GStwin.com GS500 Message Forum

This thread started with me sharing a stupid thing I did while wrenching, but everyone started sharing their expiriences, so tell us...What's the stupidest thing you've ever done while wrenching?

This doesn't have to do with the police or drinking, but I wish I had that excuse.  I was installing my brand spanking new to me kat 600 shock yesterday ($19.80), and had to lift the tank to drop it down between the lunchbox air filter, and the battery box.  So I do this, and I have the tank supported by a piece of wood, and a jar of wood filler.  I pull out the old shock, and drop in the katana one, but it just won't drop into place.  (Rear tire being 2 inches taller than stock made the back tire touch with the center stand down).  So I then proceed like an idiot to tip the bike slightly to lower the swing arm so that the shock can drop to it's mounting holes, and BAM!  My tank slips off the right side of the bike, and is caught by the 2 fuel lines...luckily missing the tank petcock.  Then the weight of the tank proceeded to sheer both the reserve and the main fuel lines.  I catch the tank as both lines are about half way cut through.  I then grab my screw driver to turn the tank petcock off, but I can't get at it, so it takes me about 10 seconds to actually turn it off, all the while while fuel is spilling all over the bike and engine.  I finally get it off, and about half a gallon is now all over me, the bike and the ground.  Complete luck saved the tank petcock...still not leaking, and the fuel likes were sheered only about 1/2 inch in from the end, so they are still usable.  I get everything back together and hose it all down to rinse away the fuel, but a bunch poured onto the air filter, so I'm giving it a day to evaporate away as well before I ride again.

could see it a mile away :icon_confused:

An expensive way to clean you engine.

Yeah tell me about it.  And it's still dirty.

When I swapped out my shock I didn't remove the tank. I just slid out the old shock down through the bottom and put the kat shock in the same way.

I couldn't get the dogbones unbolted with ease, so I figured I'd just go through the top.  It was pretty easy other than the swing arm not going down far enough because of the tall-ass tires that I have.  (have stock size to put on in the next week or two)

Hi there,
Definitely stupid, :)  but entertaining.:)
And oh by the way, you misspelled "moron" and "buffoon."  You spelled them as "moran" and "bafoon."
Best wishes,
Trwhouse  :)

P.S. Oh sure, NOW you edit your post and fix the spellings!  :)

Quote from: quiktaco on May 15, 2008, 12:14:40 PM
I couldn't get the dogbones unbolted with ease, so I figured I'd just go through the top.  It was pretty easy other than the swing arm not going down far enough because of the tall-ass tires that I have.  (have stock size to put on in the next week or two)

Luckily I was able to loosen mine up, or I guarantee I would have done the exact same thing.  :laugh:

Quote from: bucks1605 on May 15, 2008, 12:11:25 PM
When I swapped out my shock I didn't remove the tank. I just slid out the old shock down through the bottom and put the kat shock in the same way.

ditto

if were talking bout being stupid , i had a chain round my rear wheel , on my 1996 , and id forgotten i put it there whilst i charged my battery , then i started the engine and it sounded gd , it was in gear on the centre  stand , and as i had held in the clutch and started it , gave it a rev... oh whats the clicking sound , * instead of looking i thought yea ive rev it harder ,* like a Flail this chain sweeps up , dents the stock *lucky*exhuast and smashes my tail light and marked its swing arm ... what a tit

I love the smell of fresh gasoline in the morning. :icon_mrgreen:

quiktaco-

i do stupid shaZam! like that all the time.

this weekend i'm changing a chain, tires, brakes, and other things. think i'll make it through without a glitch ? nope, me neither. :D

congrats on not catching anything on fire :D

Quote from: ohgood on May 15, 2008, 03:43:03 PM
congrats on not catching anything on fire

Let's hope.  I haven't started her up since it happend.

ha i just put my kat shock in on sunday too.

made one of these
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f187/Familia_Cruz/bikes/100_3897.jpg)

works like this
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f187/Familia_Cruz/bikes/100_3904.jpg)

couple ratchet straps and a jack, the job was done seamless in about 35 mins   :dunno_white:

Quote from: quiktaco on May 15, 2008, 03:44:50 PM

Quote from: ohgood on May 15, 2008, 03:43:03 PM
congrats on not catching anything on fire

Let's hope.  I haven't started her up since it happend.

