DIY bike stuff-ups

[vifferman]

Apparently my second to last fill was diesel - at least that was what I was charged for ($46 of diesel). Unfortunately, I was not terribly awake, paid for it, then didn't notice the mistake until a few days later - probably too late to go back and get a refund.

[Magua]

After recently altering my valve clearances I went about reattatching the rocker cover. A bit too much force and I snapped the bolt, leaving half of it inside the head. After many hours tapping it out with a nail and a hammer it was time to put the new bolt into place. Careful, careful.. snap. I broke it again Needless to say I spent another afternoon getting the second broken bolt out and resorted to a much smaller spanner for installing the third bolt.

[martybabe]

After recently altering my valve clearances I went about reattatching the rocker cover. A bit too much force and I snapped the bolt, leaving half of it inside the head. After many hours tapping it out with a nail and a hammer it was time to put the new bolt into place. Careful, careful.. snap. I broke it again Needless to say I spent another afternoon getting the second broken bolt out and resorted to a much smaller spanner for installing the third bolt.

Hahahaha, love it, do one job, make three, welcome to my world. Onya Magua.

[martybabe]

I do recalls one guy in here filling his bike on a ride up North. Bike was fine till he filled it. Something about the engine not being the compression ignition type... so the diesel his tank was now full of wasn't quite the go...

It was fuel injected and hadn't been started so the diesel was all "contained" in the tank... so a bit of bodging later, the tank was drained, a non diesel fuel added to the bike and away he went with the occasional sneeze of blue smoke pouring out the back...

All very entertaining really... and all was well - it ended well...!

Apparently my second to last fill was diesel - at least that was what I was charged for ($46 of diesel). Unfortunately, I was not terribly awake, paid for it, then didn't notice the mistake until a few days later - probably too late to go back and get a refund.

That's a really big problem in the UK. Talking cages for a bit, I worked for the AA in old England town and it was not uncommon to pick up 3 or 4 wrong fuel jobs in a day. $400 and 2 hours later they were on their way.That's assuming they hadn't run the engine.

The motor industry is making a fortune from inattentive peeps at fuel stations, just because no one thought to make diesel nozzles square or summat.Or is it a cunning plan?

[The Pastor]

I dont have diy stuff ups, i have learning opertunitys. Ixion will back that one up - dropped the pin that pushes the clutch into the sump - had to remove the sump to get it out!!! oh well it wasnt tooo bad (had the expert help of mr Ixion.)

[martybabe]

I don't have diy stuff ups, i have learning opportunities. Ixion will back that one up - dropped the pin that pushes the clutch into the sump - had to remove the sump to get it out!!! oh well it wasn't too bad (had the expert help of mr Ixion.)

Learning opportunities,Good call, I have anew name for my numerous cock-ups.

[Macontour]

Years ago I did a lot of night riding and always believed that the more light you had the better! I ended up fitting a 130 watt high beam bulb PLUS 2 x 55 watt Hella spots to my Suzuki 550. Trying them out down a dark country road I blasted past a car and flicked onto high beam only to have the fuse blow at about 120 ks leaving me with no lights at all and not being able to see anything as I braked as hard as I could praying that the car I had just passed wouldnt hit me.

Once I got relays sorted out it was magic and my Friday night blasts Auckland to Palmy were great, light sufficient for 140 ks easy however drop to only 90 watt low when a car appeared at that speed was a bit scary!

[ynot slow]

Yep the old 130/90watt bulbs,used the 100/90 style in most cars due to the fact of coming off full 130w tp 90w was too great a jump,the 100/90 and 100w spotlights worked well in tandem.

Not a bike one,but changing the oil and filter on the v8 Fairmont years ago,drained the oil,filter off,day getting darker due to rain arriving,spun new filter on,topped up with oil,clean mitts and fire up the car,horrible splattering noise under the hood.Turned out the old filter gasket was still on,so had 2 rubber gaskets under the filter.Took oil out again,filter off,then back on,top up oil,clean engine bay and voila perfect,except for the smell of burning off oil for a few miles,made me realise what driving a chevvy smelt like.

[Conquiztador]

After 40 years of working on bikes there is a few stuffups that I have tried to forget...

On my beloved Royald Enfield Meteor Minior Sport 500 Twin when young, I had one of the valve spring retention thingies, that were made out of alloy, crack. I could not get a new one in a hurry, so went to a engineer asking him to make a new one. He had no alloy, but brass. So I settled for brass.

