This is embarrassing, but its funny every time I think about it. My first two experiences doing repair work on my parents 66 Dodge Polara left my parents to believe that I would never be mechanically inclined. Repair Job #1: Boy are those fan belts noisy. Well, when the chain on my bike gets noisy, I always squirt some of Dad's oil on it. So ... I'll just help Dad out and squirt a little oil there to make them quiet down. And you can imagine ... the rest of the story.
Repair Job #2: Change the oil in the car. Well, now that I crawled under here, I see two plugs. I thought there was only one. Well, I guess I'll remove the one from this large rectangular pan. The other one is in a pan that's kind of funny shaped, and that couldn't be it. Now that I drained the oil, I don't why it completely filled up my dad's oil pan. I thought there was only supposed to be 5 quarts of oil. Oh well, I guess I really didn't understand how much a quart was. I added the new oil (and it did not overflow). My mom came out afterwards to go to the store, started the car, put it in reverse and it did not go anywhere. Um, she said. It worked fine this morning. After a little troubleshooting, she discovered the transmission was empty.
Before you think me too stupid, I guess I should tell you that I was only 7 or 8 at the time. Just wanted to share a little automotive humor.
Richard
P.S. I did end up working in a garage as a mechanic to help pay my way through college, and I got a degree in mechanical engineering.
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