LMAO - no really :D

I think I'm going to be out there with the fire extinguisher and the garden hose running just in case. :o

You dont want to put out or ... try to put out a gasoline fire with water ... why ... lets see, gasoline does not mix with water and it floats on water ... ergo, take the fire to places it hasn't even dreamt of ...
You also dont want to try to put out an electrical fire with water.
Cool.
Buddha.

well to make you feel better the other day I was doing some welding on my bike, I have no centre stand so I put a 2x4 under the side stand to straighten her up a lil, anyhoo I was welding the rear subframe and all of a sudden it stops welding and Bang the bike tipped over and fell on my welder. No damage to the bike but the welder case was dented. Oh I spilled a little gas on my and the GS and then proceded to finish welding

Quote from: The Buddha on May 15, 2008, 05:50:15 PM
You dont want to put out or ... try to put out a gasoline fire with water ... why ... lets see, gasoline does not mix with water and it floats on water ... ergo, take the fire to places it hasn't even dreamt of ...
You also dont want to try to put out an electrical fire with water.
Cool.
Buddha.

The extinguisher was for the gas fire, the hose was for anything that caught on fire incase I went gung ho with the fire extinguisher and there wasn't any more.

Anyways, didn't end up bringing the hose over afterall.  Did bring the fire extinguisher though.  Started her up and everything was fine.  Don't see any leaks still, so hopefully I didn't do any actual damage.

And for anyone who is interested.  I put the katana shock to 4 preload and 1 rebound.  I'm 5'10" and weigh 145 lbs.  It definitely brought the seat up an inch or more ( I think my stocker was sagging a bit - 43k miles).  It's hard to describe the shock compared to the other one.  I had the stock on preload of 7 (max).  The stocker sagged more (maybe 2-3 inches) but was harsher.  The katana on 4 preload 1 rebound sags about 1.5" (between the 30-40 mm suggestion) but is a lot softer going over speed bumps and railroad tracks and such.  The turning has changed.  I may need to mess with the settings to get it correct.  It almost felt harder to turn, but it may just be my inexperienced self fearful of leaning when testing out this new device.

A couple days ago I did a similar but maybe even dumber (more dumb?) thing.  I needed to remove the tank to get to the carbs so I made sure the frame petcock was on "ON" and then pulled the reserve hose off of the tank petcock...yep I didn't shut it off and my engine got a great gas bath :oops:  Being the problem solver that I am I stopped the gas with my thumb and figured that I could shut the petcock off...without realizing that the slot was on the other side of the bike.  Now I've had the tank off many times with no problem...just happens to everyone.

Another good one was when my friend lit his Firebird on fire.  Seems that an oxy-acetylene torch gets hot enough to ignite undercoating and such...there went his rear-end :thumb:

Happy wrenching!

Same thing happened to me ... Different story but same result... I was working on doing an oil change and checking a few things, had the tank unbolted and decided to pull it of the center stand... tank fell off... small dent to the tank and i was a bit angry with myself... (sh)it happens.

Let's keep this thread going as a "Stupidest thing I've ever done while wrenching" thread!

Trusting a guy at a paintshop was the worst thing i ever did. My first bike we also put a custom paint job on it. It was while all over with a CASTROL paint job like on Edwards' really old superbike. The paint looked great (hard to get white looking good) not a speck on it. Applied the stickers and painted in the larger red and green on the panels just came down to the final job - the clear coat. Loaded up the clear coat in the gun sprayed all the panels (2 coats) polished her up and put her back together. She looked great, went to fill up with gas one day and the friggin nozel jetted out and splashed all over the top of the tank. Normally you get annoyed cos your guna stink of petrol for ages however i look down to see all the top of my lovely white tank turn yellow and the clear coat come away on my gloves as i wiped the excess of the tank. What the hell - clear coat that dissolves in petrol! Friggin had to sand the whole damn tank down and repaint white then get some proper clear coat and a new set of stickers just for the tank stickers. Cost me an extra $250 or so to sort that damn thing out.

Grrr

Second stupidiest thing - trying to decide the best way to warm the oil up to drain the engine oil out on my zxr and then how to change the filter afterwards. Yes i ended up burning my hand on the headers because im impatient hehe.

I think my GS Oxford chain Flail is the worst i have done lol

hah, how easy it is to learn when you make dumb mistakes, such as:

-lets check my rear wheel alignment with the string method, no center stand, "i'll just balance it on the side stand", rest is history.

-stator cover was leaking oil next to one bolt after replacing the gasket. tighten the bolt a little, a little more, more more. SNAP!. was able to get bolt out with vise grips but some how there is a crack in the cover too. Right now, there is a JB weld "patch" over it until i can find another cover for cheap.

-and then, of course, countless bruised and scraped knuckles

:)