Ever have a bad day wrenching?

Like a disheartening, thinking about selling the car and all your tools, bad day?

I've had a lot of issues with my mower lately. I've sunken almost $400 into it in the last month to try to keep it running. I just wrapped up replacing the PTO clutch. I mowed for about five minutes and it blows a fuse. So I hop in my Camaro (build thread update coming on that) and when I pop the hatch to put the t tops in the back, the power hatch raises up... And won't go back down.

I come back with my fuses, and the moment I pull the PTO switch it blows a fuse.

I'm hot.

I'm tired.

And I really want to throw in all the towels.

The thing is fifteen years old, I think maybe it's time to replace it.

I spent almost ten years working on a mower every time I used it. One day it self destructed and I found out the local mower shop had 0% financing. Five years later that big zero turn is paid for, still runs great, and mowing makes me happy now instead of pissed off. 
 

ditch it. Work on the Camaro instead. 

I sent a car to the junkyard. Only time ever. Every time I touched it something broke or I found some new problem. Scrap was worthless too so I didn't get anything from the junk guy either. Total loss. That was a low point. 
More often I have days that should be productive turn into chores and I remember why I refuse to wrench for a living. Aint gonna turn my favorite hobby into a chore. 

One spring break in college I was set up to swap the engine in my truck, I had done swaps before in the Air Force, but this was going to be my first swap all on my own.  Allotted myself three or four days to do the swap and another day to get it running.  It took me a week and a half to get it in, then another four and a half weeks to get it running

First day, before I had even drained fluids, I was removing the fan clutch.  Slammed my thumb with a hammer bad enough that I lost all coherent thought for a minute or two, I literally forgot how to breathe.  Did the entire swap while losing the nail.  

Got it in, couldn't get the flex plate bolted up, only two bolts would even start.  Figured out that the shop that did the machine work and prep didn't remove the pilot bearing like I had requested.  Had to order another flex plate as well as pull the engine out again.

Finally got everything in and could try and crank it.  Got nothing from the engine.  Called defeat and took it to one shop, they dicked me around for a week.  Took it to another, they also dicked me around.  Finally had it towed back home in second defeat.

I was 100% convinced that the cam timing was correct.  A friend and I went through everything two or three times until it was obvious that was the only thing it could be.  Took the timing cover off and found this.

I legitimately thought about giving everything up.  Every tool I owned, even thought of dropping out of college, if I couldn't do an engine swap how was I going to be a mechanical engineer?  It was a horribly dark time for me

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I get hacked when I can't get a 2-cycle weed wacker running right. I think the same - if I can't get a wacker to run right how am I going get my 455 Delta 88 running.  (Assuming I'm getting one some day)

On lawn mower talk: I was out of town for work for a month. My dog (a puppy at the time) had dug up part of the copper piping to the HVAC fan. It was also monsoon season in Florida so the grass grew back and was very lush. Out mowing one day the blade hit the copper pipe and line filter. Not only did I lose all my freon; but, it also broke the blade on the mower. $800 in freon, $250 in a filter and welding, and $40 in a new blade later I went to go crank the mower again and found out it also threw the driveshaft off. It works but to this day it vibrates like a son of a bitch and makes mowing a pain in the ass. It's a $400 Honda push mower that is six years old and I don't intend on replacing it yet. I also don't intend on cracking it open either. 

As far as car projects go.....I feel that way about my E36 M3. I will fix something and then something else breaks immediately. I.e. I put new window motors in, now the sunroof stopped working. I put new headlights in, the brake lights stop working. I have a new headliner and all the seats reupholstered, the battery dies and a parasitic draw that is eluding me starts. It is a blast to drive but there are days I just want to do a Dukes of Hazard jump with it right into a swamp. 

Anything I have to work on that is electrical in a car/equipment. I know what I am doing, I know how to fix it but it's always a pain to do it or I find some PO hack repair three hours in and have to fix that as well at the same time. 

I have a shadow box commemorating my bad day.

I was replacing a bent front control arm on the W123. Have to take the control arm off. The head snapped off a bolt. The drillbit broke. The easy out broke. The race was that weekend. We started looking for a replacement control arm all over CL and calling junkyards and eventually just started driving and looking for one. We saw a car in a rundown looking junkyard. Stopped in and there was a sign about goats for sale. The junkyard was closing early to go to a roundy-round race. They had their night watchman come out with us to pull the control arm and make sure we didn't steal anything. He sat there rolling cigarettes with bible pages watching us struggle with minimal tools in red clay. It was a gray market car though so we grabbed the headlights which we bought for way less than their value.

Now we've got a good control arm but the balljoint is trashed. We can't find a good balljoint at the FLAPS and can't get one in time. There's a good one in our trashed control arm but we are afraid to press it out and screw it up. We checked a bunch of shops who were (understandably) not willing to press out a good BJ and then reinstall a used BJ. Thankfully a guy at Sears was willing to do a little under-the-table work. When we get home to reinstall the control arm we realize it's from a euro market car and it's slightly different. The bolt holes and length looked right but who knows if it changed our alignment.

We were very close and ready to throwing in the towel all day. Every setback felt like it was the deathnell for that weekend of racing. Five years later the car still has that euro control arm. I've got a shadow box with the broken bolt and extractor that started off my bad day.

I live in the land of salt and rust, any day spent under a car is a bad day, no matter how much I want to enjoy it

I was swapping a trans in a w124 4matic estate and forgot the front driveshaft, there is no easy way to install it so after I realized the situation I swung around to grab the jack again and hit my head on a wheel bucket. I awoke in a pile of my own vomit a bit later and was unable to lay down under something for nearly 4 weeks. It was a baaaad day

In reply to chandler :

That one probably rated a trip to the ER...

