The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Stovebolt blunders

By the time we installed the new engine in my truck the brakes bled out and we didnt have brakes. It took us all day to get the motor in and to say the least we were excited to take the truck for a spin.
So me and my cousin take it around the block 5mph(dirt road so we knew nobody was there. and the truck was heavy enough to slow down to a stop within 15 feet.
Upon returning home we overshot how much we could slow down. and ran into the side of the garage. lucky enough we were going so slow that no damage was done and i threw it into reverse in time to avoid a big mishap.
I think i could write a book on crazy things we've done while working on the truck. And find myself thinking only we would be crazy/dumb enough to do the things we do.

When I had my 51, I was in my shop working (tinkering) with it to get it running after a 5yr sitting at the PO place. Just got it to run sorta decent when a friend stopped by wanting help with his ride. O.K. I said and jumped in the 51 and tried the clutch. Really wore out but the truck did move! (I knew the brakes did not work) The back of shop entrance is fairly flat and I figured I could get truck rolling, coast out of shop and gravity stop in a short distance. WRONG! Out the shop, across 50ft of yard,(gathering speed)THROUGH my fence, and another 75ft
accross the emty lot on the back side of the fence, before it finally rolled to a stop! My friend must of laughed for a half hour!

I fitted and aligned all my front clip,got the hood sitting nice etc,then found all the anti-squeak gaskets and seals still in my parts stash!

1. I pushed my bed off the back, onto a furniture dolly. The dolly took off. I recovered and set the bed down and blocked the wheels of the dolly.

Attempt number 2, I got the bed up on end on top of the dolly... It was off center and it got away from me again. I managed to set it down not too hard.

Attempt 3. success.

Left in neutral sitting the garage and i am working behind and i leaning up against a closed garage door when i pulled too hard on the wrench and it drifted back but i was able too fall sideways and it went up against the door no damage.

I was actually out on the road at the time, but it's still a bit of a "Working On" story. This one is concerning my 1962 C10.

I was up camping and I needed to head to the store for some groceries, so I disconnected the trailer and set the tongue on the ground behind the truck.

I had been having a few problems starting the truck, but nothing a screwdriver across the solenoid terminals wouldn't fix. So when the truck wouldn't start this time, I just grabbed the screwdrive I kept in the truck for such instances and proceded to 'jump' the truck.

Well, when it started, I realized I still had the truck in reverse and it started pushing the trailer across the parking lot with me in hot pursuit. About 50 feet later, I managed to jump in and get the clutch in and the brakes applied before it hit anything. Thank goodness the 4 speed has such low gearing in reverse. :-)

Needless to say, I found the real issue with the wiring and fixed the starting problem.

It's embarrassing how many dumb mistakes I thought of while reading this. Here are a couple.

I was putting the bench seat back in my freshly painted pickup (by myself). Unfortunately I didn't lift it high enough and rammed the steel seat frame against the side of the cab, gouging down to bare metal. Probably cursed a little.

I had just rebuilt the transmission in the same pickup and got it installed (another series of dumb mistakes that I am not ready to share). The rear of the pickup was still on jacks so I hopped in and started it up to run through the gears. Hmm, it wants to stall, especially in 4th. Eventually noticed that the e-brake was on. The same night (after wearing down the rear brakes), I noticed the gear oil still sitting on the workbench...

I re installed the SM420 in my 52 1 ton all by myself and thought I'd be able to put the clutch fork in after....
Had to remove the trans and do it again, with the fork in place from the start. Got some help for the second time.

Grigg

I shot one of my "movies",on "Photobucket",with the camera shutter half-open. But....you get the picture.