Horror stories/lessons learned

[Dparker]

I thought i'd start this thread for the benefit of all. The reason being is that a past olympian Paul Henderson once said " nothing is learned except throught the eyes of disaster" The idea is that we can learn from others( instead of making the same mistakes)- keep calm and carry on! Im just waiting for the track to do what its going to do ! Please add your confessions, yeah we know you were smarter than that!

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

OK, here's one. Don't use heat to free up a CMP brass fuel tank change switch. The heat is doing it work until...BANG...a 3/4" diameter section of the switch body bursts free and shoots upwards with enough force to make a hole in the corrugated metal roofing above. Your head is inches away from it's trajectory which is much like standing down range during target practice.

Bloody switch was NFG afterwards too.

[Robin Craig]

Stay away from stupid people and their activities.

I have found to my cost that some stupid people can not be helped and need to be left alone to collect their own Darwin award.

When you spidey senses trip and you think the bloke in front of you is an idiot for doing what he is doing he likely is.

R

[chris vickery]

Flathead Ford water pump bearings... do not try to remove shaft from bearing.
Bad things happen. Bearing become hand grenade, shrapnel goes everywhere. These are not meant to be pressed out as they are a double groove shaft with ball type bearings running the circumference of said shaft.
Bad bearing, bad.

[Rob Dyba]

Do not cut sheet steel or use a grinder if you have a battery on charge in the vicinity, lots of grinder sparks, that 1 metre cut is nearly finished when BOOM! bits of battery hit you in the back of the head, and battery acid is running down the back of your neck...

Hydrogen from the battery charging process and grinder sparks do not go well together...

A lesson already known, but forgot it was there on charge... won't forget that one again!

Rob.

[charlie fitton]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

Flathead Ford water pump bearings... do not .........
Bad bearing, bad.

One of the easiest things I've ever rebuilt...

[rob love]

Originally Posted by robobmc

Do not cut sheet steel or use a grinder if you have a battery on charge in the vicinity, lots of grinder sparks, that 1 metre cut is nearly finished when BOOM! bits of battery hit you in the back of the head, and battery acid is running down the back of your neck...

Hydrogen from the battery charging process and grinder sparks do not go well together...

A lesson already known, but forgot it was there on charge... won't forget that one again!

Rob.

Same goes for sparks and open solvent baths...especially when you strengthen the solvent with naptha. She goes WOOF.

Keep the solvent bath lid closed.

[RichardT10829]

Cover up when doing hot jobs.... My pal was branded last week helping me set some rivets into plate work for a mate.... Told him to wear coveralls and gauntlets he refused and wore a T shirt and now he is scar'd for life.

[Lionelgee]

G'day All,

Horror Stories and Lessons learnt - do not visit military restoration forums, prior to this I only had two cars in the family; one the long distance good car and the other my wife's nip around town car. Oh and I had a 1935 civilian truck.

I happened to buy a 1940 Chevrolet Holden built cabin truck which I was going to drop a big block Chevy motor into and customise. However, someone sent me an email to say look out for military markings on the truck. I looked and there were and before I knew it I became infected with a khaki paint disease. Now I have the Chevrolet truck and 3 ex military Land Rovers which I will make one good one out of. Oh and I have some civilian Land Rovers too of numbers I am not prepared to admit to.

So Horror Stories and Lessons Learnt - be very careful about visiting such friendly and really helpful sites as this one. Before you know it you are addicted to 74 to 68 year old pieces of rusty metal and the pursuit of trying to breath life back into them.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[Dparker]

should have read the "F" ing manual- I got my M37 stuck up to the axles tried to tow out with 95 Bronco- not even close. decided to draw out 100' of winch cable and looped around base of good size tree- engaged winch and took up the slack and awaited the result of 10,000lbs of winch-then explosive snap! cable completely blows apart in all directions- good thing i was in the cab a buddy was well back ( he must have the sensible gene) im thinking those WWII winches dont have shearpins. tied broken ends of cable together, should have used gloves as metal is very sharp, but this time after being questioned by other survivor put the truck in first gear to help the winch a little and viola truck out of bog. I should read more

[CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé]

Black Sunday for 3BAM

What follows is a recap of our mission and I am certain never to forget it! No sooner had we arrived at the armoury then we found we had a problem with our transportation. We had planned to take both 25-pdr howitzers to salute the Korean destroyer Dae Jo Yeong that was visiting the port of Montreal that day. I wanted to take no chances whatsoever; if we had a problem with one gun, we could transfer the unfired ammo to the other one. Unfortunately, as neither FAT wanted to start up we had to content ourselves with using a pick-up as a gun tractor, meaning we could take only one gun. En route with our lone gun, the 5lb fire extinguisher in back of the truck went off as a result of the truck braking too suddenly, leaving a snowy white coating of dry chemical powder over EVERYTHING.

Arriving at the port, we took up our place near the old clock tower, thinking our problems were finally over. The ship duly arrived and fired its allotted 11 shots and it was our turn to reply. Again, no problems until the 8th shot was loaded and the firing lever pulled. We had a misfire right in front of the navy boys with Commodore at the head of the delegation. We had no choice but to enact misfire drill and 30 minutes later, upon examination of the misfired cartridge, that the cause of the misfire was a complete absence of gunpowder in the casing. The person who prepared the 12 cartridges obviously forgot to load the powder into that one.
The lesson drawn from this event: from this moment on, the person preparing the ammo will always be watched over by another member when preparing the ammo.

Aside from these little problems, everything was fine.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I am the one who prepared the ammo.
Gilles

[Paul Dutton]

Originally Posted by CWO (ret) Gilles Aubé

Black Sunday for 3BAM

What follows is a recap of our mission and I am certain never to forget it! No sooner had we arrived at the armoury then we found we had a problem with our transportation. We had planned to take both 25-pdr howitzers to salute the Korean destroyer Dae Jo Yeong that was visiting the port of Montreal that day. I wanted to take no chances whatsoever; if we had a problem with one gun, we could transfer the unfired ammo to the other one. Unfortunately, as neither FAT wanted to start up we had to content ourselves with using a pick-up as a gun tractor, meaning we could take only one gun. En route with our lone gun, the 5lb fire extinguisher in back of the truck went off as a result of the truck braking too suddenly, leaving a snowy white coating of dry chemical powder over EVERYTHING.

Arriving at the port, we took up our place near the old clock tower, thinking our problems were finally over. The ship duly arrived and fired its allotted 11 shots and it was our turn to reply. Again, no problems until the 8th shot was loaded and the firing lever pulled. We had a misfire right in front of the navy boys with Commodore at the head of the delegation. We had no choice but to enact misfire drill and 30 minutes later, upon examination of the misfired cartridge, that the cause of the misfire was a complete absence of gunpowder in the casing. The person who prepared the 12 cartridges obviously forgot to load the powder into that one.
The lesson drawn from this event: from this moment on, the person preparing the ammo will always be watched over by another member when preparing the ammo.

Aside from these little problems, everything was fine.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I am the one who prepared the ammo.
Gilles

And as a good honest trooper you put your hand up and admitted it straight away....NOT!!!!

[chris vickery]

Originally Posted by Dparker

should have read the "F" ing manual- I got my M37 stuck up to the axles tried to tow out with 95 Bronco- not even close. decided to draw out 100' of winch cable and looped around base of good size tree- engaged winch and took up the slack and awaited the result of 10,000lbs of winch-then explosive snap! cable completely blows apart in all directions- good thing i was in the cab a buddy was well back ( he must have the sensible gene) im thinking those WWII winches dont have shearpins. tied broken ends of cable together, should have used gloves as metal is very sharp, but this time after being questioned by other survivor put the truck in first gear to help the winch a little and viola truck out of bog. I should read more

Winching can be one of the most dangerous operations done incorrectly. People die or are seriously injured.
Next time throw a chain over the taunt cable, it will act like an arrestor if the cable should snap. Also, shear pins are your friend.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

Winching can be one of the most dangerous operations done incorrectly. People die or are seriously injured.
Next time throw a chain over the taunt cable, it will act like an arrestor if the cable should snap. Also, shear pins are your friend.

