what haas been your worst vehicle wrenching nightmare?

[CAP1]

i learned a loooonnnnnggggg time ago, to NEVER assume anything with any car. just because you think it's good, or it "appears" good, doesn't mean it isn't. i've been burned that way.

[Bizman]

The unused spare is the one I had to order when my primary key broke some years ago... But to prevent you from getting to say 'gotcha' I measured both keys: 3.06 for both batteries in the primary key, 3.17 for both in the secondary one. Contacts clean and tight. Not working.

[Skuzzy]

Helped a friend of mine stuff a Ford GT500 (5.8L supercharged) engine into his Cobra.  Never again.

Not enough room to drop in the engine/transmission as an assembly.  Not enough room to install either the engine or the transmission separately.  Could not go from the bottom, engine too wide for the frame rails.  Could not tilt the engine and slide in the transmission as the heads were would hit the firewall.

So, we cut the floorboard out of the car, installed the engine and transmission, then welded the floorboard back in.  If he needs to remove either, he will have to do it again.  As the floorboard is integral to the integrity of the body structure, it had to be welded in.

Oh, did I mention, we had to do it again because the numbskull forgot to install the clutch disc before we put it all back together again?

[CAP1]

Helped a friend of mine stuff a Ford GT500 (5.8L supercharged) engine into his Cobra.  Never again.

Not enough room to drop in the engine/transmission as an assembly.  Not enough room to install either the engine or the transmission separately.  Could not go from the bottom, engine too wide for the frame rails.  Could not tilt the engine and slide in the transmission as the heads were would hit the firewall.

So, we cut the floorboard out of the car, installed the engine and transmission, then welded the floorboard back in.  If he needs to remove either, he will have to do it again.  As the floorboard is integral to the integrity of the body structure, it had to be welded in.

Oh, did I mention, we had to do it again because the numbskull forgot to install the clutch disc before we put it all back together again?

 wanna hear one on that? the ford dealer down the street from me has an 013 gt500 sitting on their lot. with a blown engine. the owner(they said a kid) had it towed in, saying they never raced, blablabla.
 they sent computer data to ford, and ford is refusing the warranty. apparently the kid had the car tuned, which is what caused the engine to go......they said the engine for that car is $28k. ouchiwawa. i told them i'd offer the kid $5k for the car as it sits. 

[Skuzzy]

All gt500 engines are supercharged.  Yep, that is about the right price, without the control electronics needed.  With over 600hp, and over 650ft/lbs of torque, his car should be able to pull most stumps from the ground, if he can get any traction.  Big "if".

Although I do know a few guys with more horsepower and torque under the hood.  There is one crazy running about with over 1200hp in his Cobra.

[ghi]

I've just read this on yahoo news; this frustrated BMW owner fixing his 160,000$  BMW, lmao

http://ca.autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/bmw-m6-owner-goes-hulk-over-defects-smashes-163648995.html

[CAP1]

All gt500 engines are supercharged.  Yep, that is about the right price, without the control electronics needed.  With over 600hp, and over 650ft/lbs of torque, his car should be able to pull most stumps from the ground, if he can get any traction.  Big "if".

Although I do know a few guys with more horsepower and torque under the hood.  There is one crazy running about with over 1200hp in his Cobra.

 i dunno the exact specs.....but the guy across the street has a customer(who is also a shop owner, lolol...specializes in only high end imports) that owns many many hotrods. but he doesn't work on those himself, so he brings them to joe. this guy just picked up a shelby 1000.

[uptown]

Helped a friend of mine stuff a Ford GT500 (5.8L supercharged) engine into his Cobra.  Never again.

Not enough room to drop in the engine/transmission as an assembly.  Not enough room to install either the engine or the transmission separately.  Could not go from the bottom, engine too wide for the frame rails.  Could not tilt the engine and slide in the transmission as the heads were would hit the firewall.

So, we cut the floorboard out of the car, installed the engine and transmission, then welded the floorboard back in.  If he needs to remove either, he will have to do it again.  As the floorboard is integral to the integrity of the body structure, it had to be welded in.

Oh, did I mention, we had to do it again because the numbskull forgot to install the clutch disc before we put it all back together again?

  and that's why I don't drink and work and cars at the same time   I replaced a intake and carb once and had to go back and remove it because a left a wrench in the valley pan....

