Whats the worst DIY job you ever did?

[nitrofarm]

After much procrastination,I'm on my way out to the barn. My 1990 4x4 Suburban plow truck needs a rear axle bearing & seal. It reminds me of last year @ this time. When I decided to finally "Man up" & fix my exhaust leak. It was leaking @ the head. I think all toll it was torn apart @ 2 weeks. I'm lucky I didnt start the thing on fire. Passenger side manifold cam off fine. Drivers side was SATAN ! Had to cut it into three pieces. Three bolts where fused to the manifold itself.And they fused into the head. Once I finally got the manifold pieces off the three bolt shanks. It still took 3.5 hrs to remove them from the head.I used every trick in the book. Finally got em all. The one under the brake booster took a couple years off of my life. Hopefully this next plow project goes a little smoother. The salt here in the Midwest is such a pita.
So go ahead and share your war stories.That way I cant feel to sorry for myself

[JoDan]

Had a bad pass front ujoint on my Ranger. The axle that goes to the wheel is a two part shaft with the inner held in by a c-clip that was inside the pumpkin. I took the spindle and all that off and went to pull the axle out... didn't happen. I took the boot off the slip yoke and the shafts were rusted together. So after taking a torch to it for about 30 minutes and tried to pound them apart... no go. So I had to drop the pumpkin out which isn't fun on Ford's dumb twin traction beam front end, even worse when you have a full axle sticking out getting caught up on everything. So after finally getting that c-clip off I went to pull the full axle and when it popped out, my pumpkin fell out of the truck splitting it in 4 places. So after finding a new carrier and axle shaft I got it all together and I must of touched the mating surface on the beam wiggling that thing back up in there cause now it leaks. So did that all again which wasn't to bad when the axles would separate and loosing about every socket I own in my garage because I threw them I got 4x4 for the winter

[junspeed]

broke a bolt from my inline mustang's tstat housing, even worst I broke the extractor, I hammer-drilled the solid metal for days , end up drilling the sides, filled/welded the holes, drill again and tap. after 10 years, it happened again last month, I broke a bolt from my pride sedan's trunk striker, I tried an extractor and broke it but this time it took me few minutes to remove it
Now, I promised that I will never use an extractor ever again, I'll go for drill and tap instead.

[blkfordsedan]

Not auto related, but rather "home repair".........

When I was 20, I was going to college and staying with my oldest brother and his wife. Their house was built in the late 1800's. One Sunday around 1:00PM, upon flushing the toilet, I accidentally bumped the toilet paper roll holder. They had one of those cheap mesh type roll cores with the scented beads in it. When I bumped it, the roll came loose frome the wall and the plastic core fell into the toilet at the exact moment the water was flushing. The flimsy plastic core ended up getting caught and plugging the trap at the bottom of the toilet. I tried for several hours to dig it out with both a coat hanger and a drain snake, but with no luck. For some unknown reason, my brother and I decided that instead of calling a plumber, it would be easier to remove the toilet completely and dig the plastic core out from the under side. We managed to get the toilet off, carried the toilet into the back yard, flipped it over and retreived the offending piece of plastic. "That was easy!" we thought, but upon reinstalling the toilet we soon realized what 60+ years of use can do to the structural integrety of the wood floor and leaded sewer pipe. The tank supply line was hard plumbed with copper tube, which we cut in anticipation of replacing it with a modern flexible supply with a shutoff. We also failed to consider how hard it would be to adapt modern plumbing hardware to that which was designed 60 years earlier. After several hours of repairing the rotten floor, we installed a nifty PVC flange adapter that would expand on the inside of the original leaded drain pipe (whose sealing flange was almost completely erroded away). The only problem was the 60+ year old toilet had an extended drain on the bottom which would not let it adapt to the new PVC drain flange. We decided we would have to buy a new toilet. After returning with said new toilet, we noticed the new supply line would not connect to the old copper line due to an odd-ball O.D.. The decision was made to seperate the iron water pipe at the closest joint and install PVC pipe from that point. When we tried to break the iron pipe loose, the "torque" that was placed on the water pipe system caused it to break about 15' down the line....under the kitchen floor. Soooo.... after several more hours and re-plumbing 1/4 of the house, we were ready to "go live" and turn on the water main. The loud "pop" and sound of gushing water made it immediately appearent that we were not destined to be plumbers.

