DIY mishaps... tell!!

[africatijn]

Hi,

Of course everybody does more or less of maintenance/repairs on their bikes. Now and in the past. And... not all attempts were succesfull I reckon. At least, I had some nice F*CK ups... 8)

idea to post the nicest DIY attempts here? Should be good for a laugh.

Cheers,
Tijn

[africatijn]

Well, to be the first:

I once had a Dr800 big by Suzuki.
Had to change the steering head bearing. But, as always, planned to little time for this job. Removal of the old bearing of the steering stem was taking more time than planned, so installation of the new one had to be done quickly. Steering stem, bearing, metal pipe to gently persuade the bearing on the stem. Took lots of concentration, carefull hitting etc.

When I was done... found that the bearing was upside down. :oops: :oops: And it was such a TIGHT fit....

:x :x :x

Cheers,
Tijn

[iswoolley]

Where to start?

Okay, there was the time I was doing some angle grinding on a piece of tube. Initially the tube was clamped in a vice, but I had to keep taking the tube out of the vice to inspect it. Of course on the last final grind I chose to hold the tube in one hand and the grinder in the other. :roll: Of course the grinding disc caught on the tube and the grinder proceeded to try and grind my first finger off between the two joints. :oops: Strangely enough it didn't actually hurt or bleed! Must have been the shock.

Iain 8)

[Rolo]

As a young lad I helped a mate replace his piston rings on a Kawasaki KH250 triple. We knew things were not quite right when we had to hammer the barrels down over the pistons. We soon found out that the rings were 1mm oversize and not standard............ :roll:

[YEN_POWELL]

When I were a lad and still at school I managed to wangle my way into a machine shop evening class. I wanted to drill into a piece of round bar on the curved face. I was advised to use a magnetic v-block to hold the round bar steady.

I placed the bar in the vee of the block and turned a large butterfly key which magenetised it and sure enough the bar seemed to be held pretty solidly. I started drilling, took me ages and ages. The bar must have started heating up. Apparently too much heat kills the magnetism.

As I let the drill press lever up, the steel bar came up on the end of the drill as well, now spinning furiously. Being somewhat of a hero type (not!!) I got well out of the way, just as the bar flew off and took a chunk out of the wall above the head of the geezer in charge. He took it quite well really, but after that the Ford's apprentices who were in the same class, all tended to keep clear of where I was working.

[xrv_jim]

Took two of my fingers right down to the bone on a belt sander when I was at art college...so, probably stoned at the time then :roll:. Not a lot of pain but loads of blood. Very impressive :!:

[xrv_jim]

Ahah! Just remembered one, but not so much a disaster as a mystery :?

Many years ago I acquired a Honda CD175 that wouldn't run. Using my very scant wiring skills and Haynes manual I rewired the thing. Subsequently it ran OK but only when the battery was disconnected. With the battery on it just blew the main fuse.

I just ran around on it without a battery and everything worked fine. Maybe it was... :twisted: posessed :twisted:

[paultheold]

This one is not Diy, when calling up parts for a Turbine I was stripping at work, managed to call up a Helicopter engine. Only knew of the error when I received a boll*****g a few weeks later.

[YEN_POWELL]

Definitely not DIY, but a few years ago I closed a main road for the weekend so that we could dig the thing up to put in new traffic signals. I did the legal notices myself and faxed them all off the Fire Brigade, Police and Ambulance Service. I dutifully posted notices on site as required by law.

So there I am standing in a professional manner, looking down a trench saying such technical words as "ooh I do believe we've cut off everyones electricity by accident, but |I'm sure they'll all be understanding!"

Something was niggling me at the back of my mind, something I'd forgotten, but what? The clue came when up the road I could see a lovely red double decker bus attempting a 15 point turn with a driver shaking his fist at me in between gear changes. That's it I thought, should've mentioned it to London Transport!!!

[jabba]

Just recently had to strip a 400 superdream to rethread the barrel bolts pulled out the crank assembly and balancer shafts did the job nicely built the entire bike back up started it and relised that I had put the balancer shafts 180 degrees out! How could I tell the worlds largest vibrator definetely one for the girlies! :oops:

[Northy]

These go back a few years ! ( when I was young free & single and poor …. still poor )

There the time when I was fitting a new rear tyres to my Honda 400/ four , I “lost” one of my tyre levers . Its was nice and safe in my full inflated and fitted wheel wedged between the side wall and the tube ( its was only 12 a inch one).

Or there a my dealing with Kawasaki’s - my mate - now brother in law had a KH400 triple with gear problems so we decide to remove the clutch cover just in to check the selector / drum etc simple , just remove the oil pump and the move the flexible hoses ….opps there not that flexible are they , I own you two pipes . Whilst waiting for the new pipes to arrive the battery when flat, took it off to charge it up and dropped it (bugger)

Put the rear tyre on my wife’s GPZ305 the wrong way round , discovered this at a rally 200 miles from home . Everyone taking the P


Seize up my KLR 600 …..the cam chain guide collapsed ……complete engine rebuild …. So Kawaker’s don’t like me ….remember having my first pillion ride , at 16, on Z900 set up for proddy racing with my then looney cousin driving … not getting on the back with him ever again!

My RD 350 air cool rocket - 21 mpg ! had micron expansion pipes , I regularly repacked with Fibre glass (cheap - but didn’t last long ) but never renewed the end circlip reused the old one , until they one side shot out , at speed , just missing a following rider.

Recently I've being dong OK … expect having to strip down a TM125 engine twice because the one of the gear box spacer was put in the wrong way round , 3 gear wouldn’t select. ( you don’t get such things TM manuals )

northy