Biggest repair/mod blunders

[UncleHilty]

So recently i had a run in with some wine and new foot pegs, making me feel like a bigger dufus than i am, and was wondering what some of the stupid things the rest of you have experienced while repairing or modding.

Ever get the bike back toghether and find a part that you forgot to intall? Set the garage on fire, little things like that. Im sure there are some funny ones out there so let her rip!

 

[Fizzer6R]

too lazy to change the oil, just kept on adding every so often... went out riding, bike actually ran fine... then oil started to seep out... still embarrassed to say how much over it was

 

[Nastybutler]

Once on my Ninja 500 I was having issues with it running right and wanted to test the spark plugs. So I take the first one out and put the business end close to the cylinder head it came out of. I then hit the starter and the fuel in the cylinder goes, "WHOOOF" right in my face and caught some of the electrical tape on the surrounding wiring on fire. Singed my hair and eyebrows too. :facepalm:

 

[SeggyGuy]

Changing the oil I was in a rush because it was after a 12 hour work day and I wanted to get home. After draining the old stuff and changing the filter I started to add the new oil, after I finish I walked around the bike to dump the drain pan in the used oil storage bin. It was then I realized I had forgot to put the drain plug back before adding the new oil. :facepalm: Thank god for the company truck I went back to the shop near my course and bought more oil. Needless to say I was quite pissed but the half hour ride home helped to mellow me out.

 

[priotiynapkin]

In November last year I was trying to hoist up the front end to a ceiling joist in my garage, as I don't have a front stand. I was stupid enough to use straps on either end of the handlebars instead of one wide one right down the middle (which i do now when i need the fron end up) and as i hoisted it up, the bars bent into a V instead of the bike coming up, and by the time I realized this was happening it was too late!

Headed right over to the nearest dealer (I had bent the bars sort of back into shape, it was a very awkward ride) and got some fz1 bars because they didn't have any 6r bars. Love the lower position. Never told my dad XD

 

[abyss1406]

not on the bike but... I once at work swapped a low pressure gauge and a high pressure gauge that just got calibrated on a nitrogen system. The squadron tried to use said nitrogen system and the gauges got messed up. They reported it and i got my ass handed to me by my chain of command. needless to say im more careful about maintenance

 

[Anthony]

too lazy to change the oil, just kept on adding every so often... went out riding, bike actually ran fine... then oil started to seep out... still embarrassed to say how much over it was

First time I changed the oil in the FZ6R was a nightmare. I bought all the supplies thinking what a great guu-ruu I was. Took the oil bolt out, then tried to slide the oil pan under the bike which I quickly learned was impossible with the kickstand down. Nice big "HOLY CR*P" moment as several quarts leaked onto my garage floor.

When you're married, you make a mistake & then you are reminded of the mistake......forever!

Needless to say the next time went much smoother..

 

[Anthony]

In November last year I was trying to hoist up the front end to a ceiling joist in my garage, as I don't have a front stand. I was stupid enough to use straps on either end of the handlebars instead of one wide one right down the middle (which i do now when i need the fron end up) and as i hoisted it up, the bars bent into a V instead of the bike coming up, and by the time I realized this was happening it was too late!

Headed right over to the nearest dealer (I had bent the bars sort of back into shape, it was a very awkward ride) and got some fz1 bars because they didn't have any 6r bars. Love the lower position. Never told my dad XD

LMAO!~ Now that's funny!


I mean.... Wow, sorry man

 

[CtrlAltDl]

When you're married, you make a mistake & then you are reminded of the mistake......forever!

Needless to say the next time went much smoother..

Why, are you divorced now?!? LMAO :thumbup:

I can't count how many times I've added new oil during an oil change and left the drain plug out.

Not necessarily a blunder on my part, but definitely a major PITA. I once did a whole motor and transmission swap in my 540i BMW only to find out the transmission that was supposedly 'good' didn't have reverse. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

[CtrlAltDl]

Another oil change mishap... I seem to have a lot of them.

