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Whats the DUMBEST thing you've done to your Mopar?

1. Changed oil in 72 Challenger and didn't check to make sure the oil filter rubber seal came off oil pump with filter. Put the new filter right on top of the old seal. 100 miles later it all came off in the middle of the road.

2. Showing off in my 1967 Polara 383 when in my teens. Put it in neutral and revved her up hoping to get a scratch by dropping it into drive. Drive shaft dropped like a rock right onto pavement.


I did something similar at age 15 with my 57 Desoto. --I was showing off by getting one tire spinning in drive at wot. After a 95 ft long black mark was made I hit the reverse button and the trans went into neutral instead. Nothing broke but I never tried that again.

With my new 69 super bee-- I many times ran the engine to valve float and power shifted. Had the clutch and trans sincros replaced (under warranty) twice in 11k miles. That 383 would not break under my teenage foot.
 
Raced a new (in 1996) Mustang Cobra in my 67 Satellite, 383, 2.93 rear, on the freeway, had my foot to the floor for way to long, spun No. 1 rod bearing.
the one thing that gave me total confidence in Mopars......, drained the oil out of a 182,000 mile 64 383, cause I needed a reason to rebuild it, and it off and on for probably 30 min. nothing happened, except a lot of noise, put oil back in it and drove it for another 4 yrs.
Another dumb thing I did to my Mopar, Kept my 78 LeBaron, after I saw a 73 340 Duster at a car dealership in 1991 for $1500.
 
Drive without a safety belt......:p
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It was a loooooong time ago.
 
1. Thought I was being pretty slick when I bought some used traction bars off a local guy and put them on my 70 340 Swinger...backwards...then went cruising looking for races. Guy rolled up and said, "You know those are on backwards?"

2. Thought I was being pretty slick, once again, a couple of years later. While out on a date in my GTX (see profile pic), stopped for gas opened the hood to check the oil and without thinking decided to check the coolant level in the very hot radiator....needless to say I got a warm shower!

3. Decided to do an oil change on the GTX while it was parked on the street in our cul-de-sac, drained the oil, replaced the filter, and while pouring in the fresh oil, wondered why there was oil coming out from under the car......I was about 3 qts in by then.

4. Lastly, and quite possibly the dumbest thing, was out cruising with the girlfriend in the GTX, a Chevelle rolls up and wants to run. Of course, I'm always up for a race. I had a lot of money tied up in the 440 and trans....not so much money spent on suspension, brakes, and other unexciting stuff. Hit it from a rolling start and are going strong, up around the 90-100 mph range. At the intersection up ahead I see the light go yellow, we both slam the brakes, the Chevelle's nose almost hits the ground...I got nothing...total brake fade. Nothing left but to cross my fingers and punch it through the intersection with a screaming, very unimpressed girlfriend sitting beside me. Thankfully, no one got hurt, but I narrowly missed two cars.
 
1. Thought I was being pretty slick when I bought some used traction bars off a local guy and put them on my 70 340 Swinger...backwards...then went cruising looking for races. Guy rolled up and said, "You know those are on backwards?"

2. Thought I was being pretty slick, once again, a couple of years later. While out on a date in my GTX (see profile pic), stopped for gas opened the hood to check the oil and without thinking decided to check the coolant level in the very hot radiator....needless to say I got a warm shower!

3. Decided to do an oil change on the GTX while it was parked on the street in our cul-de-sac, drained the oil, replaced the filter, and while pouring in the fresh oil, wondered why there was oil coming out from under the car......I was about 3 qts in by then.

4. Lastly, and quite possibly the dumbest thing, was out cruising with the girlfriend in the GTX, a Chevelle rolls up and wants to run. Of course, I'm always up for a race. I had a lot of money tied up in the 440 and trans....not so much money spent on suspension, brakes, and other unexciting stuff. Hit it from a rolling start and are going strong, up around the 90-100 mph range. At the intersection up ahead I see the light go yellow, we both slam the brakes, the Chevelle's nose almost hits the ground...I got nothing...total brake fade. Nothing left but to cross my fingers and punch it through the intersection with a screaming, very unimpressed girlfriend sitting beside me. Thankfully, no one got hurt, but I narrowly missed two cars.
Referring to #3 above.
We had just moved into a newly remodeled shop in the motorpool over in Germany. Guy pulls in a 15kw trailer mounted generator for a service. He drained the oil and changed the filter. After putting in the required amount of oil he pulled the stick and there was nothing on it. I could hear him mutter WTF...From his vantage point atop the fender he didnt notice the huge oil slick spreading across the new (not yet sealed) concrete. Yup...forgot the plug....

