Following up on Chad’s question from yesterday, which had you sharing your best stories of parts and pieces falling off of your car, I’m here today to raise your spirits from the depths of that embarrassment and allow you to brag on your killer mechanical skills. I want to know what your best field or roadside repair story is. Did you save a damsel in distress? Did you save your marriage after breaking down in your project car and breathing life back into it on the shoulder of the highway? Did you once make a hose clamp our of a fork and a leathermen tool like me? Hell, you probably did way cooler stuff than that…especially you lunatics that have been on Hot Rod Drag Week. Those are some people with stories half the world will never believe, but they’re all true. Chad one time weaved his beard into a fan belt and managed to drive the car for three hundred miles to safety. I didn’t see it, but I’ve heard the details.
So…
WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST ALL TIME FIELD REPAIR/ROADSIDE FIX STORY OR ACCOMPLISHMENT?
BUDDING MCGUYVER’S WE WANT TO KNOW!
1966 Caprice Hardtop, 283, 2sp Powerglide (friends car)
Many years ago ….
Driving back from the lake when the fuel pump packed up about an hour and half from the city. Boon docks stuck! Close by was an abandoned old motel site with lots of garbage laying about. Found an old 4L milk jug, vinyl skipping rope and a pack of gum in the glove box. Rigged up a gravity feed fuel source with the hollow skipping rope, the gum as the grommet and siphoned the tank to fill the jug. Held my arm out the window for the next hour or so raising and lowering the jug to avoid flooding the little SBC as my buddy drove home. Worked like a charm and made it home safe. I always wanted to buy that car … but it is long gone.
Al
Winnipeg, Manitoba
1972, a young lady in her dads Triumph. it would start and then immediatly stall. as i had had this happen more than once in my Dodge, i kept a ballast resistor in the glove box. got her on the road and never saw her again. still remember the thank you kiss
Broken halfshaft 300miles from home. Had a spare in the trunk as someone with knowledge warned me it “could” happen some day……..
Had to see those eyes from all the other people when I took a proper halfshaft out ot the trunk. Who the f.ck does carry a spare halfshaft they thought.
It was some bodging to get the broken halfshaft out of the rear axle without dismanteling the whole rear but got it done without to much hassle.(tent pegs and a pipe wrench….).
My wife (yes thats right) and I did the job like it was the most normal thing in the world on the side of the road on our Supercharged V8 ’73 Capri..
That “someone” tought me not to upgrade yet at that time. If it breaks then you’ll need to upgrade otherwise you aint have enough torque to break it and there’s nothing to worry about it. Don’t invest in parts that might not be needed.
Had a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere, 383 w/727 (I think). Fuel pump failed miles from a paved road while out whomping in the desert. Re-routed the washer nozzle hose to the carb’s air horn, filled the washer bottle with gas siphoned out of the tank and drove about 18 miles pushing the washer button and “trying” to modulate the throttle while driving on way-bad bumpy, unimproved dirt roads. Full throttle worked best, but she didn’t go very far that way!
I had to stop several times to siphon more gas and re-fill the washer bottle. I probably got a pint or so into my lungs for my troubles. I’ve traveled with a spare fuel pump and filter ever since in any car I own.
Excellent MacGyver-ing!
While on a Rocky Mountains trip from Chicago in my wife’s lifted Jeep Liberty the speedometer and cruise control quit working. I traced the problem to the speed sensor in the rear differential, that had its wire separate from the connector due to the parking brake line rubbing on it. There was not enough wire left on the connector to try splicing to and, while driveable, the thought of driving over 1300 miles back home without the speedo or cruise didn’t sound too appealing. We stopped at the local grocery, where I picked up a package of sewing needles. I jammed one into where each of the wires entered the speed sensor and then mashed wires over the needles and held everything in place with a combination of electrical and duct tape. Then I used zip ties to pull the parking brake cable away from the repair area. All functions restored we drove home without problem.
