Avoid distractions when working on cars

Many people call themselves multitaskers. You know, the kind of people who read the paper, watch TV and check e-mail all at the same time.

I would like to think of myself as such a person, but multitasking isn't about being able to merely exist, undisturbed, in a room with a bunch of things going on.

You definitely don't want competition for your attention when you're hammering nails, cutting hair or walking a tight rope. Distractions can mean botched dye jobs, crushed fingertips or worse ... how is that tight rope, anyway?

The same should go for when you're working in and around your vehicle. I know, working in the car can be a leisure-time activity with friends and neighbors dropping in the second they hear the air compressor fire up. The trouble is that many operations, even something as simple as replacing parts, requires your full attention so that you can later recall how it all came apart, what bolts were used (and where they are) and to not be interrupted during critical operations such as tightening up fasteners. No biggie, you're thinking, but even professionals in a rush are human beings, after all, and make multitasking errors.

Trying to talk to a customer on the phone while putting a transmission back together is likely not the best idea, nor is stopping for the night with the job only partly finished. This is even made worse at home when days or even weeks might separate your visits to the garage to get a project done.

Our transmission master Barry Baxter says that he has one rule: "I never, ever leave for the day part way through a job. If I'm putting parts in, I don't finger-tighten a few of the bolts and call it a night."

That's how mistakes happen and, yes, there's a point to this.

The Wheelbase Media shop has a couple of project cars with several team members overlapping their areas of responsibility and expertise. Tired and frustrated as to why a transmission would not line up with its new engine, two team members -- and not Barry the transmission guru -- finally got it together at midnight. Several bolts were snugged into place to hold it together and they called it a night.

A couple of weeks passed as it seemed that busy schedules were keeping everyone out of the shop. But time waits for no one. Soon the car was off to the next phase, which was a new rear suspension.

Several weeks later, the car appeared ready to go. The engine was in, the accessories were installed and it was time to fire it all up. No problem. The timing was set and everyone was excited about the first drive.

All was good until about a mile down the road when the car violently shuddered every time the clutch was let out. Puzzled, the team at the shop pondered the possibility when Wheelbase Editor Jeff Melnychuk spoke the obvious: "It's almost like the engine and transmission aren't bolted together."

Everyone laughed, since it would be a huge rookie mistake, but closer inspected revealed that of the six bolt holes to mount the transmission, only two actually had bolts in them.

It's easy to guess at what might have happened had the car been driven farther, but if the mounting points where the two bolts were located had broken off, the price could have been a new engine block and a new transmission. And had the car been mobile when it happened? Well, maybe a whole lot worse.

There were plenty of red faces after that incident but it really didn't reflect on the ability of the people involved. It's a simple thing to forget a few bolts, but, learning from our mistakes, finishing a job you begin in a timely fashion and then going back to tighten all the fasteners once you're done is tough to do when you're mind is on other things.

Focus, do a thorough job and stay safe by closing that garage door to keep out the bored neighbors and kids, tell your better half that you need to concentrate and can't be taken away to help with other tasks and that, perhaps most importantly, you need to keep the phone turned off the entire time you're working.

If you can't do that, don't be surprised if something very bad and very expensive happens.

Rhonda Wheeler is a journalist with Wheelbase Media, a worldwide supplier of automotive news, features and reviews. You can e-mail her by logging on to www.wheelbase.ws/media and clicking the contact link.