I was changing the oil in my Dodge with a Cummins for the first time. I had about a 2 gallon catch pan, but soon learned that the engine holds over 4 gallons of oil! Doh! :rtfm:

Don't tell the EPA, but that looked like a Valdez sized spill.

 

[Anthony]

Why, are you divorced now?!? LMAO :thumbup:

Funny, I'm still married...

When I felt the itch, it was either a 20 year old GF, or a motorcycle.

I chose the motorcycle

 

[Rawknrohl]

Although I swore I would never speak of this experience to anyone....... here goes. So it was the first oil change time on my 6r since I hit around 100 miles on the odometer on my way into work (bike was brand spankin new). So after work I brought my her into the warehouse and I was having a crazy hard time getting the filter off. I've been working on cars my entire life for "fun", so this shouldn't have been a big deal. So I go to town and buy a filter cup since my filter wrench thingy wasn't working because of how crowded the filter is, brought my new filter to make sure it fit. Turns out as far as I can tell there is no filter cup in the world that actually fits our filter the way it really should, but I bought the closest one I could find after going to 3 stores, then back to the first one. At this point I had yet to learn that you just kinda need to tap the cup onto the filter a bit since it fits tightly, so I gave up on the filter cup and used this claw type filter tool thing I found in an old tool box. It did not work, but it did manage to rip the side stand sensor wire apart (inside the casing so I couldn't tell that it had happened). So long story short a screwdriver, some bloody knuckles and a lot of four letter words later, the oil change was done, with a nice big oil stain in the middle of the new warehouse's floor due to the side stand being in the way of my catch pan. So I start the bike, get all my gear on, backpack on, ready to go, hop on, back it out of the warehouse (carefully since it's going slightly downhill for like 90 ft.) and put it in first... and of course, she shuts off. So I try to start it and nothing, back to neutral, starts up, into first, off again....WTF. So I call my dad to come back to the shop and help me get it back up the hill and inside the warehouse. Realizing that it must be the side stand switch after playing with it a bit more, I tear the whole switch and wiring assembly out of the bike, which is not really that easy, nor is it something you want to have to do to the bike you bought 2 days ago. So a few hours after completing the oil change I finally find the break it the wire, inside the wire casing near the switch assembly after taking the switch apart (carefully, since little brass connections fall out when you open it) and re-solder the wire to the little circuit board thing and re-assemble everything. So the she's all set and running but now it's too damn cold to ride home with the warm weather gear I wore on the way into work that morning (it gets pretty damn cold even in the summer time in Maine on most nights) so now I'm even more irritated that I can even ride her home to clear my head and improve my mood. So I hop in one of the shop trucks head home, stop at the store on the way where I stop every night, grab a chocolate milk outta the cooler and take a big haul off of it... and the after taste was kinda like whisky mixed with a second somewhat indistinguishable taste that was equally out of place when drinking milk. So I spent the next 30 minutes puking and then dry heaving in the filthy gas station bathroom. On my way out the harley riding girl who runs the register whom I had made friends with asked me what was wrong, I told her a) I was frustrated from working on my new bike, and b) your stores @$#%@$#% spoiled milk. She told me that's what I get for buying a "POS slant bike" and said nothing about the milk... I guess it was implied that both problems arouse from my poor choice in motorcycles(?). I have never set foot in that store again. What I have done, is take the opportunity I was given a few days later to blast by her and her sporster on my "POS slant bike", and give her the finger while I did it.

Sorry for the super long post, but if I was gonna tell it, I was gonna tell all of it. So the next time you have a bad experience in the garage, think of me, and my overwhelming stupidity mixed with bad luck....and a dash of curdled milk. I've never really been quite the same since that night..... PTSD I think....