Brake light switch on my ’56 broke off in boondocks of Maine coming back from Loring… Jury- rigged an upside down spring loaded toggle switch on a piece of scrap to activate the brake lights when I hit the pedal…
Another time… Used four screwdrivers to hold down the bed of my truck after the nuts on the bed bolts all vibrated off… Figured that out when the entire bed decided to try to make a left when I made a right.
As a former tank mechanic I will have to post 1…. Once i get off work 🙂
Dad let me borrow his new 66 Buick Convertible to take out my then girlfriend. After driving a while the temperature gauge quickly sored to “HOT” and steam poured from the hood! I opened the hood and the fan belt had broken and the car puked it’s coolant supply! I used the convertible top boot bag to scoop water out of a nearby stream to refill the rad and used my girl’s pantyhose(that she was wearing) as a fan belt. The car ran cool all the way to the next gas station, but the mechanic couldn’t believe it!
I like it, you got home plus got your girlfriend’s pantyhose off!
Back in mymilitary days I was hitching a ride with the Vehicle techs in an old school Duece and a Half when we went through some bruch and snapped off a big branch and some onld fence up into the engine area. It immediately started to chug and then it started to cough and sputter and eventually died. Of course it happened at 2am in the middle of no-where during an exercise. And of course – it was raining. We tried to radio for assistance but were informed it would have to wait until the morning. (Great) A quick triage identified that part of the fence we ran over had a hetal post and it had damaged the intake, carb and exhaust manifold on the GMC inline 6. The techs threw up their hands in disgust and curled up for the night. I pulled their tools. The carb had a broken housing and the float had broken off. I repaired the housing with JB weld and reattached the float using a rivot tool. The to really ghetto fix the thing, I welded the intake and manifold using some welding rod in the back and jumper cables off the 24 volt batteries. Looked like crap but worked like a charm. We chugged into camp a short time later.
In the end I was charged $150 for not being qualified / authorized to make repairs on the truck. Gotta love Armed Forces guidelines
I snapped of a Muncie 4 speed shifter and used a short piece of 1/2″ water pipe for a lever untill I could get a replacement. ca. 1970ish.
Ran over a bomb in a M1A1 and lost number 1 and 2 arm on the right side…Had to pull out the torsion bars and lift up the remains of the 2 arms then limp it back like this….http://imgur.com/AjBHw
Back in 1975 my friend and his brother who I had just met that summer at the lake were booting around in their mom’s Renault in Downtown Winnipeg. We had a drunk guy run out at us with a hammer, so we chased him back onto and down the sidewalk til he summersaulted over a wrought iron fence. Then 2 miltary guys double dating with their uniforms on get into a scuffle with the parking attendent. They back into us in a multi level parkade when we were parking to go to the movies. After exchanging expletives & unpleasantries, they take off speeding down the one way parkade ramp into traffic coming up the ramp with the parkade attendant chasing after them. The other attendant starts jumpin around and opens the exit gate and in a Pakistani voice screams at us to get the F%#@K out. So we left without paying and decided to continue cruising
Then throttle cable broke shortly afterward as were we driving or fleeing.. I can’t remember it was a crazy night that was really only 45 minutes old. After surveying the damage, i took my runner laces off and tied them together. We hooked it up to the throttle and we were back in business in no time. I worked the throttle my friend shift from the passenger seat while his brother drove and used the clutch.
We had many hairy moments that night and committed several unspeakable acts of juvenenile deliquincy that clear October Friday. No animals were harmed(That we know of or except that drunk with the hammer) and many girls were left broken hearted.
1986 caprice classic, my pal Charlie and I were working in New Hampshire, driving up from Rhode Island every Monday. Separate cars, me driving fast him driving slow, so I was always later than him.
5:45 am on a nice Summer day I come upon him sitting on the roof on Route 495, waiting for me.
Transmission cross member rotted and tail shaft dragged in the street! Fan went up and cut radiator hose. Apartment living meant his Tools were in car.
