Mis-diagnosis's that turned out in your favor?

[Rolling Thunder]

Ever bought something that did not work for the past owner but when you got it you realized their diagnosis of problem was all wrong????

Here's my example:

Bought a new project with super low miles that had been parked in mid 80's due to bad engine and I bought with understanding that the engine was blown and had a large hole in side of block which dumped oil all over....but in reality when I got it home and checked it out... turned out to be just a bad oil filter with a small split on end that sprayed oil when pressure built up.

or

When I bought/traded for a 4spd FJ6 70 Superbee that sat for almost 2yrs due to owners dad losing keys and getting tired of it sitting in their driveway useless since "they do not make parts for these things especially ignition cylinders" and him not even believing me when I told him you could have keys remade and...NO YOU CANT YOUNG MAN! YOU KIDS KNOW NOTHING" Okay sir my apologies. Will you trade it for my truck?...Traded a 78 GMC Jimmy for it on the spot.

Got title and bill of sale, went home got some tools, pulled steering wheel and ignition cylinder in HIS drive and called a locksmith. 20 mins later after picking up keys from him had all put back together. Dropped in new battery, fired up car and drove it home. You're absolutely correct sir...we kids know nothing.

 

[72 Charger SE]

This one's not from me, but from my dad. In 1992 he picked up a 1980 Dodge 1/2 ton pickup that ran terrible, and got it for cheap. After he got it home, he started messing with it, and found that the choke was stuck. Fixed that, and then hooked up the timing light, and found that the truck had the timing set to the specs on the radiator support, which was for a slant 6. Truck had a 360 in it by the time he got it. Bumped the timing a few degrees, and everything ran great. What was initially going to be a parts vehicle for another truck ended up being my dad's semi-daily driver until 2008.

 

[waygun]

Not a mis-diagnose,but still worked to my advantage...
The story of my "Golden Oldie"
A good friend of our family who is a single Mum owned this 71 Coronet Brougham which she bought for 500 bux.318/904 andd had the Ralleye dash/150 MPH speedo.
She bought it since I could fix it if anything goes wrong.
One day she called me and was terrified.Smoke came bellowing out of the heater ducts into the car when driving and then it died about an hour out of town.
She had it to three shops and each one did not want to go near it.
I borrowed a tow dolly and dragged it home.
I spent a couple days after work tearing into the wiring and it had a nuclear meltdown.
I suggested to her to call her insurance company.The adjuster showed up and said the car is toast.Being an old car with electrical problems,it was not worth the expense to repair,and cut her a check for 800 bux. It was up to her to get rid of the car-the insurance Co.did not want it being too old.
"My kids almost got burned in that car.." she said.
"If you want the car you can have it..here's the title,do whatever you want with it..."
Turned out I needed a car and with the wiring already out of the car,I found some parts cars and made a harness out of three cars.Back on the road 2 months later and I passed my friend while she was waiting for a bus--I honked the horn and her jaw dropped to the ground,LOL!!

I got the car for nothing and was my daily driver for years until I sold it after it was very rusty..

 

[69 Runner]

Bought a 93 Dakota that shook like a dog trying to pass a peach seed. Got it cheap off a Ford dealership. Had FIRESTONE tires on the front. Those tires had separated belts in them. New tires, truck drove fine

 

[Cranky]

In the mid 70's I bought a really clean low mileage 69 Dart with 318, ac, ps, auto for cheap because the rear main was leaking really bad. Turned out it was the oil sender leaking. Too bad I gave it to my girl friend. She was a good lay for a little while at least lol

 

[scotts74birds]

Bought a Hobart "Champ 140", engine driven, DC arc weld, 3000 watt, welder/generator that ran, but didnt generate, or weld, for $140 on Craigs. Figured it was a gamble, I could get my money back on the motor alone.
I'm an electrician, so, $3.58 later for a rectifier, I have it for sale on Craigs for $450! http://flint.craigslist.org/tls/2033006396.html

 

[D Dodge]

Years ago I bought a Volkswagen Beetle cheap that had been overfilled with oil. Drained the excess oil out and it ran fine. Also, I got a good deal on a 1954 Pontiac that had an engine miss. It didn't take me long at all to find the problem. A plug wire was disconnected.

 

[Deleted member 214]

64 1/2 Dart GT ragtop. The owner bought it as a weekend cruiser but wasn't much of a mechanic. He said it handled very badly and the engine needed major work. I took it for a test drive, talked him down on price, paid him, went home and got my air tank, then went to the parts store and bought a cheapo carb kit. Airing up the tires cured the handling problem. Putting in a new accelerator pump leather seal cured the engine problem. Wished I still had the car!

