What is your funniest (could've killed me) wrenching story?

[artr8]

Would love to see some of the stuff that you guys have to add.

My story:
66 Charger rusted down to the lug nuts. I was younger and still agile.
Friend bought the car for the 383 in it. Being that he was older and not agile, I put the car up on stands and crawled under to take loose the engine mounts, transmission, cut the exhaust and unhook the wiring. Ready to pull, I told Jim.
Brought over the engine hoist and I climbed up on the radiator support to hook chains up to the motor. Dropped the chains on the motor and the K-member dropped out of the car to the ground. (Glad I was not under the car.)

 

[Sahara]

I work for the Territorial Government as a painter. The position is pretty far down the pecking order as the regional supervisor at that time didn’t think that we needed a painter, and any painting should be contracted out. So I was always (at that time) fighting for my job, equipment, and funding. My company truck had literally been condemned and parked in the weeds twice.
It was an old Ford three quarter ton. One day we get a flat on a back tire. My summer student and I pull out the bottle jack that comes with the truck from the factory. It has a little “U” shaped thing on the top that cups the axel tube so you can jack up. We jack the truck up. Now these are big old tires and big old steel rims. Heavy. I kneel down, and wrap both arms around the tire, resting my head against it because it’s so heavy I have to hold it close against my chest. I pull the tire off the hub. Literally the instant that the tire-arm-head combination cleared the rear fender the top broke off the jack, dropping the truck on the ground. A small fraction of a second sooner and it would have crushed both of my upper arms, possibly my head between the fender and the tire.

 

[66 Sat]

I had the front wheels off my car when I was redoing the front end. I bolted some steel RHS on either side of the car using the bumper holes. There was a jockey wheel attached to each RHS so I could support the front end and move it around. The only problem was the U bolts holding the jockey wheels. The first set I used were rounded, not squared off, and when I lowered the car onto the jockey wheels they held for about 5 seconds,...and then started to rotate outwards. The car was about to crash to the floor and I was holding it up with my feet wedged outside the jockey wheels to stop them moving. I was shouting for help but nobody was around. After about 10 minutes I was spent, and just had to let the car go down slowly. Luckily there wasn't any real damage but I felt like an idiot.

 

[Bb70charger500]

God I could of been killed many times!
In my field heavy equipment mechanic everything is out to get you then add on road to the mix plus night shift on the side of the highway!
So I'll start with a bull dozer fell off jack stands at ring power crushed my tool box I was at box seriously seconds before it fell!


dump truck jack stands split in half at the welds ! I was under truck getting the trans reinstalled lucky for me the old man (old guy we had that changed the oil in the trucks heard it start to creak and yanked me out from under truck !
Yes I bought him a beer !
(He passed away a few years after )


And the most fun one on side of highway fixing a roller at night (in a coned off zone I might add)
Lady blew threw the zone doing 80 mph asleep ran right into the roller I was working on roller didn't move much bent the damn drum on it lady died on impact I needed no pants !

Had another one on side of highway day time someone clipped someone and car went flying right at me and my paving crew thank God for that concrete barrier we all jumped over it and got as far as we could . Car basically blew up (not boom) over our heads parts flying everywhere again kid died on impact!

They payed me an extra $1.50 an hour for hazzard pay!
Kinda sounds a bit cheap !


Another one , not me this time!
It's just to good not to tell
I had this truck driver older guy (big pontiac fan ) drove a bad *** 2 door tempest .
Anyways he was on job site got out of his dump truck to check something when the paving crew manager was hauling *** in reverse in his f150 ran this dude over and kept on going ! This driver drive 1 hour back to the shop because he didn't have a phone or radio to call for help basically fell out of his truck in my hands I had to rush him to emergency room he lost a ton of blood truck looked like a murderer scene!
After this was all said and done the next day we were finally able to speak with him he didn't remember anything
Two days later the manager came in to shop saying he had a bad vibration under the truck !
There was blood everywhere checked the dash cam and Shure as **** the old man came out the front of his truck as he was backing up !
Guy was drug tested he had tons of stuff in his system he said he thought he hit a cone !

Think that's all I got !

 

[Bb70charger500]

Hell I forgotten ford f350 broke my lift and fell off snapped the lifting arm right off ! I heard that one coming and got my *** out from under it !
Damn shame was a $80k truck too! Brand new

 

[Big Bad Dad]

Not me, but a story from a Mechanic at a dealership I once worked at. He had an old single post lift in his stall. The kind where the post comes up out of the floor. He was working under a Lincoln Town Car with all four wheels off. He walked over to his tool box, and BANG! Apparently a seal or something blew inside the lift, and it dropped the car he had just been under... He said the front brake rotors were imbedded about an inch into the concrete floor.

 

[MCODECUDA]

Me and a friend of mine Had just finished changing a motor. We had an a-frame set up that we used To pull the motor and the legs were too short so we always used blocks under it. Usually we pulled the a-frame out of the garage when we weren’t using it but didn’t this time since the next job in line was to change timing chain. We were both under the hood trying to get the timing cover back on and I accidentally pushed out one of the blocks from under the a-frame. The a-frame came crashing down closing the hood and trapping the upper parts of our bodies under the hood. We were laughing our ***’s off until we realized that our feet weren’t touching the ground. Somehow I was able to get some leverage to lift the hood enough for my friend to get out and he was able to get the a-frame off the hood so that I could get out. The a-frame btw was made with heavy wall pipe and was used to lower large water lines into a trench. As I remember correctly we had to drag it when we moved it since we could not pick it up.

 

[Dibbons]

A little closer to home: My principal arm chair is plastic and sits on a tile floor. One day I noticed it sliding backwards just slightly on its own for no apparent reason. I looked around and could see nothing out of the ordinary. The only explanation was that the two rear chair legs had started to flex slightly. I corrected the posture of the chair by standing up and lifting the chair off the floor momentarily, then set the chair back down.

Over the next couple of weeks, the chair did this same sliding rearward every once in awhile. I knew what was happening, so I reset the legs as explained above. Then one morning, the chair began to slowly slide back as was its custom, but this time it did not stop its slip. Bang, I ended up on the floor as both rear chair legs snapped. I wasn't hurt and brought out a metal folding chair to take its place.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

I despise those plastic chairs. I was at a family picnic once, and one broke under my elderly Aunt. Lucky, I was beside her and caught her so she didn't get hurt. She was in her 80's, and probably didn't weigh over 100 lbs. I refuse to set in them. My big wide 280 lb. body makes them bend even if they don't break.

 

[Brandy]

In 2014 I got the Express into the garage and was disassembling it. I got to the part where I dropped the K frame with engine attached. Not having a lift, or help, I thought I would work smarter, not harder..lol.
So I positioned a set of jack stand's just ahead of the rear spring front mounts and a tire, sans rim, under the rear bumper. My plan was to drop the k frame and lift the front up while the weight of the back of the car rotated down. Well, having stripped the car of everything but the engine/ k frame I figured that would work. There's a lot of Sheetmetal back there plus the trunk lid was still on and the rear bumper. . I had my head poked through the rad support while loosening the last k frame bolt. When it popped free the rad support slammed up while the *** end of the car headed for the floor at speed. lol. About ripped my damn head off. If I had not of turned my head sideways at the last instant I would have likely bit my tongue in half! As it was I scraped my left ear badly and my jaw line too!. Car wasn't damaged at all. I pushed down on the top of the rad shell and laid a couple of tires, with the rims on, on top of the inner fender rad support triangle that held it down while I moved back the jack stands. Live & learn!

 

[451Mopar]

On my basket case '69 Coronet hardtop. I made some rear casters (long time ago) that bolt to the rear spring perch so I could move the car around without the rear axle.
I think I just used 1/4" plate at the spring hanger part welded to some tube to the casters. The held fine till I tried moving the car, and the plate folded dropping the car. The plate had no gussets so any for/aft movement just folded it.

Had a harbor freight car jack collapse (was missing a clip on the cross pin holding the side plate on) dropping the Charger and smashing the fuel tank.

Harbor freight engine hoist with stripped out pressure relief drop my 383 on the ground crushing the oil pan.
I am very careful using any hydraulic stuff from Harbor freight, and check / test it before actually using it.

I have also dropped two vehicles off jack stands because they surface was uneven.
Dirt is not a good base for jackstands, same for a car trailer that is not level.

I have also had the entire axle shaft come out of an 8-3/4" housing while driving (along with brake drum and tire) When I was 17. I did not know the bearings needed to be greased. Not that I think it would have mattered, I had just bought the truck about a week earlier.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Not me, but a story from a Mechanic at a dealership I once worked at. He had an old single post lift in his stall. The kind where the post comes up out of the floor. He was working under a Lincoln Town Car with all four wheels off. He walked over to his tool box, and BANG! Apparently a seal or something blew inside the lift, and it dropped the car he had just been under... He said the front brake rotors were imbedded about an inch into the concrete floor.

Bet he either learned to use the safety or never used that style lift again.... I've seen a few of those fail but if you use the safety the car only drops a couple inches....

 

[artr8]

Great responses and you guys are getting the gist of it, so let's lay some further ground rules....
1. Story is told in first person because you were there.
2. Has to be a wrenching story. (Jockey wheel, Express or the A-frame motor change are great examples)
3. It may be an accidental action or caused by your dumb-a$$.
4. Has to be a "that could have killed me (or my friend)!" reaction when it happened.

 

[#41]

I had a Dart race car on jack stands and was tightening the torque converter bolts.... head under the trans pan and feet under the differential..... the car seemed to be wobbling a lot more than the muscle I was putting into it.... then I realized it was actually an earthquake. I then propelled the creeper at about 1000 miles an hour from under the car!