I fitted it and happily went on my way to a neighbouring town (yes, the reason was a female...). The w/e was spent doing what young men do with young firm bodied girls.

On the way back my thoughts were still with her and what she did to me. I came up to a car doing approx 100k/h and in my state wanted to show the world what a superman I was so I dropped a gear, went flying past (well OK, 130k/h. But for the RE that WAS flyng!). And while at the side of the car that brass thingy had worn through, my valve was shot in to the piston with all the force of those two springs and my backwheel jammed.

My reflexes had been sharpened over the w/e by not using condoms, so I pulled the clutch in an instance, rolled in the middle of the road while that car passed me on the inside. And then it was nice and quiet on the road while I stood there wondering what the fuck now.

A nice chap on a BMW boxer came past, stopped, evaluated the situation, opened his side box and pulled out a towrope and then towed me 30k's home. (Always amazed what there is inside those side boxes!)

It took me approx 3 months to get the bits and sort the motor. And that wonderful nymph, she did not wait around. As I had no way of visiting she found herself someone closer by. But so did I...

[racerhead]

A couple of years ago I went to change steering stem bearings on a Honda atv. Spent a bit of time removing the steering stem and all the plastics to make access a little bit easier. To remove the bearing I had to grind a bit of the bearing down so I could split it and to do this all I had was a 110mm angle grinder. Now getting the grinder into position was a little tricky due to having to work inside the frame tubes where both a arms attached to and also the front crash bars couldnt be removed. So after a few minutes scratching my head and finally getting it in place I switch it on and start cutting a groove into it. All is going well for a minute until I notice my left arm getting warm so I let go of the grinder with that arm and take it away from the flying sparks. Then after another few seconds I still feel my arm being very warm and decide to have a look and my sleeve is totally on fire at this stage so I panic a little bit and let go of the grinder and try take off my top. So now Im standing there with my arm on fire and a grinder still pinging around within the front of the frame. I decide that my arm is more important and take off my top as quick as I can and escape with only a few small burns. Then I pull the plug on the grinder to stop it and it eventually stops and I go to see what kind of damage is done. When I look in where the grinder is there are little nicks gone out of the frame tubes everywhere and worst of all the grinder had hit the front brake hoses and burst them But other than that I got away lucky enough. Learned my lesson that day though

[AD345]

Again not a bike one but a good one from my father and one that I use to remind me why I must ALWAYS get professionals to do my servicing (bad genes).

He had a mark IV Zephyr and was driving it home from Dunedin to Roxburgh one evening. Before setting off he decided to top it up with oil - which caused the first problem (unknown at the time). Anyway, he heads off and a ways down the road the "Low Oil" light came on, hmmm, stops, checks oil level - barely reading on the dip stick!. Tops up again at a nearby garage with a couple of litres then resumes with a mental note to get the car checked at the garage the next day.

A bit further up the road and the light comes on again!!. Dipstick shows a smidgen above bone dry so he chucks another couple of litres of oil in (he got extra at the garage) and decides to try to limp with what is obviously a sick car. Several hours later he rolls into home after a fraught journey with the orange light glaring balefully at him and promising evil times with the engine.

I get up early the next morning and he tells me all about the trip from hell "bloody car must be fucked, probably a crack in the block of something" (I doubt he knew what a block was but it sounded good.

I wandered out to the garage to have a look, strong heavy smell of oil in the air and I lifted the bonnet to see oil sprayed all around the engine bay and dripping off the underside of the bonnet! Holy shit! The engine has 'sploded or sumfink!

Dad came out an we decided to see just how much engine was left in the sump. Check the dipstick - bloody nothing boy.
hang on
That rubber grommet that sits at the top of the stick has slipped down dad (remember the FIRST oil change?). Push it back up and lets have another look.

Well Holy Beverly Hillbillys Batman!

There's oil about 3/4 of the length of the entire dipstick! The bloody car is swimming in it!

"But what about the Low Oil light son?"

"Maybe the light is playing up Dad?" (It was - confirmed by sparky that day)

"Bugger"

he then decided to drain the oil out of the sump (good) and started by placing a 2 litre ice-cream container under the drain hole (bad).......


Thats a whole 'nother story

[Mikkel]

Not quite DIY - but more the joys of owning an older vehicle with a dubious service history.

