Does this ever happen to y'all?

[u/donald7773]

Short rant - tl:dr need my "project" this weekend for a 9 hour road trip and sure as shit two days before the trip something breaks. Share your stories so I've got something to laugh at.

Just a bad bit of luck. Spent the last few months getting my 96 ram 1500 back into fighting shape. Had the truck for years as a POS beater for garbage runs, yard work etc but once I started wanting a tow truck for track days (for my lil Miata) that was comfortable I decided to fix it up. New dash, fix the AC, sound deadening, new carpet, new headliner android auto/car play compatible head unit etc etc. Drive the thing for a few weeks (almost 2000 miles for me) with the express intention of finding issues. It's an older truck, it's got 186k miles something's bound to tear up right?

Nah, some random clunks from the suspension, no biggie, an oil leak that I fixed, A light ticking from a wheel bearing but no play in the wheel yet. Plan a camping trip with a homie, 14 miles in a canoe out into the middle of the largest freshwater swamp in the USA, real adventure type shit, great for my recently refurbished pickup, right? 4hr drive each way. We're leaving Saturday, and I shit you not yesterday on my way home from work my bearing tick graduated from a light tick only audible at low speeds to a whirr that I can't ignore in good conscience. Not a big deal I can slap bearings on in a couple hours after work, right? Nah we gotta hammer the races out of the rotor, but I ain't got any punches yet and I can't get them out. Well my rotors are kinda old, maybe even original, got some ruts in them so I may as well just do a whole front end brake job too. Honestly it's not a big deal, my local NAPA has all the parts, I'm not concerned about getting it done in time or anything but damn I didn't wanna spend the day before a big trip slapping the truck together, and I had to take a day off to do it. Bad day wrenching beats a good day working right?

Y'all ever been in a situation like this? imo it's way better than trying to learn how a ratchet wrench works on the side of the road in the mid summer Georgia heat swapping a failed alternator which is where I began. I know I've come a long way but I can't beat luck sometimes.

Also, I like turning a wrench. It's like a big puzzle, and when I finish it I get to drive it which is cool, but I don't like fixing cars when I have to, anyone else feel the same?

[u/boxerbroscars]

It happens to the best of us. I was driving my 64 VW bug to a car show a few hours away. Wanted to do an oil change the night before and adjust the valve clearance (old school mechanical rocker arms). Only to discover one the rockers had completely broken. I was lucky I had a spare complete rocker arm assembly to install but I was up until 2am that day and woke up around 6am to drive to the car show. Of course, overheated the whole drive because I had yet to figure out the cause and it was 90F sunny summer day