Best Screwup story working on your Bronco

broncorotor76 · Jul 30, 2001

I thought this would be a good topic or sad topic depends how you look at it ;D :'( Here's my story well Me and my dad were working on my bronco and were trying to get it running

. I decided to leave my 35's on it instead of putting the crappy old 31's on it. Well he was messing with the throttle linkage, and my job was to stomp on the pedal to make sure the throttle spring was adjusted right. Now keep in mind that bronco to big to fit in the garage and the hood is up,but we pulled the bronc just far enough in to work on in case of rain. Well I thought the thing was in park and the brakes had been bleed but maybe they must of needed adjusting. To make a long story short he tells me to push down on the gas and the thing just shots forward

and bent the hood right in half.

:'( :'(luckliy my dad got push out of the way. Needless to say that's just the break's working on a EB. Share your pain it's good to get the pain out. :'(

EricLar80 · Jul 30, 2001

I was taking off my drivers side rotor, but it wouldn't come off because the seal was sticking to a bad inside bearing. Well, I couldn't pull it off by hand, so I had a mini crowbar wedged in there trying to get some leverage. The crowbar slipped off and hit me straight in the side of the nose, I heard a cracking noise and sure enough my nose was broken. I went into the bathroom and it ended up being the side (the flat bone spot on above your nostril) was caved in, the bridge wasn't broken. After cussing at myself and the crowbar for about 10 min I went back to work. Later that night I was able to push it back out into position to where it was supposed to be. It now looks straight again, but still hurts if I touch it. This was about 3 weeks ago, the swelling has since passed, but for a while it was stuffed up on that side from the swelling.

MattJM · Jul 30, 2001

This isn't as dramatic, but I was trying to free the bolts the hold the door on. I was using a tool that you hit w/ a hammer that is supposed to break free bolts. So anyways they were'nt coming out. Well I'm not a guy of patience

so I nail the thing as hard as I can. It slips and crushes my thumb on the nail. So now I only have half a thumb nail. :-X

jacovert · Jul 30, 2001

I think I have you guys beat... My wife leaves out of town and the kids are in bed. It's raining, so I take a couple of pieces of PVC and a tarp and make a tent over my bronco (out in the street). I'm working around the motor and just hit my wrist on my new flex fan. It cust a bit and I think to myself "I better be careful or I'll cut the sh*t out of myself. So about a half hour later I'm trying to get a stuck bolt off of my power stearing mount. I get frustrated and take my framing hammer to it. It brakes and I have that one bolt left. I remember thinking "ha, you bastard, I won". So I'm tugging on that one bolt when my wrench slips and I impale my wrist (the same one that got cut) on the flex fan. I look down and I see bone and veins. Then it starts splurting. Well, after a 2 1/2 hour surgery and six months of physical therapy I'm all healed up and working on my bronco. Now for the bad part. The bracket I bought for $50 from wild horses doesn't bolt up to the new heads. I have no power steering!!! -Jack

Cam · Jul 30, 2001

So had my bronco in the air "supported with a 4x4 wood beem going under the frame rails just in front of the rear leafs. I had the front axle out for rebuilding and was working on gettting the back axle out I get it out without to many problems and I'm standing there feeling all proud of myself when all of a sudden the 4x4 breaks and my bronco falls and is sitting flat on the frame on the ground. Oh well what can you do.

jasondemitri · Jul 30, 2001

i learned to push a lug wrench rather than pull the hard way. yep, felt kinda funny at first without a front tooth, but now its fixed.

ftw · Jul 31, 2001

checked the oil and forgot the hood pins. As I accelerated down Kameamea highway, Hawaii tradewinds and 40mph speed, my glass cowl hood launched about 30 feet in the air. I was watching it in my rear view and lucky no cars were behind me. I stopped the truck and ran back(about 1.5 blocks)and picked up the hood. To my surprise, very little damage so I just put it back on. Also lucky the back mounting bolts were loose or it would of broken my windshield. I know this because I did it about 6 months later. Then about 6 months after the new glass, I was giving a jumpstart in the parking lot and the wind blew the hood off of the prop and shattered my new windshield. Cowl hoods are kool!

luvmybronco · Jul 31, 2001

I was 14 at the time...I was helping my Dad work on the first Bronco we had ever owned, a 69, w/302, and 3 speed...Anyways, he's steping on an old gas can, while working under the hood, and he tells me to turn it over...So I did, but I forgot one small thing...Yep, I forgot to push in the clutch...It started up so quick, I didn't know I was in trouble till I seen his legs hanging out of the hood, and hearing him cursing at me...I ran over the gas can he was standing on... Now, I did get in trouble, but the thing that made him even more mad, was cause I was already crying from laughing soooo hard....

zoots72 · Jul 31, 2001

I rigged up a pulley system from my garage rafters to remove my hard top.