Long story short, after a few more hours of work, we finally got everything fixed. The next day I went out and bought a new toilet paper roll holder.....a new "core free" design with spring loaded levers on each end.

I learned a valuable lesson.....NEVER tear into the plumbing of an old house unless it is the LAST OPTION! If you do, PLAN on it being 3X the amount of work and taking 3X the amount of time and money you think it will be!

[Festy46]

Three bolts where fused to the manifold itself.And they fused into the head. Once I finally got the manifold pieces off the three bolt shanks. It still took 3.5 hrs to remove them from the head.

I had some 3/4" set screws that were seized on a big heavy piece of equipment. I heated the screws red hot and they wouldn't budge even with a breaker bar and cheater pipe. I put some ice on the screw only when it was hot and as soon as it melted I tried to remove the screw. I was able to remove it with just the breaker bar. I guess what happened was that when I applied the ice to screw, it contracted when it cooled and the surrounding area still being hot took some of the grip off the screw. I did the same thing a couple years later on the same piece of equipment with the same results.

[JPT]

...I guess what happened was that when I applied the ice to screw, it contracted when it cooled and the surrounding area still being hot took some of the grip off the screw.

Check this stuff out. My cousin says it's amazing.

http://www.loctitefreezeandrelease.com/

[getnpsi]

Having to repair a foot thru the ceiling after catching the extention cord and unplugging my light was my worst home repair DIY hell. Now I'll just pay people to put up ceiling fans if attic access is needed.

[Festy46]

Check this stuff out. My cousin says it's amazing.

http://www.loctitefreezeandrelease.com/

It looks like it would be better than my ice cubes. I've never seen that stuff before.

[schreurs1]

worst thing i ever had to do was a RF wheel bearing on a 2003 eclipse. axle splines seized into the wheel bearing. heated and hammered til i couldnt lift a hammer anymore and only mushroomed the end of the axle shaft without budging it. so then i had to take the knuckle off the suspension and take the axle out of the trans and take the whole mess out and torch it apart. basically had to torch anything that wasnt a steering knuckle out without damaging the aforementioned part. after an hour of torching i finally got it all out into thousands of glowing red pieces. it sucked so bad and turned a 45 min job into an 8 hour fiasco.

[91mcnasty]

put three freakin PS pumps on a ford taurus today, of course the 100 dollar high pressure line starts leaking on the third pump so off the pump comes again and you have to fish your arm 1 1/2 feet down behind the motor to even touch the line,AWESOME!!!!!

[JoDan]

Why 3?

[fastivaca]

My first engine swap was an interesting adventure! My '64 Galaxie convertible had a 390 in it that I blew up (don't ask) so I bought a factory rebuilt and overbored 428 with which to replace it.

I was 19 at the time and still at home. We had a single garage with a driveway that sloped down to the curb. Things were going very well... had all the hoses, pipes, wires etc disconnected. Unbolted the transmission and hoisted away. I discovered, much to my dad's displeasure, that you aren't supposed to pull the torque converter with the engine while leaving the transmission in the car! Anyway, most of the transmission fluid poured out and proceeded to do what liquids do... run downhill toward the gutter.

Did I mention that my dad was not pleased? That misadventure added a couple of days to the job as I had to clean up the driveway as well as finish the car.

One other thing happened just before I went to start the engine for the first time. I checked that everything was hooked up correctly, spark plug wires in the right order and all that and was just about to hit the switch when I noticed an extra bolt sitting on the floor under the car. Keep in mind that this was in the early '70's, I was making about $600 a month and I'd just spent two months wages on the engine. I was terrified that I'd missed something inside and would have to take everything apart again. After two hours of worrying, sweating and trying to figure out what I'd done I had one of the "DOH" moments when I remember that I'd used a couple of extra bolts to hook up the chain to hoist the engine out.

Car started just fine, ran great, and I had a lot of fun with the car after that.