We bumper jacked car up, with jack on a Rim! to get it way up, slid spare tire under dangling transmission, and lower car, This pushed trans back up. We then took a connector plate off the guard rail, wedged between floor and frame, this help trans cross member up.
Add a few coat hanger wraps to keep in place, good to go!
Now the hose! took a 1 1/8″ socket split hose, added two clamps and we were good, water in coffee cups from a stream and he was on the road!
He drove for months like that telling everyone the story and showing them the band aids.
Soon after this I left the place, then a few months later Charlie gets ejected thru the sunroof and dies, due to our old boss driving drunk! Charlie was the best!
I had a fuel pump die in my 97 silverado while 5 hours from home(Madison), on the way to South Carolina. I had it towed to a parking lot across from a Chevy dealer in Champain Illinois. Bought a pump from there, walked across the street and installed it. I unbolted the bed and jacked it up on the driver side with the spare tire jack wedged between the frame and box. I told the wrecker driver what I was going to do, and he thought I was nuts. I told him to come back in an hour or two and I’ll be gone. Only lost two and a half hours between the time it died and the time we hit the road again. This was my biggest road trip attempt ever, so I had brought a good supply of tools. Made it to Nashville that night and stayed at a great hotel. Had a pile of beers in celebration of my acomplishment. The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. Moral of the story was to never spend good money on parts store electric fuel pumps. The thing didn’t have more than 50k on it when it puked on me. Original equipment from then on.
This is the only time I had problem with a MS install.. and it wasn’t the MS at fault.
It was early Aug, >110* F outside – 40 ft from the Zion national park west gate the EFI 406 sbc just died, Would not start and was really hard to turn over on the starter. Pushed the car to the side and sent the family off to find a room & some thing to drink.. It so freaking hot out. The MS was firing the injectors but the engine was flooding really bad – but only on 4 cyl, After hours of melting in the sun, I found the symptom – 4 out of 8 injectors were stuck wide open – with the plugs out fuel would pour out of the hole.. WTF ..
Tore the harness apart and isolated the power to the 4 injectors and it finally started on 4/8 holes..
Ended up taking the EFI harness out of the car (not easy when everything is heat shrink with dual wall (stuff that has glue in it) and hidden behind the inner fender ( only a bumper jack and a rock to work with). Found the problem – right over the heat cross over a stray wire strand (like 32 ga) from the MAP/TPS braided shield had poked its way through the insulation (this with 105*C wire insulation too not the pvc junk) on the MS side of the B injector driver wire and grounded it, holding the injectors wide open. What a bitch to find. I’ll never forget this one. After that I always insulate the shield braid in any harnesses I build since then.
From 74 up through the mid-80’s I was a harness horse trainer. I traveled a lot in that profession, sometimes as much as 1000 miles every weekend.
I always owned old cars, but I maintained them like airplanes (right down to a logbook).
I only got stuck on the roadside twice (other than for tires), and the first example is a good one for how simple repairs used to be “back in the day”, the other was a bit of low-level MacGyver stuff.
I was on a twisty two-lane secondary road in western PA about 4 AM when my ignition cut out. I coasted to a stop in the road; there was no shoulder at all, just a guard rail. On the other side of the guard rail was a drop of about 40 feet down into the woods.
I was on a truck bypass, not a good place to be broken down. I’m in the traffic lane in the middle of a curve at the bottom of a hill in the pitch darkness.
I set out some flares, popped off the distributor cap and set the points with a matchbook cover. A paper matchbook cover was exactly the correct point gap for a slant six. I was on my way in five minutes.
In the other incident I was traveling across central Illinois in a new 81 Chevy dually with about 400 miles on it, pulling a trailer with 8 race horses. It’s never good to break down, but hauling a load of expensive animals adds a whole lot of stress to any issues.
After a couple of hours, the cruise control starts cutting out every 10-15 minutes. I passed a farm truck pulling a plastic fertilizer tank just as some drops hit the windshield, but the liquid kept coming after I passed him.
