Read this in an article not that long ago... can't remember which one. A tuner shop goes to a junk yard for some major parts. They realized they had to get the tranny out in order to get what the wanted but didn't want to bother with (or care to) remove the tranny carefully. So what do they do? Gas up the car, get it started, go in reverse to it's near top speed... then slam/gas it in first. Obviously, that "uninstalled" the transmission pretty quickly.

 

Some of these responses are pretty funny, but then I realize I'm no better at controlling my temper when things don't cooperate. I will always try and be nice with the part I'm trying to install/uninstall. Then when it doesn't work I'll start using every four letter word I have in my vocabulary. After that the part usually gets thrown across wherever I might be working. Very bad practice to do, as years ago I was pulling the old rusty springs out of my Chevelle and was so angry by the time I forced them out that I threw one of them out of the garage..... right through the rear windshield of my '87 Galant. That was a slightly expensive mistake.

 

A shame it wasnt the front windshield, at least then insurance could cover it lol.

Im having one of these experiences right now with a leaky downpipe donut seal, and the only size socket I cant find is the one that does on to the downpipe bolts... This thread has cheered me up some, thanks.

One strange experience I had was installing my ETS intake pipe. The da** thing angled too far up and rested on the ETS IC pipe, everything looked good, then when I closed the hood. Well it wouldnt close, and I was left with a 1" gash in my brand new air filter. Solution??? Rip out a 90 degree coupler from the TSI I had at the time and cut it down to make it a 15 degree coupler, install and viola. Put the talon out of commission for a few days but the darn evo was drivable...

Back to that stupid DP now..

 

This past weekend.. i was doing a 'simple' oil change on my sisters Corolla while she was in town visiting. Except the last 'mechanic', in all his wisdom, decided to torque both the drain plug and the filter to what felt like 200 ft-lb. The bolt had to get undone with a breaker bar. The filter however, was a bit of a problem. Anyone who has one of these econo-Corollas will tell you that the oil filter is pretty recessed up into the under-carriage. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal; except the thing was on so tight, I couldn't get it off with just my oil filter wrench.

The mad Fix
Took off the front under tray -cheap plastic so wasn't a big deal. And then comes the madness. I still couldn't get the ***** off so here's what I did.

I got two long roof nails and actually drove them through the side of the oil filter as close to the bottom as I could be (to avoid hitting the inner feed pipe. Keep in mind at this point I'm obviously soaked in oil and there is oil all over the place but I had lost my patience with this thing and I just didn't give a ****. I then used my jack handle (has a hollow tip) placed the end over the two protruding nails at a bit of an angle to get a good grip on it, and used this set up as a custom oil-filter breaker bar.

Aside from being covered in oil and having a bunch of cat litter to sweep up (yes I prepped the ground ), it worked.

 

the old puncture the filter for leverage trick.

 

yes'sir. And it works pretty well. It's honestly beyond me why some mechanics, to this day, still think that you should keep tightening everything until you just can't move it anymore. This is a clear example on why I do not let shops work on my cars unless I ABSOLUTELY have to - which has yet to happen. No one is going to be immaculate or give enough a **** to actually adhere to details like torque specifications, fittings, fluid levels...etc. It's all fast work, in-and-out, get the buck quick, disassociated labor for the most part.

 

The issue:
As I'm sure a few of us have experienced, a cigarette lighter can just go out for no reason from time to time. I've seen a few threads on here about this issue. In a lot of the times, it's fixed by replacing the fuse in the fuse box. In my case though, it was a bit more odd. Hopefully someone else will find this useful in the event that it happens to them.
I was at ... a place ... and my tire pressures were a bit off. There just so happened to be someone near by that had a portable air pump that runs off the cigarette lighter. I plug it in, I start the thing up, it runs for about a minute then silence. I figured the pump was bad and luckily there was someone else in the area that just so happened to have one as well (what a coincidence). I tried his and no luck. The plug was dead.
Later that day I noticed that the ring around the cigarette lighter was lighting up and the ashtray is fine. It had to be the cigarette lighter socket. I took the console out, checked the bottom end of the socket and sure enough, the resister that goes from the hot-side to the ground was melted and cut the circuit.
I called up a few dealerships only to find that it's not something any of them carry. I'd have to order a cigarette lighter and wait a few days on it (give or take). I wasn't having that. The primary function of my cigarette lighter is to power my Valentine - which I cannot afford to have off-line.

The Fix:
After taking the console apart, it wasn't too hard to get the cigarette lighter apart. I then used needle nose pliers to pry open the clamps on both the hot-side and ground taps that were holding down the bridge resister. I then grabbed some solder (from my computer tool kit) and replaced the resister with it. I clamped down on both ends effectively making a new bridge out of a piece of cold solder wire (not soldered). I then soldered a little more on the end taps (not too much here) and hot dropped a single drop on the middle of the solder line. This will not be as strong as the original resister obviously, but it will hold up and will actually increase your margin of safety; as it would give out far before anything else. Not that it even matters since there is a fuse in the fuse box for that very reason.

It works perfectly, my Valentine is back online and I even ran my air pump on it with no problems.
I'm a bit lazy so there are no pictures now, but if it's really important to anyone, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

 

This sounds a lot like how I work on things either cars or around the house. My wife though still decides sometimes she wants to ask me if everything is alright during these times. Often this leads to me snapping at her and later apologizing to her while reminding her to try and not speak to me when I am doing these things. I have been known to throw things from time to time. I have also done the victory yelling when I defeat the evil thing I am working on.

What really drives me over the top though is breaking the important piece I need. Then after throwing a fit and yelling a lot I try to and sometimes succeed at becoming McGyver, other times I have to go and buy a new piece.

I really do love my wife but being ask if everything is alright when I am yelling at something does not seem to go over well with me.

Raist