[CAP1]

  and that's why I don't drink and work and cars at the same time   I replaced a intake and carb once and had to go back and remove it because a left a wrench in the valley pan....

last time i drank at the same time i was working on a car, was putting the 4 speed back in a 74 roadrunner. i fell asleep under the car, with part of the trans laying on my chest. scared the crap outta my buddy that came over to see how i was making out.

[WEZEL]

Helped a friend of mine stuff a Ford GT500 (5.8L supercharged) engine into his Cobra.  Never again.

Not enough room to drop in the engine/transmission as an assembly.  Not enough room to install either the engine or the transmission separately.  Could not go from the bottom, engine too wide for the frame rails.  Could not tilt the engine and slide in the transmission as the heads were would hit the firewall.

So, we cut the floorboard out of the car, installed the engine and transmission, then welded the floorboard back in.  If he needs to remove either, he will have to do it again.  As the floorboard is integral to the integrity of the body structure, it had to be welded in.

Oh, did I mention, we had to do it again because the numbskull forgot to install the clutch disc before we put it all back together again?

Next time you go to do it, PM me I got a neat trick to get the trans in without cutting anything  open.

[uptown]

last time i drank at the same time i was working on a car, was putting the 4 speed back in a 74 roadrunner. i fell asleep under the car, with part of the trans laying on my chest. scared the crap outta my buddy that came over to see how i was making out.

I was so excited the first time I got a compressor for the garage I opened a 12 pack ans want to see how fast I could take the tranny out of my 77 4x4 Ford. Man I was zipping bolts out like I was on  Petty's pit crew! Only problem was I forgot to block up the tranny and when the crossmember came off the transfer case smacked me in the head when it dropped down. The wife was standing there and all she heard was a big thud and my feet go up in the air. She was freaking out. She thought for sure I was dead because I didn't answer her at first as I was too busy telling myself how stupid i was. Damn that hurt. 

[Zodiac]

i dunno the exact specs.....but the guy across the street has a customer(who is also a shop owner, lolol...specializes in only high end imports) that owns many many hotrods. but he doesn't work on those himself, so he brings them to joe. this guy just picked up a shelby 1000.

Actually just visited the Shelby museum this past week and the 1000 on display was beautiful, and can be ordered for a meager $155,000 or so. Of course they are still building the old style Cobras there with 427 or 289 (cutomer preference) and they are in the $200,000 range so the Shelby 1000 starts sounding like a bargain.

[rpm]

Oh, did I mention, we had to do it again because the numbskull forgot to install the clutch disc before we put it all back together again?

Sorry Skuzzy. Not laughing at you, laughing with you. That sounds like something that would happen to me.

[icepac]

I'm pretty sure mine will occur shortly after the driver of our car pushes the button on the 500 shot of nitrous oxide while also running 45 pounds of boost.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

The unused spare is the one I had to order when my primary key broke some years ago... But to prevent you from getting to say 'gotcha' I measured both keys: 3.06 for both batteries in the primary key, 3.17 for both in the secondary one. Contacts clean and tight. Not working.

Too bad, I was hoping you'd get a cheap and easy fix. What about the car battery? Did you check it has enough voltage? Mercedes is known for weeeeird stuff when people run with a low battery starting from random ODB errors to stuff like what I experienced:

As I told earlyer I kept my first mercedes a long time. I think it was about 11 years old when one morning it refused to start. Engine was cranking like there was no compression in any of the cylinders i.e. turning real easy (too fast for a regular crank) but engine wouldn't fire up. Then finally after cranking some time the car sluggishly started but again just barely being able to rev up like all compression would be gone and the engine had barely enough power to idle.

I was 100% sure that I had something catastrophic fail in the engine and was cursing because I had put the car for sale already and it had worked perfectly that far. Then when I started to drive the car to a mechanic I noticed the engine was working just fine after a minute of driving. I got suspicious because I knew my car had a 110Ah battery and it had never been changed during the many years of my ownership. I was dumbstruck to see my battery was still the factory original! It had cranked my car up in -30c just previous winter with no preheating.

One new battery later the car fired up and worked as good as new again. Well, about as new as a 300 000km driven Mercedes can be. I got a good laugh one day when I took one of our customers out to eat and the car had 160 000km on it at that time. He asked was my car brand new, with a serious face. I can't blame him though.. at that point it even smelled like a new car still.