Sometimes I shouldn't touch things

[scarlson]

Today, the house was full of kids working on 4H projects so I decided to work in the garage and fix the leaky pinion seal. Everything was going ok until I got the pumpkin on the workbench. I used a small punch to knock out the pinned part of the nut, then grabbed the impact wrench to loosen the nut. I forgot to make sure the wrench was set to loosen. It wasn't. I knew I was in trouble

I continued to pull the old seal out and hammer in the new one. The new seal was not seating flush so I got the bigger hammer. Wrong move. The seal was seated already but was about 2-3 mm taller than the old.

So now I need a new pinion seal and crush sleeve to get this differential back together. The bearing preload is too high even with the nut set to 40 ft/lbs What's worse is I have to remove the whole carrier to get the new crush sleeve in There goes the backlash and carrier preload settings. A simple two hour job will now take who knows how long to complete. I really didn't want to get this deep into this repair. If I could afford the Torsen LSD, this would be the perfect time to put it in since I need to reset all the parts.

What repairs of yours have taken a wrong turn? I need some good stories to make me feel better

[spiderrey]

O K, two things here. When I was about 19 or 20, I had to rebuild a 74 vw bus engine. It was fuel injected. I had no training. I rebuilt a spider engine first and it came out fine. So I figured I could do this. I got a book and went to it. I marked and numbered all the wires so that I would know where they went. Next genius move was to clean out the engine bay. I power washed it and it looked great. Then I noticed all the little numbered tags on the floor. Can you say dumb ass. It took me weeks of messing with it to get it right as far as the wiring goes. Swapped out the injection for duel webbers. When the engine finally ran it ran great, but there was a small oil leak. Turns out I over torqued one of the smaller bolts on the center of the case. My step dad took it to a shop to have them resolve that problem .They told him other then that I had done a fine job.
Next my older sister asked me to rebuild her straight 6 67 mustang. So I did. I was a brave dumb kid. Got it all together but it wouldnt fire. And me not really understanding how cars worked. So I pulled it out at least twice if I recall correctly.Tore it all down and carefully reassembled it. Problem not solved. I gave up and rolled it down the hill to a shop on the corner. I explained my dilema to this kid mechanic who was about my age. He said he would look it over for me. The next day he called and informed me that I had simple misconnected a wire and grounded out the dizzy. He relocated a wire and the car ran fine. Never gave my sis any issues.
Damn, there was one more. Next I rebuilt the engine on my moms 79 wabbit. Got it all done and it fired right up and ran smooth. I drove it down the driveway to the front of the house. I called my mom out to show her, but it wouldnt fire again. I was baffled. My step dad took it to the v dub dealer for them to sort out. Right away the guy pulls the cam wheel and tells my step dad that I forgot to install the keyway. My stepdad knew less then me and thought the guy was lying. So he called me and asked if there was a thing called the key way. They installed a keyway and all was good. Remember I was a kid and this was over 30 years ago. I call it getting skooled on cars. Self taught,:)

[manoa matt]

When I was 16 I had an original 1978 spider with 53,000 miles I bought from an old lady. At some point the head gasket blew between an oil galley and water galley. White smoke followed me and the few people who dared to follow me. Anyway, a $20 head gasket and a $20 new timing belt sould have been the end of it. I think I had a manual and decided to do it myself. I did a good job and had it all back together but the spark plugs were still out. As I was re attaching the cam box mounted throttle linkage I dropped one of the nuts that holds the linkage on the cam box stud. I didn't hear it hit anything when it fell. I was working in the barn with a dirt floor. I looked all over for the nut but eventually gave up and my impatience got the better of me. Found another nut and installed it, installed the spark plugs and fired it up.

I immediatly knew where the nut went in the first few seconds of startup. What a sinking feeling. Took the head off again, bent valve, scratched up head, ect. etc. $480 of my own hard earned money (a small fortune for a 16 year old) and it was back on the road.

[vandor]

What's worse is I have to remove the whole carrier to get the new crush sleeve in

Can't you get it in through the front, by removing the front pinion bearing? I've never tried, just wondering.

[dmwhiteoak]

Well crap, I thought I was gonna get to read about csaba screwing something up.

[scarlson]

What's worse is I have to remove the whole carrier to get the new crush sleeve in

Can't you get it in through the front, by removing the front pinion bearing? I've never tried, just wondering.

The sleeve might fit through, but the carrier needs to be out to set the preload correctly on the pinon.