It takes a LOT of floor dri to pick up 5 gallons of 15w40. We were using a scoop shovel and dust pan to scoop up as much oil as we could....what a mess!!
 
1. Thought I was being pretty slick when I bought some used traction bars off a local guy and put them on my 70 340 Swinger...backwards...then went cruising looking for races. Guy rolled up and said, "You know those are on backwards?"

2. Thought I was being pretty slick, once again, a couple of years later. While out on a date in my GTX (see profile pic), stopped for gas opened the hood to check the oil and without thinking decided to check the coolant level in the very hot radiator....needless to say I got a warm shower!

3. Decided to do an oil change on the GTX while it was parked on the street in our cul-de-sac, drained the oil, replaced the filter, and while pouring in the fresh oil, wondered why there was oil coming out from under the car......I was about 3 qts in by then.

4. Lastly, and quite possibly the dumbest thing, was out cruising with the girlfriend in the GTX, a Chevelle rolls up and wants to run. Of course, I'm always up for a race. I had a lot of money tied up in the 440 and trans....not so much money spent on suspension, brakes, and other unexciting stuff. Hit it from a rolling start and are going strong, up around the 90-100 mph range. At the intersection up ahead I see the light go yellow, we both slam the brakes, the Chevelle's nose almost hits the ground...I got nothing...total brake fade. Nothing left but to cross my fingers and punch it through the intersection with a screaming, very unimpressed girlfriend sitting beside me. Thankfully, no one got hurt, but I narrowly missed two cars.

Been there and done that two out of three.:)---No wait three out of four.
 
admit it. we all have that one thing lingering. whether it was forgetting to bolt something down. forgetting to check fluid levels. passed on a crazy opportunity etc. now not to say this is the only thing dumb thing that's ever happened, but what takes the cake for me was testing out the Charger after rebuilding the carb, i got excited after firing it up that i slam the hood down, proceed to forget the hood pins and let the wind put a slight crease in my
72 Ramcharger hood right at the driver side hinge. ( Don't worry thanks to my ole lady there is a video:mad::mad::mad: that i will post to instagram) i don't think i've cussed that much since college haha. what about you guys?

I did that on my 69 Firebird. Had a fiberglass hood with a snorkel. Forgot to pin it and got some air under it. Broke the hood and put a small ding on the window trim.
 
First car was a '66 Dart 4-dr. First dumb thing, I got into my first accident in that car, crinkling up the right front fender. The hood closed and latched after that but obviously not well enough. Second dumb thing, driving to high school the next morning, I pulled out on the highway, wind got under the hood and laid it right back onto the windshield. I had to poke my head out the side window to see enough to pull over, then use my pants belt to secure the hood for the day. To add insult to injury, the hood left two punctures in the cowl and a divot above the windshield...
 
My first 70 Satellite convertible I had in college in the early 80's. I installed an aftermarket stereo and realized there was a perfect spot in the doors where 5" or 6" round speakers would fit. I precisely cut out the door panels, ran the wires, mounted the speakers. Stereo sounded great !!!! Then I put the window crank handles back on only to find that they hit the speakers and I could only roll down the window 3/4 of a turn. I think I drove the car for 2 years like that. Every time I had to pay a toll, I would have to pull forward a little and open up the door to pay. Also, when I had the top down, I always had to have the windows up !!! What a young dumbass !!!!!

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
You're not alone, I did the same thing with my 66 Satellite in high school. I ended up cutting the handles of the window cranks, I used them as spacers behind another set of handles so I could roll down the windows.
 
Man, I hate admitting this. Excuse...hey, I was a dumb-*** teenager, 18 1/2, first complete engine overhaul, only guide a well-worn Motor manual.

Simply because my 63 SF's 383 had 100,000 plus miles on it. So, out it came. Replaced all the normal parts and pieces. Then, back in.
To me, regular break-in, was not over 55, for the first 100 miles, and then hit it! After all that, decided to do a little drive. Dallas to Houston, a hot little thing in the passenger seat, to a motel, for some 'time' together.
Dallas city limits, 95 mph, then up to 115 (I was in a hurry!), all about one in the morning, so no traffic.
Made it 2/3 of the way there...then bang...rod out the side of the block. No kind of indications, oil pressure, temp all good. Just let go, out in the middle of nowhere.

