Well, i was going to wait till it was all done and make a big "look at my nice completed car post", but while I was getting the engine in, I noticed things werent quite lining up right. After several hours of muscleing the engine in, this is what I had:

I was quite satisfied myself, this was my first car I have actually put alot of time and $$$ into, and I had finally got my engine in, I'll give you guys the details on it in a fewweeks when everything is together. Well, satisfaction quickly turned to disgust when I tried to get the header on, and there wasnt enough room between the engine and the engine compartment. Well, it looks like I put the engine mounting bracket in backwards, and somehow still boltede everything in, including the tranny crossmember I thought you guys might get a kick out of it. If you have any similar screwups, i would like to hear them!

 

Ive never made a mistake.

~T.J.

EDIT: Ok, so I have. I just cant think of any right now .

 

Nice yoohoo belt.

Hmm, I'll have to think about my screwups too.

 

is that what the small belt is around the e-shat and waterpump pulley? NICE where can i get one of those?

 

3L220, its a lawnmower belt. Didnt you read the tutorial FB? You may have to order it from a home center.

 

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken about that.

 

Heh, my step Mom says that a lot. She really is right a lot though, its almost eerie.

I thought of something I did do once that was stupid. I hooked the battery up backwards and fried the main fuseable link. I took the battery out of my 85 and put it in my 83, and they switched the battery around between the years, so when I put the battery in the 83 the same way it came out of the 85 and hooked it up, the terminals were backwards. Let me tell you though, I normally wouldve checked the terminals, but this was when all I needed was the battery in my car to start it for the very first time after working on it to get it on the road for over a year. I made it that far, and screwed up, lol. I just chalked it up to me being overly anxious .

~T.J.

 

WTF? I only hit the button once...

~T.J.

 

lol, my airpump was removed by the owner before me.

 

---------------------------------

Quote:

WTF? I only hit the button once...

~T.J.

...well there ya go!

Have I ever made a mistake like that?
Which one ya want?!
The last one was when my wiring shorted somewhere under the hood, blowing my cluster board, and causing my fuel pump cut relay to keep my pump from working. I was stranded in a very not-cool part of town with the sun sinking fast.
After 45 minutes of trying to get it figured out, I had to yank my speaker/amp wires to use to wire up the pump direct to my battery.
Still, I got no start. No fuel to carb, but the pump was running like a banshi. A head-scratching and a few "WTF?!?"s later, I opened the gas cap thinking the tank was'nt breathing, and it therefore could'nt prime (?)...or something...
It's probably already obvious to you, but I still did'nt get it, and spent five minutes more trying to start it before it dawned on me I had hooked the damn pump up backwards!

 

ohhhh ohhhhh.. how's this......
I had to replace the transmission (manual) on my car. So I went to the junk yard and found one. Spent a few hours wrestling the old transmission out and putting the new one in. Got it in. Took it for a quick test drive around the neighborhood.. IT works! YEA!!!
Well, the next day my friend and I are driving down the highway. All of a sudden the tansmission makes a horendous whining racket, next thing I know the ONLY gear I have is fourth gear. I was like what the hell??
I had forgotten to check and see if there was any fluid in the transmission. There wasn't. So much for that transmsission... ahhh well. Making mistakes is the only way you learn, right??? :-)
I did end up taking the transmission apart later, it was 'nice'. everything was still there, except the gears had no teeth left on them. they had been worn down to nothingness

 

Here's a gooder:

I tackled the job of rebuilding my carb this summer, so I got the parts, a whole shwack of solvent and went hard. Got the carb off, stripped it down and cleaned it out, and then it was time for reassembly. I figured I had everything right, so I put it back on the car and fired her up.

To say that the car didn't run right would be an understatment.

Finally, it turned out that I had put both primary jets in one float bowl, and both secondary jets in the other. I also forgot a checkball in the accelerator pump circuit. It runs good now, but that was a nerve-wracking couple of days.

 

I got a few of `em....


The VERY first time we got the Beast started, and driveable, the throttle return spring came off, and the carb was stuck in WOT. It ended up rapping out to like 11grand.... in second gear... we were FLYING! The engine isn't so healthy anymore. It also managed to SHATTER the new clutch that was on it... 147 pieces, to be exact.

I was driving home from an autoX, and my buddy with his swapped Civic and I were doing a high speed, ***** out, probably-going-to-jail-for-it top gear run. At around 140-ish, the front airdam separated itself from the rest of the car, and all I could smell was burning fiberglass as it was scraping the ground.

I was driving home from Chicago, and a guy in a Corsica cut in front of me and slammed on his brakes.... I plowed into the back of him.



And here's the best one.

I've been driving around since APRIL with this carb untuned, and running pig rich, sucking down gas (9mpg on the highway was impressive). I go to a friend's shop, and ordered new jets that will lean the carb out, and put me in high power/good mileage territory. 23 dollars later. Why didn't I do that sooner?