My old 1984 Nissan Silvia which I had 5 years ago was a lovely car. It handled well and was for the most part a very nice car.
However, at the time of purchase the turbo behaved a bit oddly (it had been shagged silly by the previous owner running way too high boost off the mill) - but I didn't know any better and thought nothing much of it. A month or two later, after having been over tramping up the Copland track just south of Fox Glacier, the seals in the turbo gave up. As a result I was dragging a huge cloud of thick nasty smoke every time the car was engine braking.
It chewed through about 6 liters of oil during what felt like a very long trip back to Chch. Getting the turbo replaced (and upgraded of course since the labour cost is the same) cost a fair amount of dollars, at least I left it to the professionals though.

Later, visiting friends in Milford Sound over New years the car developed a water leak - somewhere, very difficult to get to. As a result the trip from Milford Sound to Te Anau became a relay from lake to lake just to keep it topped up. When the water level got too low it got really bad as steam formed in the cooling system and we'd have to wait for the car to cool down enough to purge the system and fill it again with water. The trick was to keep the water topped up at all times so no steam bubbles could form. It went through close to 20 liters of water during that trip - at least it was an easy fix once we got to the garage and the car was ready to go the next morning.

The DIY I did on that car was limited to trying to touch up some of the slightly faded trimwork. I spent hours and hours on masking and such and I never was happy with it at all. The rust repair that I did came out ok. But it certainly taught me that paying someone who knows what they are doing to do something beats trying to figure out how to do something while you are doing it, every time. At least if the result is important to you.

I loved that car and I still miss it!

That's a really big problem in the UK. Talking cages for a bit, I worked for the AA in old England town and it was not uncommon to pick up 3 or 4 wrong fuel jobs in a day. $400 and 2 hours later they were on their way.That's assuming they hadn't run the engine.

At least the resulting diesel/petrol mix that is pumped out, and can't be used for much, is very good for starting bonfires. DAMHIK.

[martybabe]

On the way back my thoughts were still with her and what she did to me. .

so I panic a little bit and let go of the grinder and try take off my top. So now Im standing there with my arm on fire and a grinder still pinging around within the front of the frame.

Bloody hell dude, I got scared just reading that.

There's oil about 3/4 of the length of the entire dipstick! The bloody car is swimming in it!

Yeees, guilty of that one too, not quite so much oil though, I guess that's because I'm a natural spanner man

Not quite DIY - but more the joys of owning an older vehicle with a dubious service history.

When the water level got too low it got really bad as steam formed in the cooling system and we'd have to wait for the car to cool down enough to purge the system and fill it again with water. The trick was to keep the water topped up at all times so no steam bubbles could form. It went through close to 20 liters of water during that trip - at least it was an easy fix once we got to the garage and the car was ready to go the next morning.

.

Water !

Bought myself a Triumph Spitfire (don't do it) every time I went out in the rain my arse got soaked, a complete and utter mystery to me, hours of searching and two garage experts later, still nothing but a wet arse.

Used to turn up at the girlfriends house, get out of my super sports car and look for all the world like I'd pissed myself, not cool, well it was kinda cool in winter.

Anyway, eventually found a hairline crack by the bolt that fixes the seat to the floor pan.You could barely see the damn thing but when I sat on the seat the floor opened up just a little but enough to scoop up a few litres every trip.

Excellent stories guys, thanks a lot. MB

[motorbyclist]

having just rebuilt and reassembled my XR200 - motor, chassis, you name it - i went to start it.....

well she kicked over.... sort of had compression but put that down to the auto decomp, she fired occasionally and did have a consistent spark, but the damn thing wouldn't start. bit of fiddling later and it will run but like an absolute dog, coughing, spluttering, backfiring and misfiring

pull of the airfilter and things are a bit better - good enough to ride down the driveway and half way back up the hill. some swearing later and i'm back in the shed puzzling over the problem - i'm getting fuel, air, spark, but it's really sick. get it "idling" and notice something funny in the open airbox....

some sort of mist is spraying.....

pull off the airbox and start her up. sure enough there's petrol coming back out of the carby! most confused i close the choke and kick it over slowly, and see that petrol is infact squirting backwards.

dad can't understand it so most confused i get on the phone an call up some rellies who might know the problem - they suggest the cams are out

"of course the timing is ok" i say

go back to the shed to check the cam positions.

it would appear that i had got the cams out of synch not by a few teeth, but by a good 180 degrees (and then maybe a few teeth either way)!

god only knows how the bike ran, but the fact the valves didn't meet anything and it was able to ride despite both blowing and sucking through the carby is beyond me!

[martybabe]

god only knows how the bike ran, but the fact the valves didn't meet anything and it was able to ride despite both blowing and sucking through the carby is beyond me!

Crikey, testament to a damn fine engine I guess. Good tale.