I pulled over to discover that everything under the hood was coated in transmission fluid. The hot cable from the battery had been left to drape across the steel tranny cooler line, so after a few hundred miles from the dealership, the insulation wore through and started momentary shorting of the electrical system. This cut off the cruise control each time, and finally burned a hole in the tranny line.
Luckily, it hadn’t started a fire…yet. Remember GM build quality back then?
It wasn’t my truck, so I’ve got absolutely zero tools, and there’s nothing around but Illinois farmland. Fortunately, the truck is still running ok, so I got back on the road until I came to an exit near a small town.
In farm country, every little town has an auto parts store. I bought a 2 foot section of fuel hose, a roll of electrical tape, 4 small hose clamps and 3 quarts of tranny fluid (it was down about a half).
I wrapped the cable in the tape, and fastened it up out of the way. I then wrapped the leaky spot on the cooler line with paper towels, then covered it in tape for a 2 foot section on each side of the leak. Before the tape could soak through, I wrapped another layer of tape on top of the first.
Then I slit the hose lengthwise and slipped it over the tape, and wrapped it tightly again with more of the tape, then placed two hose clamps side by side right over the leak, and one more at each end. They loaned me a screw driver, and I always carry a pocket knife.
The remaining five hours to the fairgrounds went fine, without losing any more fluid. I unloaded the horses and turned the truck over the head trainer. It was ~50 miles to the nearest Chevy dealer, so he drove it for a month before taking it in for a warranty repair; it never needed any fluid added.
During college I got the keys to a ski house way up in New Hampshire. Four of us got into my 65 Fury wagon. After a wild weekend I considered a route home, and decided a minor route through the wilderness would be fastest. I topped off the tank and away we went. After about 20 minutes a tremendous noise had me stop fast, the friggen gas tank strap that held up the tank had failed at the bolt way up inside the fender behind the rear wheel well, the tank dropped but couldn’t escape. Fortunately the fuel line was still attached.
The tank weighed a lot but I was able to find a heavy branch in the woods and pried the tank back up a ways. Those nylon sleeping bags straps are really strong, and I was able to use the leaf spring there to support a sling for the tank. The wussies with me had their hands on the doorlatches all the way home, but I knew it was mended.
Time:early 80’s1973
timing belt in a food store parking lot…out of rage and frustration of course. I had determined this cazy project I took on had a sintered block, and felt good about having a spare engine. Debris was already internal to the engine, broke a timing belt near a food shopping parking lot, stuff randomly bound the oil pump. I pushed it to a spot, and customers got to watch me tearing into a double timing belted boxer. I was abit angry..complete diving into a ripoff in ways I did not think possible. The cost did not end for 7 years. someone stole the spare engine. A nuclear element was found. A bullet hole, bowels much larger than a mouse..a cracked gas tank infected with something peppermint odor’d and ready to kill anything human, a broken rear end, missing chassis beams..it did not end for 7 years after the timing belt episode. The poison was so bad, it ate steel in realtime. Anyway..I did get that timing belt in, in a parking lot, and drove the original engine into 2012.
I’ll assume the race track also counts as the field? On the first night racing in the Truck division at my local short track, I went out and ran Practice… Truck seemed alright, came back in, and everyone in the pits was giving me thumbs up, or googley eyes, and my crew tells me “you had a gigantic death spiral of sparks coming out from under the truck.”
Get underneath to find the driveshaft is rubbing rather hard on the rear driveshaft hoop… I guess when I installed it, I didn’t QUITE give it enough room for the changing pinion angle when the truck accelerated up off the turn.
The loop was at its maximum adjustment, but recalling that it was mounting through a floor board in the truck bed, I ripped off a hunk of rollbar padding, used a prybar to flex the floor pan upward, and stuffed the padding in between it and the loop. This pushed the loop downward about 3/4″, giving it just enough clearance not to chew a groove through my driveshaft! Went out and threw a P/S belt in the Feature anyway…. 😛