I feel stupid

cowboysculptor

cowboysculptor

Been Around the Block
Just curious what the dumbest thing you did while working on a bike is. Of course I have something in mind for myself:

I had a 1974 cb450 that wasn't starting, so I thought I should check for spark. I pulled a plug out of the cylinder, rested it on top of the cylinder head right next to the open plug hole, without turning off the gas, and cranked it. The good news is, I got plenty of spark. The bad news is, I made a flame thrower, and I was staring right at it.

I somehow managed to turn my head in time to keep from getting the ball of fire right in my face. Instead I set my hair on fire and gave myself second and third degree burns on my jaw, neck and ear. That's a mistake you only make once! You'd never know today looking at me that it happened.
 
Wow... Thats a doozy. Glad youre not blind!

Ive done plenty of dumb stuff. One of my favorites was forgetting the masterlink on the chain. Made it a block or so before almost losing a good bit of flesh on my leg or worse, damaging the bike.
 
Stupidest motorcycle wrenching mistake: Just finished rebuilding a CB350 motor, new pistons, new rings, honed cylinders, rebuilt head, bottom end cleaned and inspected with new seals. Stuffed it back in the frame, hooked up the carbs and tank, added fuel and after a couple of priming kicks, the motor fired up. Forgot one very important step – oil. Ran the motor for a good 5 minutes before I remembered. Luckily there was enough assembly lube on the internals to prevent a meltdown.
 
dumbest incident ive had as of late; i was trying to decide on bars for the gs, and because of the massive gas tank i wasnt sure if i could even use drag bars without killing myself with the reach. soo i found a nice piece of 7/8" copper tube lying around and figured id mock it up and see how it felt.. well of course i left it on there and continued working on other stuff, at some point i went to move the gs (which is heavy as all hell) and wound up putting the kickstand into the drain hole, and when it started to fall i tugged on the copper bar and of course it snapped and i get my legs smashed into by the whore which topples my ass over and bike come crashing down.. thankfully i was able to sort of catch it before it killed me.. fucking copper..
 
i left a tappet adjuster nut not tightened enough... the end of the avalanche was two bent intake valves, after 300 miles
 
Overfilled the oil in the SR250 when I couldn't seen any oil in the view glass. ;) Of course it was already full and I was just making matters worse and wound up backing up oil into my starter and killing it. :mad:
 
DrJ said:
Stupidest motorcycle wrenching mistake: Just finished rebuilding a CB350 motor, new pistons, new rings, honed cylinders, rebuilt head, bottom end cleaned and inspected with new seals. Stuffed it back in the frame, hooked up the carbs and tank, added fuel and after a couple of priming kicks, the motor fired up. Forgot one very important step – oil. Ran the motor for a good 5 minutes before I remembered. Luckily there was enough assembly lube on the internals to prevent a meltdown.
Click to expand...

I did that with a Honda Civic tranny. Had it in and out 3 or 4 times trying to pinpoint a grinding noise (ended up being internal and had to split the case to swap out a couple bearings). The last time I put it back in and solved the problem, I forgot to fill the tranny. Only got around the block before I realized it and limped it back home. Still working perfectly after 2 years.
 
Ha, good stories all! I have a yarn to add as well, albeit not on a bike. The fire story above reminded me of this...*blur focus now*

When I was in high school, and just starting into ag diesel, I apprenticed to the John Deere dealer as the lawn mower mechanic. I was on a service call to a resort one day to work on a poor running condition on a large riding tractor. I arrived, and the caretaker (whom I suspect was a little toasted..shirtless, sunburned, and everything) came to watch me cure his sick mower. I began the usual list, spark plug wires, battery connections, etc. I then started on fuel supply and then delivery. I disconnected the fuel line from the fuel filter. I loosened the worm clamp and pulled it from the filter. I did not count on the worm clamp arcing between the voltage regulator hot pole and the frame (low clearance). This arc set the fuel line, which was running fuel, immediately ablaze. It also set everything to which I had liberally applied fuel from the loose fuel line on fire as well. This included my hands. I staggered back from the blaze with arms and hands on fire. The caretaker yelled, removed his shirt from his belt, and attempted to snuff out the fire with his shirt. This too caught fire, but was caught on the frame, and was consequently sacrificed to the external combustion gods. In the meantime I had put out the fire on my hands and arms, and was trying to remember in which door on my service truck I had put my fire extinguisher. I made two frantic laps around the truck before locating it. I put out the blaze soon thereafter. Fortunately, since it was mostlly just gasoline burning, damage was limited to a spark plug wire, fuel line and filter, regulator wiring, one t-shirt, and the hair from my hands and arms. The caretaker, largely recovered, raucously pounded me on the back, and thanked me for the most excitement at the lodge in years. It was a good day!
 
