[Simple Man]

Years ago, guy I worked with had a stoopid lazy son. Everette had given him a 68 Buick Skylark, to get back and forth to work. Couple of weeks go by, car quits running. Turns out sonny boy saw that fuel oil was cheaper than gas, so he put fuel oil in the tank.....

[SRR]

Try working a parts counter if you really want to deal with stooopid. It boggles my mind when I see a guy asking the 19 year old minimum wage girl behind the counter what could be his problem with his car. Most people have no clue what they drive! I'm amazed at what some people think you can get at a parts store. No we don't sell unique motorcycle parts or boat parts or motor home parts. My favorite is guys who call after buying the wrong parts calling and saying "You guys sold me the wrong parts" OK, what would you like me to do over the phone about that? Some people will be off by 10 years guessing what they have. I'm surprised I have a job after some of the wise ass answers I give sometimes. lol

[Singleton]

30 years ago, at a convenience store, I observed a young woman checking the air in her half inflated tire with a pencil type air gauge. It was taking a long time and she seemed a little frustrated, so I walked over the see if I could help out. She said "I can't get this tire to air up. I can hear the air going in, but pressure is less and less! Yes, she thought the pressure gauge would magically inflate her tire..bless her heart
I managed to suppress laughing, and showed her where the air pump station was located and how to use it

[sdbob]

Other area,construction. My father had young guy working for him roofing, building,etc. One day says I'm going out on my own. My dad said ok. Guy bought new 1 ton dump for roofing. One day this guy calls my dad ,Bill can you met me at such such address. My being low key,kind said sure. Dad pulls up guy tells him owner of home is upset with roofing job. Why? You know slots in older shingles need to be offset. This guy had all the slots lined up all of them. Beautiful alignment. Guy couldn't see problem.

[sdbob]

I've been going to St Vincent college for bereavement. What I've been told, cancer and alzheimers are the leading drain on health insurance now. In the near future they are saying depression will be the leading drain. Guys try not to let these people that get upset with you influence your well being. My father would say dont let them,angry people become you(me).We have no idea what they are ingesting. As you guys alluded too,some just arent thinking reasoning out problem.

[Greg Reid]

My motto is don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

[unruhjonny]

/\ that made me laugh!!

[BOB VIDAN]

Not quite in line with this thread but had my 30ish year old neighbor boy come over a couple of days ago because he had no clue how to change a flat tire and asked me to show him how.

[dataway]

I like stupid people, and lazy people.

I figure it gives me a leg up. I try to be reasonably smart about what I do, and I try to work hard. Last thing I want to do is compete against a bunch of people smarter than me that work harder.

[salem1912]

Cliff your getting no respect!

[Jeff Hamlin]

Stoopid I can handle, it's a daily occurrence anymore.

What I hate is laziness.
So many dipwad simple questions by "New" owners who rather bog down all these sites with lazy a$$ questions,
rather than picking up a service manual.

Sorry, this got me going, and GET OFF MY GRASS

[OG68]

IRT Service Manuals;

Before I retired I was the mechanical Project Manager for a major light rail transit company.
One of the aspects of my job was writing maintenance Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for maintaining the German rail vehicles. I had to translate the highly technical German manuals (written in English, Thank God) to, as my predecessor told me, make it simple enough, that average person off the street could understand and do the procedure.

About 30% of our mechanics were four year apprentices, and even though they passed the mechanical aptitude tests before hiring, a few still had issues even reading the SOPs, much less understanding them. You can only dumb it down so far...

I think the GM service manuals were written for mechanics that had some mechanical background and to do the job as quickly and efficiently as possible. There are some aspects in the Service Manuals that are taken for granted, that the mechanic would be somewhat familiar as to what the job entailed. And each model was slightly different in how to approach and repair the problem. This is where the manuals excel.

