We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. Unknown Quote
After fitting the rear dampers, springs and mounts yesterday afternoon. I sat back thinking what a great job. I had a celebrational beer like a scene from Shawshank Redemption on the roof. Laying in bed I thought did I put the gasket on to the near side mount…No…so this morning I dropped the rear side suspension.
I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar ‘oh dear’ moment?
Spent a weekend taking out an MGB engine, replaced the clutch, centred it up with a brush stale - everything fine. A week later it failed again because I hadn’t replaced the £5 thrust bearing. Had to do it all again.
When I’d finished the second time I was so keen to try it out I drove off down the road and the (unattached) bonnet floated up into the air and up off over the roof.
When I had it resprayed I put all the chrome work back on but the car wouldn’t start. I traced it to the fuel pump and spent hours taking it off, dismantling it and cleaning points, etc. Still wouldn’t go. Turned out the pump’s earth went to the screw that held the rear number plate on. It was the only thing I hadn’t put back on. 
Had an angry driver flashing me on the way to work. He came up beside me at traffic lights, jabbing his finger at me. I mouthed something at him and he rolled his eyes and pointed to the roof. I opened the driver’s door and saw my sandwich box on the roof rack. 
Perhaps it runs in the family. Me and my dad spent ages trying to undo a wheel bearing on a Morris Traveller. We had a spanner and piece of scaffolding pipe for leverage and were standing on it. It was only after some head scratching that we realised it was opposite thread. We had been tightening it up for half an hour.
Oh yes, I have them quite often sadly. Even when I write a list of things I MUST remember. I’ll work through it with a sincere attempt at being methodical. Only to find I miss something and have to redo it.
The up shot is that by the end of most jobs I do on the car, I end up doing it 3 or 4 times - so I know it inside out!!! 
The current is a steering column swap (putting an ND2 telescopic column on my ND1). Took for a test drive after doing it, works perfectly, except my indicator and wiper stalks don’t work any more! Still working on this one… as everything is plugged in correctly! Doh, wish me luck!
When I was nowt but a lad, I used to have a Davrian. This was a very small and lightweight (9cwt) fibre-glass sports car which had a rear mounted, tuned Hillman Imp engine. My Dad and I had repaired a reverse gear selection problem which entailed removing the engine and gearbox. We started on a Sunday morning which really was not a good idea but I had to drive to Liverpool the next day to attend lectures at the University of Liverpool where I was a student.
After the repair and re-installation I started the engine and pressed the clutch to select first gear. The engine immediately juddered and stalled. Did this a few times before deciding something was seriously amiss. On removal and splitting of the engine and gearbox we found that the clutch release bearing had somehow spun around 180 deg in the release yolk during re-assembly of the gearbox to the engine (must have caught the gearbox input shaft). This meant that rear cast iron non thrust bearing face of the clutch release bearing and not the correct carbon/graphite thrust face was being pushed against the steel thrust actuation plate on the clutch assembly. Of course, the two materials literally friction welded themselves together and in effect locked the the flywheel/clutch assembly (and idling engine!) to the gearbox casing via the clutch release mechanism! Doh!
Somehow the clutch release mechanism survived all this and on correct re-assembly we finally finished re-installation at 2am Monday morning. Thankfully, it operated as it should, allowing me to drive the 100 or so miles in the early hours of the morning via the Woodhead Pass to Liverpool University for the mornings lectures. Needless to say I wasn’t very alert during the day’s lectures 
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