Chain will work....we were taught to put your coat on the cable, as it would also slow down the cable.

Back on the vehicle tech course, both the TQ3 and the TQ5, winching and recovery was a fair bit of time. We would learn the formulas and the methods, and do the calculations. Then we would go back to our units and just about hook everything up one to one. But the lessons of sling loads, line loads, anchors, etc, has always come in handy.

[Phil Waterman]

Don't use Cheap tow cables and don't jerk the load. You may not break the cable but look what my 10,000lb Pattern 13 did to a tow cable pulling a 4,000lb Jeep out of a snow drift.

Hook was through a correct size shackle it straighten out struck the rear door of the radio box. The cable hit flat with enough force to leave an imprint.

To add insult to injury the Jeep was still stuck.

Cheers Phil

[Andy Biddle]

Do not grind iron and then aluminium ( or vice versa ) without cleaning up the dust between the two otherwise you run the risk of a big explosion .This happened to a member of our club who ended up with serious burns as a result. Apparently the two dusts mixed make thermite !!!! Be careful out there Andy B

[hrpearce]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Don't use Cheap tow cables and don't jerk the load. You may not break the cable but look what my 10,000lb Pattern 13 did to a tow cable pulling a 4,000lb Jeep out of a snow drift.

Hook was through a correct size shackle it straighten out struck the rear door of the radio box. The cable hit flat with enough force to leave an imprint.

To add insult to injury the Jeep was still stuck.

Cheers Phil

Cable recoil has a lot of force. I was snigging washed out trees after a flood when one tree dug into the bank and the winch tried to stand the tree up. When the 1.1/4" S hook snapped 100' of 1" cable instantly hit the cable catcher on the back of thr tractor and moved the tractor 6" forward. Without the cable catcher I would have been minced meet.

[listerdiesel]

When you are winching, a lot of stress is placed on all of the components involved.

Check that the eye you are hooking on to is good and able to withstand the loads you are about to impose on it.

At an engine museum meet I was watching a guy loading a Blackstone horizontal engine up some fairly steep ramps when the winch exploded and the engine went backwards rather quickly.

Items falling off ramps are uncontrolled and dangerous, unless you have a very good reason to be there, stay away from ramps when loading/unloading is going on!

We have fitted both our engine trolley drawbars with tow hitches, and a Front Towbar on the Land Rover Discovery, that has eliminated most of the danger points now, we can tow the engines out of the trailer in low box and in complete control.

Regarding batteries and sparks, it is a mixture of Oxygen and Hydrogen that is given off by charging batteries, caused by breakdown of the water in the electrolyte. You shouldn't be gassing the batteries that much in the first place, but I've had an unlucky spark cause the same thing on a battery that had been off charge for some time, but the vent plugs weren't put back in....

Peter

[RHClarke]

Easy outs. Never, ever use them when there is the slightest chance that they will snap off when under load.

[cletrac (RIP)]

Here's a quick hint. Before kicking the winch into gear, make sure the word China isn't on any of the components!!

[RichardT10829]

Originally Posted by RHClarke

Easy outs. Never, ever use them when there is the slightest chance that they will snap off when under load.

its not the end of the world... i had to extract two easy-outs out of my block. the trick is to get them glowing hot, then keep them hot for as long as you can (and cool as slow as you can)...... it makes them soft as claggy toffee, then a drill makes short work of them

[Robert Bergeron]

t'is fall we'da killed a moose.

I drove up the Jeep with the winch up front.

Ma friend tied a knot on the rope and put the rope around the largest moose's neck. i told him check your knot friend.

No prob he says. I start tha winch. The rope is under tension, the moose moves up tha ramp.

Tha knot gives , the enda of tha rope with the brass fitting comes flying in ma direction . I hear a wizzz near my ear lobe. Tha brass fitting hits tha Jeep !

Better tha Jeep than you he say.

Tha moose meat is fine but there is a strange feeling , like a knot in my stomach ..

So, lesson learned : stay well back when winching and check your knots don't trust not someone else's .



Bob