Removed the top with no problems. I went to adjust the height where the top was hanging so I could have more room for working on stuff. As I start to tie the rope off to the cleat, the cleat snaps and my top comes crashing down.

Luckily nothing was underneath it at the time (including me) and none of the glass broke. The top got a little dinged up, but no major damage. ;D

76BroncoSport · Jul 31, 2001

I was installing WH rear hoops and cut out the wrong part of the rear inner fenders wells on one side. I felt really really stupid, some welding and grinding did the trick.

Guest · Jul 31, 2001

I think the best i ever did was when i was working on an F-250 (not bronco sorry....done too many stipud things while working on the bronco to remember) hbut was putting on the lug nuts after putting on new brake pads and was going pretty quickly with a snap on ratchet and a worn out extension....well the socket slipped off the lug nut and i was going a bit too fast so that when it slipped off it threw the socket right off the extension and hit me square between the eyes and knocked me on my a$$. you know in the cartoons when they see stars? well....it actually happens lol....after going back to work for a minute i felt the trickle of a little blood so i went into the house and cleaned myself up and put a bandaid on it and went back working....was told i should have had stitches...

1971bronco · Jul 31, 2001

I have so many to tell. I think I'll keep all of the fire stories out of it and the electro shock therapy I recieve quite often via the rigged wiring. My best story wasn't while fixing it. My neighbor's best friend came to NJ to visit from Maine. We took him out to the bar and had quite a few. Well, enough to lose all common sense. It was about 2:30 A.M. when we got home from the bar and decided that it would be fun to take his friend for a little ride in the Bronco. We had fun for about an hour. I was creaping through the Jersey Pine Barrons in 4lo making my own road when suddenly a stump jumped up out of nowhere and hit the front end. When it hit the truck it stalled. Guess what, just so happens that the starter decided to go at that very moment. This guy was wearing new sneakers and jeans that he just bought. I had to carry his A$$ through every wet spot and mudhole for eight miles. We made it home at 7:00. My wife wasn't happy at all. Then again, if it involves the word bronco, she doesn't want to hear it. This is why I never go out wheeling or trailblazing without another truck following or near by. Only this one occasion. I learned that lesson years ago.

Blue_Oval_Boy · Jul 31, 2001

Well this really aint a screw up story. Its more of an uncontrollable act. A buddy and me were goin down to his house to take the top off. Suddenly we see somethin fly infront of us then see the windshield shatter. Well it was a nice size gobbler. and the funny part is, the impact didnt kill the turkey. he got knoocked out for a few minutes. then got up and started raisin hell in the back tryin to get out. he bleed like crazy, and we had to pull over and open a door so he could get out. he dissappeared into the woods, i guess he was allright. Maybe he learned to stay out of the way of coppertone broncos though.

jerry74explorer · Jul 31, 2001

One night I am working on the C4 at my parents house. (dad has a bigger shop than my shack

) I was changing the transmission filter in the pan and I completely missed the bucket that I put under the tranny to catch the fluid. So I end up working for an hour laying in a puddle of AFT, I finish up take a shower and toss the shirt in the washing machine, no problems right! I end up using the now red shirt (its been washed but the residue is still there) to work on the truck the next night but I didn't get that dirty and didn't finish till about 2:30 in the morning so I drive home and just jump in bed (still in school long before I was married.) About 6:00 I wake up and it feels like my back has been attacked by an entire ant pile :'( so I jump in the shower take some benadryl and hit the sack again. I wake up a couple of hours later still feeling like A$$ so I camp out in bed the rest of the day. the next night I wake up at about 4:00AM and I can't breath I get myself to the emergency room and find out that I have poisoned myself on the residue that was left in the shirt through the skin. Cortizone shot couple of hours of observation another day in bed and I was back working on the truck (the shirt having been turned into a rag!!!) :