 

[kiwigtx]

I despise those plastic chairs. I was at a family picnic once, and one broke under my elderly Aunt. Lucky, I was beside her and caught her so she didn't get hurt. She was in her 80's, and probably didn't weigh over 100 lbs. I refuse to set in them. My big wide 280 lb. body makes them bend even if they don't break.

The plastic stacker chairs can be dangerous...


without audience background noise...




Myself and a couple of colleagues at work broke a few similar chairs at work, by just sitting on them. They all got thrown out after that. Cheap quality Chinese plastic.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

Okay I guess its time for one of my dumb *** moves. I was working at the Ford dealer at the time. I had made some brackets to hang over the front bumper of the pickups to hold a 2x6 to stand on. Working on an older diesel truck had done some work on the fuel system, I was cranking it over with a remote start switch when it came to life! Thank god I had the 2x6 it saved me from being pinned against the wall. I know how did it get in gear and how did the key get on. So once someone came over and shut the key off I asked what the hell happened, service manager needed to get the mileage so he reached in through the window to turn on the key he also bumped it into gear but he thought he had put it back in neutral. He did not, he also failed to turn the key back off!!!!! Yes I did call him a few choice names!

 

[Brandy]

In the same spirit as above....1977, on top of a mountain in West Germany, dead of winter, snow storm, nearly midnight.
This was inside a TAC-Site, I-Hawk missile battery overlooking the East German border fence. We had a duty to the 24 hour TAC site operation to have one man stay overnight at the motor pool in case of emergencies. This was my night. There was a 24/hr mess hall up the hill at the TOC and I wanted a cup 'o Joe. So, seeing as how it's only 200 yards or so I left my field jacket and stepped out just in uniform. As I turned to lock the door behind me with the key something began pressing into my hip, in the dark, with snow driving on the wind in my face. Suddenly I was pinned against the door! Somebody had left a deuce and a half truck sitting on the tarmac with no parking brake engaged and not in gear. The wind was coming from behind it gusting to like 40mph. It pushed the truck into me.
So i'm standing in blizzard, about 10*F, cant see more than 5 feet in the dark and snow. After screaming my lungs out for a few minutes, hoping the Military Police at the gate house, 60 feet away, might hear me I realized that if I didn't want to freeze to death I needed to get myself out of this. I leaned as much as I could to look under the front bumper and finally noticed after the umpteenth time looking that the front pumpkin of the axle was resting on, or very nearly resting on, a concrete bump out that is meant to protect the door from getting crashed into! I had been worried all that time that if I wrenched my body sideways the truck would pin me in the gut to the dam door before I could get away, my legs being stiff by then. Well after seeing that,I DID wrench my body sideways, feeling like I left skin on both sides. The truck moved about an inch, clunk against the concrete as the wind was pushing it from behind. Let me tell you, it was all I could manage to do to get the keys sorted and stuck into the lock without dropping them in snow. My hands were shaking from cold and from adrenaline. I cranked up the heat and made a phone call. Had a few people there right quick like. With hot coffee! The next day, I ripped a poor PFC a new asshole for about 10 minutes. I was pissed off! It could very well have been a truck that rolled not into me, but on down the hill and into a missile launcher with three big assed live missiles on it. BAD JU JU!! I had big old bruises on both hips for a month.

 

[JackR]

Almost killed a neighbor years ago...sort of. Wintertime in Buffalo NY. Sub zero temps. Neighbor kid .. I was same age I think. He was changing the starter on his Chevy impala. I asked him if he needed anything. He asked if I had a blanket to lay on. Grabbed one out of my car trunk for him. Left for about 3-4 hours. Came home and he was still under the car. Well, his ear lobe got hooked by a fish hook in my blanket and he was trapped. He couldn’t even lift his head an inch.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Almost killed a neighbor years ago...sort of. Wintertime in Buffalo NY. Sub zero temps. Neighbor kid .. I was same age I think. He was changing the starter on his Chevy impala. I asked him if he needed anything. He asked if I had a blanket to lay on. Grabbed one out of my car trunk for him. Left for about 3-4 hours. Came home and he was still under the car. Well, his ear lobe got hooked by a fish hook in my blanket and he was trapped. He couldn’t even lift his head an inch.

A successful day fishing....

 

[MCODECUDA]

I was changing a u-joint in a Dart and had Backed the car up on ramps and did not put on the e-brake or block the wheels. I removed the straps and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t pry the u-joint out of the yoke. Just as I realized why it was under pressure the driveshaft popped out and the car started rolling down the ramps. I was on a creeper and feet were hanging out behind the car. The cars gas tank was crushing me until one of the creeper wheels broke which relieved some of the pressure allowing the car to continue over me. The only injury that I had was from the license plate which scrapped me from my belly to my shoulder. My only concern with the license plate was whether it was going to take off my ear as it passed over me. Another thing to add was that a friend of mine was there and he stopped the car from rolling while I was still under it and I yelled at him because it it felt better when the car was sliding over me than when he stopped it with me trapped under the car. After it was all over we had a good laugh over it. That friend btw was the same one that was involved with me in post #7.