced, the brick behind the rear wheel moved, and we both watched as the truck went down the enbankment backwards and disappeared into the darkness. A few seconds later we heard the crash as the truck slammed backwards into a tree, destroying both rear doors, bumper, top, and breaking out both side windows. It sat there for three years before he had it hauled away for junk.

35Fordcoupe,

Your situation reminded me of an incident about 30 years ago. I was watching a mechanic at a gas station attempt to get an aluminum head off of a Vega motor. He had unbolted all of the head bolts he could see and tried to lift the head, but it wouldn't come loose. He checked out all of the bolts again, and again he couldn't find any that were left in. So he tried again, and nothing. So resorting back to his animalistic instincts, he got his trusty air chisel and set about attempting to remove the head. Another mechanic walked over and told him he had forgotten to remove one of the head bolts which was hidden behind the intake manifold. Took it out and head came off. Unfortunately for him he had aleady punched a hole through the water jacket with his trusty air chisel. Station had to buy a new head for the owner. I still chuckle today when I think about the surprised look on the mechanic's face when he found the one bolt holding the head to the block.