Apart from the beer escapade (one of a few similar over the years) my abiding memory is of finally getting round to replacing a recalcitrant starter motor. (after it let me down one time too many in torrential rain in the valley above Capel Curig, and I had to climb under with a hammer and spanner to free it).
Armed with the Haynes manual the next week, I disbelieved the instructions to use a hoist and remove an engine mount to get the starter motor off. "Who on earth would design that in?". Of course, the fundamental bodywork came from the Opel Kadett, which was habitually fitted with an entirely different 1200 engine, not the 1256 (Viva-sourced) engine in the Chevette. The latter had been shoe-horned in with no bodywork changes, and, sure enough, there was around 1/2" too little clearance for removal of the starter motor.
I eventually jacked it up, dropped the engine onto bricks, and removed the offending part. Off on the bus to the local motor factor to exchange it and on remounting it, it was only the matter of a few minutes to jack again, line up and put the engine mount back. (I lie, it was a pig of a job getting everything just so and lined-up, made worse by the job being done single-handed, but with time, and an awful lot of profanity, I got there).
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