All said and done, had to have a dealer put in a new motor. Ask the mechanics what I did wrong. Oil pump. Only black and white pics in the manual. I put a copper crush gasket in the wrong place, in the pump!
Good ol hard lesson.
 
Went out to start my 69 Charger and forgot to press clutch within one crank it ran it right into workbench.

I put a 440 and a 4 speed in a 69 Charger for a friend of mine. It was a 318 automatic car,and he did the same thing.only he hit his 68 Charger that was parked in front of it! I had restored his grille,with NOS grille moldings too!
 
Tightened the oil filter with the filter wrench in my first oil change around 1983. The next oil filter change was a treat!
 
Bought the mid-priced front disk brake kit only to realize when I opened it the pads were held by these little spring clips. Car was fine untill about five hindred miles, now one pad is making a banging nose. Should have bought the next best kit as I have had this same one I bought and got the same results on another car.

This was one, there have been others in the past and sure to be more in the future.
 
I was 20 years old (my excuse) when I bought my GTX. Had no clue about left hand thread lug nuts; I can't remember the details, but I know it sucked
 
I was 20 years old (my excuse) when I bought my GTX. Had no clue about left hand thread lug nuts; I can't remember the details, but I know it sucked

Yeah that would have gotten me too. At 17 years old, I’d have been jumping on the tire iron cursing like a fool.
 
Yeah that would have gotten me too. At 17 years old, I’d have been jumping on the tire iron cursing like a fool.

and they just get tighter and tighter :mad:

I'm pretty sure I broke a couple studs
 
Caution Long - When I was 14 year old I bought my 1967 Coronet and "rebuilt" the engine.
To get the engine out, cut a hole in the garage ceiling and put two 2x4s across the ceiling joists (at least they were 16" spacing), then used a bike kick stand across the 2x4s as the anchor point for a come along used to pull the engine. Sketchy setup, but it worked (multiple times.)
With limited tools and knowledge, tried to remove harmonic balancer by prying it off with crowbar and claw hammer. Destroyed the balancer and timing chain cover of the 318 engine. Disassembled the rest of the engine without marking which rod caps went to each connecting rod.
Decided to just re-ring, new bearings and gaskets. Engine only had about 30,000 miles on it, 2-3 miles at a time, so the entire engine was carboned up really bad. The rings were frozen to the pistons, so had to break the rings out of the pistons, then use the broken rings to scrape the piston ring lands clean. The exhaust crossover had so much carbon build up I had to drill through it, then chisel it out.
Junk yard supplied new timing cover and balancer, and I went to re-assemble the short block. After installing a few pistons, the engine would not rotate because I had the wrong rod caps on the wrong rods. Took apart and matched up the rod caps to rods. Luckely some of the factory numbering was readable on some of the rods, and the remaining ones you could feel the inside of the rod bore for mis-alignment if the wrong cap was on. Only smart thing I did was have a shop rebuild the heads. Finally got the engine all back together and it actually ran good. Then I put cheap headers and a used street master 318 4-bbl on it with a rebuilt Holley 600 carb, and promptly broke the motor mounts doing a burnout. Fixed that and broke the accelerator cable. Reading car magazines, I needed a race cam. Rode my bike (still only 15 so no drivers license) to the local performance shop and bought the Mopar Performance 284/0.484" cam kit, and stuck that in the near stock engine. With that cam and everything else almost stock, it did not have much power until around 3,000+ RPM.
Bought a cheap "hi-stall" converter, and had a hard time installing it. While working on the car, set the hood on the cars roof. Got the trans back in, and being excited to try out the new converter, took off down the street, and notices the hood flying off the car in the rear view mirror. Luckely it landed pretty flat with mostly scrapes in the paint and a slightly dinged corner of the hood. Next, tried to really get on it and it accelerated really good for about a second, and then no transmission drive. Seems the converter not fitting earlier was because my transmission had the earlier input spline count and the converter had the later spline count, and the converter broke.
To shorten the story, the stock cam and converter went back into the car, and other carnage continued throughout high school, but thats another story....
 
You're not alone, I did the same thing with my 66 Satellite in high school. I ended up cutting the handles of the window cranks, I used them as spacers behind another set of handles so I could roll down the windows.
Yep, someone did that to my '69 Charger SE. I hate to replace the original door panels so I may try your trick.
 
Sold my '68 GTX 440/4 gear in 1971 for $2500. so I could by a Datsun 510......WTF!!!
 
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