[SRR]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWDa77y3DY

Some real good ones here lol

[Vid]

Originally Posted by Lemans64

I a truck towed in with a no oil pressure concern, customer just did his own timing chain job. Vehicle will fire up but no oil pressure.
This vehicle does not require to remove oil pan to remove timing cover, but for seem reason this person did, also installed new oil pump.
i figured he screwed up the new oil pump and did not prelube it, no he did not, pump is burnt up. Install ne pump and still no oil pressure.
Remove the pan and inspect the pick up and found that he made his own gasket for the pick up tube. All good except he did not
put a hole in the middle for oil to go thru. I laughed so hard. Put in correct gasket and we have oil pressure. Guys in the shop had a good laugh at his expense.

This is hysterical and reminds me of an experience I had about 8 years ago with the one time I bought a house to flip it. Bought the house from an acquaintance without an inspection. I was in the process of getting it ready for the market and noticed the dishwasher wasn’t operating correctly, the bottom was filling up with water instead of draining. The pump sounded like it was trying to work so must be a clog somewhere, right? Check the drain hose and it looks like new inside. Pressurized air produced bubbling in the puddle in the bottom of the dishwasher so I knew that path was clear. Hmmm. Look at the spot on the garbage disposal where the hose connects and whoever installed the dishwasher never punched out the little round tab that lets the water pass through into the disposal basket. Who knows how many years they couldn’t use the dishwasher because of that?!


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[67drake]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

It is actually quite RARE for anyone to admit fault.

I've made PLENTY of blunders over the years. Right down to putting an impact on the crankshaft/clutch retaining nut on my father in laws chainsaw instead of taking the time to remove the spark plus and stuff a nylon rope down the cylinder to stop the piston and keep th crank from turning while I removed the nut with a socket.

Guess what? I didn't realize that the nut was left hand threads, so hit the impact and snapped the end right off the crankshaft.....OOOOOPS!

I haven't repeated that one, good lesson learned many years ago.....

I didn’t know either!
I just loaned my piston stop out to a coworker about a month ago. He just couldn’t get the clutch off of his Stihl. Luckily he didn’t snap it off. Wait till I tell him Monday.

[BILL BOWMAN1]

Originally Posted by SRR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWDa77y3DY

Some real good ones here lol

OMG some of those are hilarious!

[Rachelsdad]

I am reminded (somehow) of an experience I had with my first wife when were in college, before we were married.

She drove a '75 VW, with (of course) a 3-speed manual transmission.

One day, her battery died. We were in one car that day, and happened to be the last of our group of friends up at that end of campus that evening (read: nobody on hand for a jump).

"No problem," I told her. "We're at the top of the hill. All I need to do is give you enough of a push to get rolling downhill."

She was on board with the plan, and didn't ask me any questions. I ass-u-med that anyone who drove a stick knew that the car could be push started, and how that could be accomplished (and I drove my '63 Bonneville with a Hydramatic, and I knew that, even at the ripe old age of 19).

So, she got in the car, I got behind it, and I pushed (hey, it was just a Bug; you don't have to be Charles Atlas to push a Bug). She got to the edge of the downward slope, and started rolling. She rolled and rolled and rolled...all the way down the hill...and stopped.

Huffing and puffing from running down after her (I had anticipated her coming back up to fetch me - after she popped the clutch), I caught up to her, and said, "what happened when you let off the clutch?"

Silence.

Beat.

"Well?" I said, still catching my breath.

"You didn't tell me to let off the clutch!"

Oy, vey.

Epilogue: I proceeded to push the car (level ground) about a hundred feet or so. She popped the clutch, and the car started. We went to Sears and got a battery.

What can one say?

[Lemans64]

Have also had cars towed in with a no start, customer install new battery already and still no start.
He or they, no sure which gender, did not take the plastic terminal protectors off the posts before putting on terminals.
Costly mistake, tow bill plus labour bill, Have seen this a few times.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Rachelsdad

She drove a '75 VW, with (of course) a 3-speed manual transmission.

Never seen a Bug with a three speed transmission. I bet if you would have put in 4th it would have gone a lot faster.

[OG68]

My wife's 70 Karmann Ghia had a three speed semi-automatic. Same basic transmission as the four speed but without first gear. Had a vacuum operated clutch controlled by the gearshift lever and you still had to manually shift from 1 to 3. Good fun car that never failed us.