Monumental screw-ups

PostPost by: trw99 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:35 pm

I have a recollection of reading his (Dean) obituary in Club Lotus News years back.

Alex, I didn't know you had gone all M100! Is it any easier to get into than the Sprint?

Tim
User avatar
trw99
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 3262
Joined: 31 Dec 2003

PostPost by: alexblack13 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:27 pm

Hi Tim Very much easier.. I can manage to swing my legs out with the door full open, then its a case of just standing up.


It was an obvious choice to get back into Lotus ownership.. And it cant half shift. Its a superb drive.


Cheers bud.

Al' ...
Alex Black.
Now Sprintless!!
User avatar
alexblack13
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 2306
Joined: 17 Oct 2007

PostPost by: Foxie » Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:03 am

john.p.clegg wrote:Dear All

Have you ever done an oil change and forgot to refit the sump plug....wondering why the oil wasn't coming up the dipstick???

John :wink:


I've done worse; drained the oil in my old Wolseley 1500, replaced the plug, put forgot to tighten it. By the time I heard the noise of the destroyed bearings at 70 mph it was too late...... :o
68 Elan +2, 70 Elan +2s
User avatar
Foxie
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1630
Joined: 20 Sep 2003

PostPost by: Mick6186 » Sun Jul 14, 2019 7:18 am

Many years ago did an oil change on my 1967 mk1 Cooper 'S'. For some reason (possibly to make access to the oil filter easier) removed one of the oil cooler pipes to swing it to one side. Refilled with a gallon of Duckhams, sat in the car, started up and gave it a good old boy racer rev up(forgot about the oil cooler pipe) . A beautiful green fountain erupted from the front of the car. My parents weren't happy about the driveway!!
Mick
Mick6186
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 223
Joined: 11 Mar 2014

PostPost by: jk952 » Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:08 pm

At the highly experienced age of 17, my car friend (still see him), decided to rebuild the engine in his MGB. After a very late Sunday finally got it in, started it up, all was great; went to bed exhausted. At about 3:00 am woke up with the sudden thought ?did I or didn?t I bend up the lock tabs on the bearing caps?? ? ! Then pondering...?how important is that with proper torque/stretch on the bolts???

Called me the next day wondering if I remembered seeing them when looking at the engine being assembled a couple of days prior, I didn?t remember either.
He took the engine out again and sure enough he had forgotten. :)
jk952
Third Gear
Third Gear
 
Posts: 304
Joined: 04 Jan 2011

PostPost by: 69S4 » Mon Jul 15, 2019 8:02 pm

jk952 wrote: At about 3:00 am woke up with the sudden thought ?did I or didn?t I bend up the lock tabs on the bearing caps?? ? ! Then pondering...?how important is that with proper torque/stretch on the bolts???

He took the engine out again and sure enough he had forgotten. :)


That 3.00am quality control check has saved my bacon on more occasions that I care to remember - and certainly more than I'll admit to :lol:
Stuart Holding
Thame UK / Alpe D'Huez France
69 S4 FHC
Honda GoldWing 1800
Honda CBX1000
Kawasaki H1 500
Yamaha XS2
69S4
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1347
Joined: 23 Sep 2004

PostPost by: Higs » Thu Jul 18, 2019 8:33 pm

Way back in the 80's when I had just finished the first rebuild of my Plus 2, I took it on a golf tour to Kent. At the end of a days golf, I drove my brother to our hotel - leading a motley convoy of other cars. Somewhere it the back roads of Kent, I heard a knocking noise from the rear. "Did you hear that noise?" I said. "I'll tell you what, let's speed up and get ahead and then we can stop and check things." Clearly this was the optimism of youth.

Anyway, a few spirited corners later , we entered a pretty village and came down the main street. At which point, there was a loud thump and the passenger rear side dropped to the road surface - we had lost a wheel! My brother stayed calm and kept saying "I can see the wheel, I'm watching it...".

The Elan stopped fairly quickly; the wheel continued to a bend at the bottom of the hill whereupon it mounted the pavement, leapt through a fence and stopped in the middle of someone's front garden.

Amid much laughter from the following cars, we retrieved the wheel and knocked on the door of the house across the road to ring for a garage.

It was later that I discovered that I had not put the large washer on the stub axle and the hub was therefore only held on by the edges of the nut. It had taken 200 miles for the nut to be rounded off enough for the hub to slide pass and come off.

The next morning, we visited a tractor/farm supplier. One bolt and washer later and a large nail for the woodruff key and the Elan was back on the road. The wishbone ends where ground fairly flat but they survived the trip back to Bristol.

We still do the same golf tour, and my plan is to drive the Elan on the next one next year - it has been off the road since 1986...... Not sure what I will forget this time.....

Richard
Higs
Second Gear
Second Gear
 
Posts: 160
Joined: 02 Dec 2009
Previous

Total Online:

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests