Dumb things you've done while working on your Jeep

[ObiMatt87]

Attempting to lift off the hardtop, but forgetting to disconnect the washer line / electrical plug. “Why isn’t this thing lifting off… oh yeaaaaah…duh.”

Yep, been there, done that, got the Dumbass Badge of Honor.

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[ObiMatt87]

my latest dumb shit move was I was cleaning my back window and had the wiper blade pulled away and forgot about it and then shut the tailgate and the spare tire snapped the wiper blade in half....could have been worse could have broken the rear window...

Did that once as well. I was lucky and it hit just right to force the wiper back against the window normally vs breaking it off, but it was close. I think the only thing that saved me was I saw what I was doing at the last second and started to pull back right as it hit. I thought the same thing: "Man, that was close. I could have busted the whole window..."

 

[dragoneggs]

Yep, been there, done that, got the Dumbass Badge of Honor.

There's the BOH and then the DABOH! Would be a good badge to hand out when appropriate. You know, I might be on to something.

 

[ObiMatt87]

There I was... December 2020 here in San Antonio. Better Half out of town visiting parents while I'm tied down to work. Come Saturday, I'm doing a bunch of inside/outside work to the house and say to myself, "Self, I'm hungry." So I decide to pop over to our local Chick-fil-A for a quick lunch to go. Get my fav, the Combo #2 Spicy chicken sandwich meal with Dr. Pepper (light ice).

It's a totally gorgeous day: 70-something degrees, I've got the top off, Ray-bans on, 80s hair bands rocking on the 8.4" Alpine-powered stereo system, and I pull into the driveway. I'm moving at a faster-then-normal clip because, well, I'm jamming. Our house has a 3-car detached garage (Nope, no fancy McMansion. We just live in a court where the original owners decided to build one because they could in the wedge-shaped lot. Thank you, original owners people...), so for the far right (my) bay, you have to angle right as you come up the somewhat sloped driveway along the metal railing that keeps me from driving off the 3-feet high drop into the space between the driveway and house. You then have to angle back to the left to line up with the far right third bay door, which is not much wider than the vehicle.

Well, you know, at this point it is just an awesome day, and I am just totally rocking to Def Leppard, that I momentarily lose my situational awareness. It was enough. As I pull into Bay 3 (That's formal jargon for the far right bay...), I hear a "cruuuunchhhhhhhh!" I slam on the brakes, hit mute on my awesome tunes, and say to myself, "Self, please tell me that sound was not what I think it was." Self replied, "It was. Dumbass" Well, crap. I had barely caught the right front fender flare on the BRICK right edge of the garage opening and nicely peeled it back, destroying that fender beyond repair and damaging the entryway trim while I was at it. Nice. A buttload of money later for the replacement fenders (I upgraded to a set of Rubicon highline fenders, though I haven't replaced the rears yet...) and matching paint (Truly superb matching job, local San Antonio hole-in-the-wall paint guys...), I was back and operational. That was a VERY costly Dumbass Badge of Honor moment for me. To date, that is the worst I've done. Hopefully, I do NOT top that!

 

[melendez69]

A couple months ago I replaced tie rod & drag link along with a new steering stabilizer. I went to turn the steering wheel to check for clearance... and the wheels wouldn't turn to driver-side. Apparently I was supposed to compress the stabilizer.

 

[dsgrey]

Was wrenching underneath over the weekend and my 1/2" ratchet slipped off and hit around my right eyebrow. Just a slight sting but I keep forgetting I'm on blood thinners. Went inside later and my entire right eyelid up to my eyebrow is purple and a little swollen. So I gave myself a black eye. I've been warned not to take a picture and send to anyone or else my spouse will really give me a black eye.

 

[SBLACK502]

While installing my life kit.. was climbing out from under the jeep and didn’t realize my head had not cleared the frame in the pic.. ended up sticking that through my head.. when to the ER.. got some staples put in. Came back home and finished the install..I would not sit up until I was 10000% clear of the Jeep after that..lol

 

[Soggybottomboy]

I slammed the hood down on my brand new Jeep just like I do on my truck. When it didn't latch, I slammed it down again.
No, I have not reproduced. You're welcome.

SBB

 

[Terrymo]

While installing my life kit.. was climbing out from under the jeep and didn’t realize my head had not cleared the frame in the pic.. ended up sticking that through my head.. when to the ER.. got some staples put in. Came back home and finished the install..I would not sit up until I was 10000% clear of the Jeep after that..lol

Sounds like a self-correcting problem

 

[Wabujitsu]

My incident was partially pain medication-induced.

I had a flat tire, called USAA and they sent out a local business to change it for me, as I had just had one of my plethora of ortho surgeries.

The nice gentleman arrives, with no working jack. So, I pointed to my farm jack and asked, “You know how to use this?” Being a dude, he of course said “Yes,” which turned out to be quite prophetic.

As I was sitting there watching him in my pain med-induced haze, he starts jacking up my Jeep after loosening the lug nuts. A few of my brain cells that weren’t affected by the oxycodone in my system, noted that he hadn’t chocked any of my other tires. Unfortunately, that brain cell count was not enough to give me the capability to actually SAY something. I just thought, “Wheeee, he’s a professional and knows what he’s doing!”

Well. He installs the spare, hand-tightens the nuts, then picks up a lug wrench to really torque on them - while my lifted JLUR was still precariously raised by the farm jack.

My drug-addled brain realized that this was a huge no-go. I staggered out of my chair towards him, yelling “Nooooooo!” just as my jeep rolled forward off the farm jack, which slammed with some force into the concrete right next to the poor fellow’s foot, barely missing his face and arms on the way down.

The color drained from his face, as the jack had scratched the bottom of a rock rail. He apologized profusely, and begged me not to tell his boss. I reassured him that it’s a common, ignorant thing that happens, and a rattle can will fix the scratches. The dude hugged me before leaving.

 

[Flip]

Nope . Magnet won’t go down in the curve of the sill. Pic shows no man’s land gap where the T40 escaped to.

That rattle would drive me nuts, I'd fill it with expanding foam. Problem solved.

 

[Flip]

I love reading this thread. I know I'm not the only one making mistakes.

Thanks @ArmyRN

 

[autotragic]

Yeah some of these make my (mis)adventures in the garage look tame by comparison.

Way way way back in the day my claim to fame was spending 3 days removing the starter from a Mustang GT with the 4.6. It was only after some research that I found out you had to come at the third starter bolt all the way from the front of the car going through the passenger side motor mount with a bunch of extensions. After I found that out the job became much easier and I was able to get the clutch replaced fairly efficiently.

 

[Inkhero]

Nope . Magnet won’t go down in the curve of the sill. Pic shows no man’s land gap where the T40 escaped to.

I just dropped a nyloc nut down there the other day while installing some tube doors. I crawled underneath and noticed the area has an opening for water to drain. So I used a zip tie to scoot it over to the opening. I had to loosen a 10mm hex bolt with a box wrench and was able to yank it out with a needle-nose plier.

Here is an example to visualize, you can loosen or remove these hex bolts to widen the gap without uninstalling any parts. I added green tape to the ziptie for visibility. I'd recommend a headlamp too.

 

[zouch]

tapped a hot wire against a PCM once.
got me a loud spark, and a brain-dead computer.

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