Dang, t71! Nobody ever thanked me when I set myself on fire. Picture the phone call to my girlfriend: "uh, hey babe . . . don't freak out, but I set myself on fire". She was home about 35 seconds later!
 
First bike. Went to leave a bar with a good number of people queued up to go inside. Started the bike up, popped it into first and took off - With the front disk lock still on the bike.

Damaged the rotor and my pride. Haven't used a wheel lock since. Too forgetful.
 
put both my forks together only to realize i forgot the bottom spring on both the damper rods.

only took 15 minutes or so.

man, you guys have bad luck! :D :D
 
worste thing i have done... unstrapped the bike on top of the lift... fell right off... i was like WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!!!!!
 
This was a few years ago... I was installing the 4 into 1 header on the Hayabusa, the night before we were supposed to go on a ride. I decided to change the oil/filter while the exhaust was off because it was just easier. Well, I had a hell of a time getting the drain bolt to loosen up. I went from using a box end wrench, to the box end and a cheater, to a 1/2" drive ratchet. Cursing the entire time about "how the fuck did this get so tight?!?"... right up until it let go. It was at that very second that I realized why it didn't want to move.
Yup, you guessed it... I was tightening it the entire time. I pulled the threads clean out of the pan.
Now I've been wrenching on vehicles since I was in my early teens. And I'm well aware of "Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey". But the only thing I can figure is, when I put the box end on the bolt, I just kneeled down and reached under the bike. Not actually seeing the head of the bolt, but visualizing it by "looking through" the engine from the top. And I think it was from there that I started pulling it in the wrong direction and never thought twice about it.
Needless to say, I missed the ride the next day. One eBay oil pan later, everything was fine. However, now it's a running gag with my Bro and I. I'll go to put a wrench on a bolt/nut and I'll say "Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey", and he'll say "Are ya sure?"
The answer is Yes, unless you're inside the engine... then all bets are off ;D
 
I paid too little, in cash, to someone who I shouldn't have trusted, to do a head job on my CB550, including replacing the stem seals with new ones I provided.

1000 miles into breaking in my newly rebuilt engine with new pistons/rings the works, I start burning oil and losing compression.

Tore the top end off to find 30 year old cracked stem seals. He didn't replace them, engine started pulling oil in through the guides, glazed my cylinders over etc. etc. etc.
 
Forgot to tighten down the caliper on my Buell project. You know, the SOLE brake caliper on the front end? Luckily for my ignorant ass, my initial road tests were around the block about a dozen times. I kept wondering why the bike would shudder and vibrate when I applied the lever! Dumb ace!
 
In high school auto shop I hooked up a Pinto wagon to the Bear diagnostics computer, reached through the drivers side window to start up the car... it started up and was in gear, ran right into the Bear diagnostics computer. Guess it didn't really need to be diagnosed.
 
A mate of mine in OZ who was a professional mechanic was having trouble getting a customer's car to start, so off came the air filter to clear what he suspected was a flooded motor. Then he reached in (old car) and pressed the starter button on the solenoid and the thing fired back like a flame thrower. His face wasn't too bad, but his arm and hand and shoulder suffered and will never be the same.

We all get complacent and sloppy. Stay safe guys.
 
Redbird said:
Not actually seeing the head of the bolt, but visualizing it by "looking through" the engine from the top. And I think it was from there that I started pulling it in the wrong direction and never thought twice about it.
Click to expand...

That happens to a lot of people! I am always careful to take a second and make sure I'm actually thinking about it correctly. That or use a ratcheting crescent wrench that has "On" "Off" mode!
 
Not wrenching specifically.....

I was working really late one night standing in front of my old Jett milling machine...for hours on end. This particular unit releases the collets via a draw bar that runs thru the quill up to the top where you drop a socket wrench in and give'r a crank. Well, I swapped tooling and went to put some music on, then came back and fired the machine up to continue.....

OF COURSE I LEFT THE SOCKET WRENCH STUCK IN THE TOP!!!!

It instantly spun up to 5000rpm shaking the entire machine, the 500pound steel bench it was bolted to, knocked half of what was piled on the bench around the machine onto the floor, all in about 1/2 a second. I ducked just in time for the wrench to blast off the extension, flinging by my ear close enough to hiss as it went by embedding itself in the cinder-block wall 15 feet behind me. I left that socket wrench right where it was to remind me that stupidity makes for sad statistics........
 
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