With all the years of automotive experience on this site, what is the wildest mechanical thing you have done on a vehicle? I'm sure in our younger years some absolute batblank crazy things were done by our members.
In order to break loose the crankshaft damper bolt on a Honda Accord, because 'ugga dugga' was invented by Honda of America engineers, I had to put a cheater pipe on a breaker bar, and use the special hex-shaped damper tool with another breaker bar, in order to lower the car's own weight onto the cheater bar. I think it had over 20° deflection before it broke loose with a gunshot report. Everyone stayed away from the car, as this resistant force was lifting the car off the arms before it gave way. Edit: I almost forgot, we did the same thing on an Accord wagon, and it refused to break loose! We had to send the customer to the Honda dealer!
In high school(60's), a friend had an old 50's Nash(looked like an inverted clawfoot bathtub). Couldn't get the spindle nut off the front axle. One large pipe wrench and a 10' 2" galvanized pipe. It took 2 of us jumping on the pipe several times before the rusty nut came loose, with a bang. Some one else was also inside the car with both feet on the brake so the wheel wouldn't turn. Good memories.
Had a brother come to stay years ago — had rear brake trouble with his Dodge ( I think ) pickup . We had to remove the rear brake drums . One was particularly stubborn, very large gear puller from the hire centre . Fitted it up , tightened it and hit the centre , again and again . My brother was sitting open legged on the lawn in front of the puller tightening it. Still wouldn’t come loose. Went inside for a cupcake , 5 minutes later an almighty bang . The puller and brake drum were about 10 feet away on the lawn ! Had that come off when he was sitting there —- no kids for him ! Denis.
Started building a Thames panel truck, AKA Anglia, to run in C/Gasser class with no clue what I was doing (circa 1968)...had a '57 Olds rear end, big honkin' traction bars, and started building a 265 Chevy with Enderle injectors and didn't get very far...had the car at my dad's lumber yard where it sat for numerous years until it "disappeared" and the engine sat in our garage until my dad finally made me get rid of it....Ha! The ignorance of youth! Another crazy memory comes to mine when my buddy had a '58 Plymouth Belvedere "gasser" with a pumped 383 that sat rather high and had plastic yard seats...we thought it would be cool to undue the front shock absorbers to get more body reaction and traction and cruise the main on Sat night....you can imagine how well that went!
Repaired a broken u joint with coat hangers and drove 50 miles to a parts store with one retie about 5 miles from town
Weird, but it got you to the parts store. How fast (or maybe, how slow) did you drive the fifty miles? Fun Fact: old bikers on old Harleys always have bailing wire and pliers, in case of a chain break.
