The Bad Luck Thread

[HeavyMetalViking]

It's story time... I had an "incident" yesterday that made me want to start a thread all abot terrible strokes of bad luck involving each other's rigs. Any stories who may have about ridiculous scenarios having to do with your truck, post them here.

Or it may just turn into "kyle's bad luck" thread

 

[HeavyMetalViking]

Me first.

My buddy dave was on his way over to my apartment to help troubleshoot some problems I've been having with mis-firing/headgasket issues. I was parked in my driveway in Somerville, at the top of prospect hill looking down on union square. For anyone who hasn't seen my driveway, it's a STEEP (damn near 25-30 degree incline) hill about 200 feet that goes straight into traffic at the bottom.

I had my truck running in neutral and I just pulled the e-brake, popped the hood and had the driver's side door open, pulled the cap off the radiator and saw my coolant was low. So I went to the back of the truck to open the garage door to grab some coolant, as well as a decent sized rock to chock the wheel with.

AS I was bent over to pick up the rock, I heard a "POP" and looked over to see my truck slowly rolling away from me. At first I tried to grab the rear bumper to keep it from moving any faster, but that didn't work and it kept rolling. Immediately I ran to my OPEN driver's side door (keep in mind the hood was open too) and tried hopping in quick to slam the brake... but I couldn't catch it. I ran down my hill next to my runaway truck and managed to slam the brake pedal with my right hand, but too late, it skidded to a halt halfway into my neighbor's parked ford explorer, halfway down the hill and across the street.

With my stupid #$*#&ing truck still running with her face buried in the ass end of my neighbor's family-vehicle, I got back in it and reversed up the hill and parked back in my driveway. No one was hurt and the damage isn't TOO bad to her car, nothing insurance won't take care of. But now I'm looking at even MORE body work this summer, not to mention an e-brake, and I'm hoping my insurance rates don't go through the roof, seeing how I wasn't even driving the thing.

Just goes to show, sometimes $*%# just happens. I'm trying to take it as a sign that I should get a better paying job. My friend mark made a picture in honor of the event though. We call my apartment "precinct 26" because it's right next to the police station, #26 washington terrace.

 

[40Flipper]

This thread is bad luck

 

["N8"]

... Dude ... arghhh ...Dude... son of a... oh man that sucks... Dude...

























...Dude

 

[Leaping Deer]

Kyle. Sorry to hear about that man. I have a good story that I have to post later involving the 45 and my wifes then 5 month old Camry.

If you need front end parts I still have that 87 pick up (black) I grabbed a while ago. The front end is in really good shape. Fenders have some rust around the wheelwells but otherwise its in great shape.

 

[Leaping Deer]

Okay so here is the story.

I had gotten the FJ45 a few months prior and had been waiting for some front end parts before I registered it. Well I get it all registered and insured and ready to go.

Since the truck has no neutral safety switch I had previously been pulling the choke and started the truck. I had not been using the truck so the couple times I left it in gear it would lurch forward or backward (depending on the gear) and I would quickly realize it and pull it out of gear before I continued to start it.

Well the first day it was registered and insured I had taken it for a ride before the wife got home. I let it sit for about an hour, the wife comes home in the mean time, and figured that I would need to pull the choke and let it warm up a second before I moved her car. Well sure enough it was still warm and with the extra fuel from the choke it started right up and covered the distance between it any my wifes new Camry (about 5 feet) pretty quickly. At that point the rear bumper was a piece of 4” structural channel welded to the bumper with the channel sticking out. While I was trying to comprehend what just happened Kerry came out of the house to see her new car smashed. She said “I can’t deal with this right now. You NEED to fix this.” Then she turned around and went back in the house.

Turns out I did about $5500 worth of damage…. Ooops. That’s what insurance is for.

 

[40Flipper]

If I post up saying I don't have any bad stories then I'll jinx myself and something bad will happen.












Oh no......

 

[landtank]

I have pretty good luck but then again I use quality parts and look down the road for potential problems.

However after 8 years and 200k miles I did have a failure with my 80. While in NC on top of a mountain my brakes went. With that I mean NO brakes!

We got it down off the mountain in Low range and ebrake use.

A few trips to a junk yard, hours of bleeding and a trip to a Dealer I gave up and drove it home with some rear brakes but nothing up front.

Turned out a SS brake line failed and was allowing air to enter the system but never lost a drop of fluid.

Bad luck, not really, sometimes things break.

 

[Wildman]

I tend to have real s***ty luck, but heres a quick one.