 

[Anthony]

Although I swore I would never speak of this experience to anyone....... here goes. So it was the first oil change time on my 6r since I hit around 100 miles on the odometer on my way into work (bike was brand spankin new). So after work I brought my her into the warehouse and I was having a crazy hard time getting the filter off. I've been working on cars my entire life for "fun", so this shouldn't have been a big deal. So I go to town and buy a filter cup since my filter wrench thingy wasn't working because of how crowded the filter is, brought my new filter to make sure it fit. Turns out as far as I can tell there is no filter cup in the world that actually fits our filter the way it really should, but I bought the closest one I could find after going to 3 stores, then back to the first one. At this point I had yet to learn that you just kinda need to tap the cup onto the filter a bit since it fits tightly, so I gave up on the filter cup and used this claw type filter tool thing I found in an old tool box. It did not work, but it did manage to rip the side stand sensor wire apart (inside the casing so I couldn't tell that it had happened). So long story short a screwdriver, some bloody knuckles and a lot of four letter words later, the oil change was done, with a nice big oil stain in the middle of the new warehouse's floor due to the side stand being in the way of my catch pan. So I start the bike, get all my gear on, backpack on, ready to go, hop on, back it out of the warehouse (carefully since it's going slightly downhill for like 90 ft.) and put it in first... and of course, she shuts off. So I try to start it and nothing, back to neutral, starts up, into first, off again....WTF. So I call my dad to come back to the shop and help me get it back up the hill and inside the warehouse. Realizing that it must be the side stand switch after playing with it a bit more, I tear the whole switch and wiring assembly out of the bike, which is not really that easy, nor is it something you want to have to do to the bike you bought 2 days ago. So a few hours after completing the oil change I finally find the break it the wire, inside the wire casing near the switch assembly after taking the switch apart (carefully, since little brass connections fall out when you open it) and re-solder the wire to the little circuit board thing and re-assemble everything. So the she's all set and running but now it's too damn cold to ride home with the warm weather gear I wore on the way into work that morning (it gets pretty damn cold even in the summer time in Maine on most nights) so now I'm even more irritated that I can even ride her home to clear my head and improve my mood. So I hop in one of the shop trucks head home, stop at the store on the way where I stop every night, grab a chocolate milk outta the cooler and take a big haul off of it... and the after taste was kinda like whisky mixed with a second somewhat indistinguishable taste that was equally out of place when drinking milk. So I spent the next 30 minutes puking and then dry heaving in the filthy gas station bathroom. On my way out the harley riding girl who runs the register whom I had made friends with asked me what was wrong, I told her a) I was frustrated from working on my new bike, and b) your stores @$#%@$#% spoiled milk. She told me that's what I get for buying a "POS slant bike" and said nothing about the milk... I guess it was implied that both problems arouse from my poor choice in motorcycles(?). I have never set foot in that store again. What I have done, is take the opportunity I was given a few days later to blast by her and her sporster on my "POS slant bike", and give her the finger while I did it.

Sorry for the super long post, but if I was gonna tell it, I was gonna tell all of it. So the next time you have a bad experience in the garage, think of me, and my overwhelming stupidity mixed with bad luck....and a dash of curdled milk. I've never really been quite the same since that night..... PTSD I think....

LOL that you did the same thing with the oil catch pan as I did. I can get very animated when pissed so I can only imagine how your mood was that night. It can be very frustrating when you start freaking out & can only blame yourself..

I can relate to the milk story, although mine was with some very aged grated cheese and I will spare you the details.

 

[06330i]

Doesn't she know what HD stands for? HD=Hundred dollars, everytime you start the bike up. Any smart rider knows Jap bikes are wayyy more reliable than any harley any day of the week.

 

[Scott_Thomas]

Doesn't she know what HD stands for? HD=Hundred dollars, everytime you start the bike up. Any smart rider knows Jap bikes are wayyy more reliable than any harley any day of the week.

The saddle bags are loaded with tools for repairs. LOL! I give all my Harley friends crap.