In reply to chandler :

Yeah, that affair makes my post look like a whiny little beeotch

Yesterday, and it followed me into the kitchen for dinner.  I almost cut the pad on the end of a finger off with a newly sharpened knife.

I chased a random misfire for couple months  on my car, would cut out under heavy acceleration like it was hitting fuel cut off. 
Plugs looked great so left them alone.....

Replaced every vacuum line, fuel filter, regulator, pump, new coil and wires, few sensors, even swapped ECU.

Then one day car crapped out completely. Popped hood and noticed one of plug wires was lose. Turns out using plug socket with rubber insert was not a good thing, porcelain was cracked all to E36 M3.

After dumping couple hundred dollars and countless head scratching hours it was a $2 part!!

Never had a rotten string of events like some of you guys.  Worst aw sh*&*# I had was on top of a lousy day of fixing what I just screwed up, I had the head off a Miata 1.8.  Dropped a hex screwdriver bit that I was using to put in some hex headed bolts near the open block.  Could not find it anywhere.  Looked for about 3 hours as I cleaned stuff up and disassembled the front end.  Finally gave up and decided I needed to look inside the motor for it.  Pulled the motor and trans and found the damed thing in the oil pan.  Still can't believe that I managed to  drop the sucker straight down the oil passage.

I gave up on small engines. Wacker or mower start to give fits I replace it. Have messed around trying to fix them before. After all I am trained on engines and a licensed A&P. No simpler engine than a weed-wacker or mower, should be simple. But I have the darnedest time with them. Now give a turbine or even a radial engine and I can get those running and keep them running but small engines, I give up. Cheap enough to not mess with and just replace.

On a similar topic. I've recently disassembled the front part of my Opel GT motor, timing chain cover for a pesky oil leak that got bad enough to start slinging around the engine compartment. Amazing what you have to remove just to get the timing cover off. One of the things that come off is the oil pan. Won't completely come off because of the engine mount brace but lowered. Was removing the gaskets and seals for replacement and dropped the rear pan seal inside the pan. Room enough to get my hand in and dig it out. I dug out 2 old seals. So now I have 3 old seals on the ground and only need 2 new ones. Wonder how long that piece has been in the oil pan. Could it be the reason my oil pressure read 1/2 bar low from partially blocking the oil pickup? Ended up finding what I think was the leak when I pulled the crank pulley, it was scored pretty badly. Have a replacement and replacing all the timing cover associated seals anyway. Just in case.

My one week swap of an 88 mustang NA 2.3 too the 2.3t out of an 87 thunderbird. I spent 7 weeks with help from friends and the internet before a guy from Toledo figured out that the website everyone used for wiring diagrams had switched the 87-88 and 85-86 diagrams when they rehosted. I drove the car once and was so disgusted at that point I parted it out and sold it

Too many to count

You get used to it 

Yeah.  I had an old Daytona that was in really great shape except for a size 10 dent in one front quarter panel.  The PO did that when it acted up on him and he lost his temper.

I have to say it gave me problems as well, and I was pretty skilled in the ways of the Turbo-Dodge.  One the way to the 20th Anniversary of the Shelby Charger in Las Vegas, it lost a main seal on the way into Vegas.  Missed the big car show at Shelby HQ there and had to fix it in the truck stop parking lot next door to the hotel.

A couple of years later it decided to beach itself in my apartment garage because it wouldn't start.  Tore my hair out trying to solve that and eventually sold it on for pennies after finally fixing the hidden ground wire and just wanting to be done with it.

I did similar with my 87 CSX, with the kids I knew I wasn't going to have time or inclination to do right by it.

Since the kids came along, I've had several moments of asking myself why I even bother trying to do anything in the garage.  Having a 3D printer in my office helps since I feel like I can do something.

When the kids came, we both bought new cars simply because working on the car you have to drive to work wasn't a good idea, especially if you need to transport kids.  I don't regret that, though I think a Mazda 5 or similar tall wagon would have made more sense than the FoRS.

Pretty much any time I'm wrenching, if it's something more difficult than (and sometimes even if it's less) than changing oil, I'll end up considering selling the vehicle in question.  

I'm an even worse mechanic than I am driver.

I've had a few days like that. I've sworn at cars, hit them, just felt disgusted with them.

The best thing you can do is call it a day and start back at it tomorrow. Have a beer, have a cigarette, think of a new way to attack the problem.

I call them days I'm afraid to take a leak because I'd break that too.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was 1986. My hotrod Datsun 510 told me it needed valve lash adjustment. Pop the cover off, do the gig, and what's that crack in the cam journal just behind the timing gear? A small chunk of camshaft came out with a magnet. Yay. At least it came out now and not next time I started it up. Seeing that the divot was gonna make it lose oilpressure, this valve adjust has turned into cam replacement. Start undoing camtower bolts and the very last one I did, that the book says is torqued to inch-pounds, loosened a halfturn, and then berkelying broke. Below the head surface. For 3 days (and Ima just gloss over what happened then, aside from saying I got no where with it cuz was paranoid about ruining the head) I tried to get it out and then pulled the head and took it to a machine shop and was told my paranoia was for naught, that in no way could it be removed without making it so that cam tower would ever line up and thus, my valve lash job turned into a new cylinder head and cam and port and polish and gaskets and every other thing. 

 But I don't think I woke up in my own vomit. So I had that goin for me, which is nice

In reply to Jay_W :

If it's any consolation, the cam towers never line up again after removal.  They're machined in place after being torqued down.

It took me 5 hours and a sledge hammer to reinstall the 5 speed in a 81 Corolla after a clutch swap.

After I finally got it back in I realized the Jack that was holding the front of the engine had slipped and most of the 5 hour fight could have been avoided. 

That was a long time ago but still memorable.