Went camping a long time ago, my red mini truck was still my daily driver/beach rig. Drove to the campground on top of MT Greylock (6hr trip from cape) and unpacked. Set up camp and went to move the truck, pushed the clutch to the floor and it went WAY too easy. Yep blown slave cyl. Ended up driving it down REAL slow, 2 days later and getting it fixed at a local shop right at the bottom of the hill. Always wanted to bring that guy a 6er, years later.

More recent one:
Last summer we were moving into our house, I had loaded the rolling chassis including heavy power train of the 40 onto my big deck over trailer. I backed up, squaring the trailer up to the apron of the garage and then was sure to put chocks half way inside the garage (so it wouldnt go out the back wall). Unstrapped the rig, and made sure the wheels were going straight. I knew I had one shot but its a big opening right?

That fawker went down the ramp nice and straight, but got rolling QUICKLY! Then the front wheels jammed left, raming the rear Xmember into the center post of the garage, putting a nice xmember shaped dent in the tin trim, and knocking out the blocks in the center post. In doing this the doors wont close. and the centerof the garage is sagging. I was so pissed, but I jimmied it up close to correct and the doors open and close right now. Ill fix it some day.

 

[Sporin]

Blow HG in truck
Have HG replaced
Throw rod on way home
Buy a reman'ed block and have shop put it in
Block throws rod on way home (ship back and get refund minus shipping costs)
Have to pay shop to rebuild one of their engines and put it in

that was more "expensive lesson" then "bad luck" to be honest though.

 

[Leaping Deer]

My buddy also has a similar story to yours.

He was parked on a trail with the ebrake on waiting for the guy in front of him to go forward on the next obstacle. He gets out to talk to someone and his buddy leans up against the front bumper of his Jeep to grab a quick smoke and then the Jeep started rolling backwards. Well he tried to grab the wheel and pull himself in as there were people towards the bottom of the hill. Well he got dragged for a little while and had his arm run over when he let go, the wheel just missing his head. The guy behind him quickly stuffed his Jeep into the brush just far enough as the tire peeled the license plate half off of the guys bumper. At the bottom his Jeep hit another Jeep causing minimal damage.

My buddy had to be airlifted to the hospital. He was out of work for 6 months. Now he always stops the truck in gear and puts a rear chock block under the tire when parked on the trail.

 

[fogblanket]

I don't even know where to begin. I geuss the worst was when I had my wife , my 2 year old daugthers and my 90 year old grandmother in the fj62 headed to my aunt and uncles in NJ 9normally a 4 hour or so drive. we made it to New London when the engine sputtered and died. its august and its hot and I can't figure out whats wrong. i limp to a local wlmart where i call a tow truck to take me to the local toyota Stealership. meanwhile wife kids and grandmother hit walmart.... finally get a tow truck to the worst toyota dealership. its thursdaymorning and I ask if they can take a look at it. meanwhile I have arranged for another car and take the family the res tof the way to NJ for the week end. the dealership gives me the run around every time i call. i ended up grabbing it back on the following Monday. (they wanted to charge me for storage fee). i drove away. so it starts right up so then my plan was to drive as close as i could get to home before the mystery sputtering out and dying happened again. I end up making it home fine wtf.
a long story short and many dead on the side of the road trips later it is finally diagnoised and fixed as a burnt threw wire under the intake plenium it would ground out and short out the injectors. fixed it and had the cruiser another 4 years after that with out that issue again.. I really loved/hated that truck. but when it ran right it was a beast.
jason

 

[HeavyMetalViking]

Damn jason that one's brutal. I guess I'm just lucky I didn't end up running over myself trying to catch up to my truck. Stuff breaks all the time, sucks that it had to hit my neighbor's car though.

I might hit you up on that offer for front end parts, otherwise it'll be a huge bondo job.

 

[Leaping Deer]

The good thing is that no one got hurt. It was a mistake and that’s why you carry insurance. Post up some pictures when you get the chance. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to (or maybe I was just too. embarrassed) to get pics of my wifes Camry.

 

[fogblanket]

I see Leaping Deer, who really needs a spotter for your driveway

 

[Leaping Deer]

At least I wasn't in my truck with I hit the wifes car. You hit the snow banks like 3 times. The 45 was just really looking to crawl over something. The Camry just happend to be the closest thing around.

 

[nat88toy]

was all psyched to go se family on x mass eve when half way to my moms hose the HG o the 80 decided to crap out, I was little annoyed cause i wouldn't have cared as much if it were any other day

Kyle you NEED to se set some time aside to go threw you truck and do some preventive Maintenance let me know when

 

[Wildman]

Kyle you NEED to se set some time aside to go threw you truck and do some preventive Maintenance let me know when

I asked him that how many months ago?

 

[nat88toy]

I asked him that how many months ago?

ya he's a slacker

 

[HeavyMetalViking]

Time and money, as usual, sucks right now, I'll clear some time soon