Share your rookie mistakes to help us all learn

[coke]

After I did the head gasket on my 90 Jetta, I was screwing with the timing belt try to get it back on. Had a hell of a time getting the cam sprocket on right so it lined up with all the other pulleys. So after an hour or so of frigging around, I got the belt on, all tensioned up, and then it hit me.

Crankshaft wasn't at TDC, because per the bentley, I had turned it backwards till all pistons were equal hight before installing the head.

[somolovitch3]

I like the rebuild the relay plates on the older VW's.
Open up, take apart, remove the insulating "Film" and solder a 14 ga wire on top of the trace and cover  with a new layer of "Film". Relay plates have a pretty close relationship with each other........Yep after a few months, viberations wore through the "Film"(nail polish) and kind of melted the whole damn thing. The only thing that saved the car was that I had kept the original fuse links and added a few more for some of the othe circiuts.

Moral of story?

FUSES AND MORE FUSES!!!
The wiring is a bit thin one these cars, boosting the size in one area can cause problems in an other.

[TylerDurden]

This concerns the 1.6D;
 Put the damn "T"-bolt in the waterpump before you bolt the alternator bracket on.

I forgot again too...  but while trying to sneak it in, discovered the hole had not been drilled-out at the factory, it was still drilled for tapping.



Expect suppliers to make mistakes too. 

[burn_your_money]

That hole is not suppose to be threaded.

[bbob203]

leaving the lock pin in my injection pump and starting the car... well trying to womp womb..

[TylerDurden]

That hole is not suppose to be threaded.

Ja, sorry to not be more clear, the housing should be drilled out large enough for the t-bolt (like the cover is).



There are more stories since 2007... search the board: "rookie mistakes".

[ORCoaster]

My rookie move was thinking that in order to rebuild the IP I needed to have it set on the bench in the horizontal direction that is in when running.  Got the back bolts off and was easing them off knowing there was some spring tension on that whole mechanism and had it just about undo when the whole innards come tumbling out as I ease back the head.  Did not know that dis assembly was a "on it's nose affair"

[TylerDurden]

One mistake I recently made: taking the power-steering belt off my 91 Jetta and still expecting the waterpump to turn properly (like earlier versions)... The 91 ECO has the elaborate two-sheave pulley... the outer sheave drives the waterpump and PS, the inner sheave just relays power to the AC compressor and alternator.  If the PS belt is off, the waterpump won't spin worth spit.

[burn_your_money]

Once upon a time I forgot to tighten the injection pump mounting bolts (later 2 piece pulley style) and they backed out and promptly demolished the pump gear. Thankfully, the car shut off while still keeping the cam and crank in time so it was a "cheap" repair.

[8v-of-fury]

leaving the lock pin in my injection pump and starting the car... well trying to womp womb..

BEEN THERE! Forgot to remove the pump lock.. Sheared all the lugs off the timing belt around the crank pulley. Thank the lord baby Jesus the cam shaft stayed at TDC. Funny thing? It was probably my 1001st time doing a timing belt.. and I didn't turn it over by hand...

That is literally the only dumb thing I have done that I can really think of.

[theman53]

First diesel head I ever put on one of these I took the injectors out and didn't know the heat sheilds were one time use. I got it running and continued to tighten the injector until it snapped the boss to try and keep it from leaking. It didn't work.

[damac]

I posted about it on a couple of forums, but mine was I think an incorrect torque on the pressure plate bolts doing a clutch/tranny job.  I believe I used a little chart on the back of the box and it said 22 ft. lbs and 1/4 turn.  That didn't work so well.  I had less than an hour of running time on the driveway while I tuned things up and all of a sudden I heard some scraping and before I could even think about doing anything the engine just came to a dead stop.

A few bolts broke clean off and ripped out most the threads on one crank hole.  Pressure plate holes were elongated, etc.

I ended up taking a dremel to the high spots and cleaned things up.  Used some jbweld to fill in low spots and reinstalled another clutch in the car and ran it like that!  Car was daily driven and it lasted a year until a family member overheated the car.  That engine still sits on the shelf in pieces

[srgtlord]

Mistake #1  purchasing a high mileage rusty car.
Mistake #2 Attempt to fix said rusty car with various metal patches
Mistake #3 replace darn near everything on said rusty car
Mistake #4  Not pay attention to proper torque for various bolts
Mistake #5 Overtightening timing belt and causing an oily mess 
Mistake #6 Too many project cars and too little time. Two solid  projects are more realistic than 3 or 4....

[millertime]

I was cleaning my car and dropped a penny in the cigarette lighter.  Burned the whole center console the wire cluster up  before i could put out with a fire extinguisher.  Moral of the story is keep a phone charger in the cigarette lighter but now my socket is relocated to the side of the cigarette lighter. 

But im finally finishing my turbo engine swap and gonna tow prime it today so stay tuned for another rookie mistake.  Hopefully wont be major. 

[Syncroincity]

Rebuilt my AAZ. Engine turned freely on the stand. Installed flywheel and clutch, mated engine to trans, and installed the drivetrain in the van. Try to turn engine over w/ starter, does not budge. Remove drivetrain from van.

Long story short; the new flywheel bolts I got were ARPs, and a bit too long.
They passed thru the flywheel & crank flange into the block and locked the motor.