:

xbanone · Jul 31, 2001

i bought my first bronco when i was a jounior in high school, it was black primer with more rust than sheet metal, well the very first thing i wanted to do when i brought it home was take the hard top off, so i grab a couple of wrenches and climbed up in the back followed by my dog (ironically named Rusty..hehe), well any way about ten minutes into working i hear a soft crash and rusty was wimpering, i looked over my shoulder and i see him stuck halfway between the floor and the rear tire, the floor had fallen in underneath him and he wedged himself between what was left of the floor and the tire, i had to grab him by his front legs and pull him out of the hole, to this day, 2 broncos later he still will not go any where near my bronco.

DeanW · Aug 2, 2001

Well, I'm still relatively new to the EB thing so only have one oops. I was trying to install Duff's exhaust, and upon recommendation of the friendly guy I got the exhaust from I disconnected the rear drive shaft. I had stuck a coat hanger down through a hole in the floor of the bronco and I was hanging onto the slider part trying to make the shaft stay up outta the way. The slider part came off in my hand, the shaft came fallin down and slammed me right in the face. I was wearing shop glasses, thank goodness or I probably would have lost my right eye. The splines hit the glasses, bounced and skid across my forehead, leaving a nice long and wide grease mark. Dean

GRIZZLY · Aug 6, 2001

My son's piece of s@#t Bundy Mobile Plymouth Valiant wouldn't start. He asked me if I could give him a jump so I pulled my bronco around nose to nose and looked under his hood. Unbeknownst( :

is that a real word?) to me he pulled my hood pins (still original metal hood with Fabtech pins)while I was fixing the loose wire that I found. We started his car without needing a jump so he leaves and I had to pull out to go to work. I drove 3 miles across town without any problems. I went through a tunnel near the airport and there must have been a wind tunnel effect because when I came out the other side the hood slams open

, breaks in half over the top of my windshield, slams me in the head hard enough that I'm seeing stars

and then locks into place over my windshield because it bent in half. I had to hang out the side to see where I could stop. I got out and bent it back far enough to get it back over my luckily unbroken window. I then proceeded to punch the hood straight enough with my fist

(not the brightest thing in the world)to get it to slide back over the pins. Now that I have my new glass hood it's a ritual to glance at my pins whenever I start it ;D.

mth14 · Aug 8, 2001

Not nearly as good as the wrist-slashing flex fan, but I think my little tale is one of the best... I was working on converting my tailgate support bars to a cable type support from a mid-eighty's chevy blazer...I cut off the ear on the gate that retains the stock arm, leaving the shaft on the side of the gate... the cables fit right over that post, and I was drilling and tapping the end of the post for a retaining bolt... well, that *&^$^)(#^^%&& 1/4-20 tap broke off in the hole... damn. So, I grab the nearest implement to try to get the damn thing out.. happens to be a monster sized awl... well, the thing slipped out of the hole, and right through my hand!!! no joke, I was looking at the back of my hand and saw 2" of dirty rusty nasty steel stick out of the middle!!! Anyway, I pulled it out, and a short ER trip later, the most damaged part of me seems to be my pride... I had to take it easy for a few days to let the swelling go down, and stay on antibiotics for a week to prevent infection... Matt Hyland http://bronco.alloffroad.com

72bronco · Aug 8, 2001

Man, I thought people were going to write how they mangled their truck, not their bodies. This is getting grizzly.

Sheesh, after reading some of these posts I'll try to be more careful.

velpoe · Aug 11, 2001

I'm doing an NP435 swap on my '77. Well, I was trying to get the seal out of the intermediate housing to match it up with one at the parts store. I was using a screwdriver and a 3 pound hammer to "punch" the seal out from the tranny side of the adapter. Hammer comes down, screwdriver slips, and side of thumb gets smashed right on the machined edge of the housing's inner hole. Only needed three stitches but the thumb was split to the bone. There's even a cool v-notch left in the bone; unfortunately I can't show it off, one friend got to see it though. After the stitches, took a break from the Bronco to help same friend demolition a wall in his house; pulled all three stitches out somehow. Wife was pretty pissed. A little gauze and duct tape and it's all healed up now.

Best Screwup story working on your Bronco

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