 

[xs29j8Bullitt]

I paid $300 for this 1966 Belvedere Convertible in the mid 1980s because the owner thought that his son had completely hacked up the dash wiring trying to install a new cassette player in the dash. The car had been towed home a few days earlier after the son's installation attempt at a friend's house, then the son had refused to help his Dad (the owner of the car) to try to repair the wiring, and later a Garage had told him in a phone call that the repair could cost $500 or more based on his description of the damage.

He had had enough... He bought the car for his son, paid for almost $2000 worth of reconditioning (engine rebuild, trans rebuild, brakes, air conditioning, etc), and paid for several smaller repairs due to his son's failing to care for the car... He said he had over $3500 in the car, but accepted my first offer of $300, only saying that the required repairs were going to cost more than that...

Hot wired it to load on a trailer, and later found out that the only "damage" were a bunch of unplugged wiring under the dash... nothing was cut. I had the convertible for about 2 years, and probably spent less than $50 on parts to make repairs on it... mechanically it was perfect when bought.

XS

 

[YY1]

Found a computer in the future wife's neighbors trash.

Picked it up just for the case.

Took it home and it just beeped when turned on.

Pulled the processor to see what it was.

It was less than 1.5 years old.

Plugged the proc back in and it came on.

Is still working to this day as my wife's computer.

Turns out it was a hot rod build for a realtor with two hard drives and lots of RAM.

Wife's neighbor had moved out and left it behind in the trash, probably 'cause it wouldn't turn on.

 

[mfj]

My Father is an avid biker, and for some reason loves the British bikes. On his way home from work one night in 1981 he stopped to help a guy on the side of hwy 101 in San Jose. When he first pulled up the guy was irate he had just bought the bike (1972 Norton 750 commando high rider) and it had broken down five minutes into the ride home. the Guy was actually walking back to the previous owners house. My Dad being the bike lover and mechanic that he is asked the guy what happened. The guy mad as a all hell says " I don't know the P.O.S just died, it's that damn Lucas wiring ****! I knew I should have stayed away!" My dad offered $400.00 in cash for the bike. The guy in a fit of rage and clouded mind accepted. My dad gave him a ride home...When my dad got back to his house before taking the bike out of the truck, he opened the gas petcock and started the bike right up. That's when my Mom came out of the house and my dad's lucky day turned into a "what the hell were you thinking argument!" Fast forward twenty years and a cabinet full of bike show awards...I am now the proud owner of a mis-diagnosed fully restored 72' commando Thanks Dad!

 

[iraqivet01]

A wrecker driver friend of ours showed up at my Uncle Bill's shop about 20 years ago. He asked how much a 69 Camaro front end would cost. My cousin (who was into old Camaro's) told him it would be somewhere around $2,000 for parts alone. He said, "I can't afford that", and left,
He came back a few weeks later and told him he was given an old Camaro one night. He had shown up at a scene of an accident where a 16 year old kid had smashed head on into a tree. The father (who had restored the car) was on the scene and pissed due to what Junior had done. When he asked the very irriate father, "where do I need to take the car?". His responce was, "to the junk yard, your house, I don't care! If you want the title, come by my house tomorrow and we will give it to you." Thinking the guy full of crap, showed up at the guys house the next day, and sure enough Junior had to hand him the signed title to him.

Well needless to say, he didn't have the money to put this car back on the road, and at the time, the wrecker was the only vechicle his wife and him had. He asked my uncle if he had anything he would trade for the camaro. My cousin went down the road and looked it over. Sure enough the front grill, both fenders, and hood was smashed in to a point where you couldn't open the hood, but the rest of the car was spotless. My Uncle agreed to trade him an old Audi he had. After it got to the shop, with a bit of prying and hammering, we got the hood up, and discovered it was a 427 big block, turbo 400, 12 bolt rear end car, and all the reciepts the guy had spent on it was in the glove box.

Needless to say, it ended up turning into a 5 year project stripping the car down to bare metal, and replaced all the front end, and cloned it into a hugger orange Yenko Camaro.

Next time I'm at the shop I'll get a picture of it.

 

[Deleted member 214]

Garage sale had some Mackie 5s desktop studio monitors on a table of car speakers. The owner said they sounded bad, so I got them for $10. I listened closely and found no sound out of the tweeters. I pulled the cabinets apart and found that some numbnuts had unplugged the tweeters and taped the ends! I untaped them, reconnected them, and have a set of high quality studio monitors like in the control room of a recording studio for cheap!