Great Fixes - College Of Obscure Knowledge

Spurshot · November 20, 2009

I was wondering what great fixes/saves you may have done or seen done out there on vehicles that were broke down.

I seen some real innovative ones and some really shakey ones. But most worked for a while anyway.

I recall one where a friend plugged a hole in his truck radiator on a dove hunt in the San Joaquin valley with a little piece of wood from a fencepost. That piece of wood was in that radiator for at least 2-3 yrs that I know.

There was a friend that broke a piston in a little import 4 banger and dropped the pan and pulled the head on the side of the road and removed the rod and piston and rockers, then continued, albeit much slower, to his destination.

Post your "tales from the mouse house"

pwall · November 20, 2009

I had a wheel come off on a hard-top camper trailer on a 'back road' in New Brunswick. All the lug bolts worked loose (long story....).

When the wheel came off, only one bolt remained in the hub, which ruined the wheel. Glad I had a spare. But when the wheel came off, took the grease cap with it.

I ended up 'borrowing' 2 bolts from one side, so now each wheel only had 3 bolts each and not 5.

Used a plastic bag, cut it to size and put it over the hub to keep the bearings clean and used a hair-elastic (donated by my daughter) to keep around the plastic on the hub. It looked funny as the elastic had those plastic ball-decorations on it. ;)

Drove very slow until the next small town to get parts.

That was just a small portion of the many things that went wrong on a trip down east many years ago. I no longer take the 'back road' as a short-cut.

wheelsthatgrip · November 20, 2009

Years ago I locked myself out of my car (keys left in the iginition). I had no mobile phone and was several miles from a phone. I was an Automobile Technician at the time and knew I only needed a slim jim to pop the door open.

Suddenly the light bulb turned on....

I removed one of the wheel covers and pulled the spring wire ring it used to secure itself against the rim. I bent it back and forth until it broke and straightened it. I then took some rocks and forged a hook into the end of the wire. I then used it to pop the lock.

A real "MacGyver" moment

jdubya · November 20, 2009

I was on a trip from Philly to Atlanta once in my 1996 Chrysler Sebring Coupe when some where in the middle of nowhere in NC on I-95 (think Deliverance) the passenger side wheel locked up. Luckily I managed to get it to a state run rest stop which was empty because it was a sunday and mother's day which apparently is a major holiday down in those parts.

Anyway, log story short I discovered that one of the brake caliper bolts fell out causing the caliper to flip forward into the wheel when braking. So using a pair of borrowed channel locks I searched the vehicle for a matching bolt to MacGyver the caliper back together. Luckily the bolt holding the seat belt on matched the thread pattern and fit nicely until I could drive it to a shop to purchase the correct bolt.

Not too crazy but I have Onstar now for sure...

csheatz · November 20, 2009

Doesnt go with the topic but its close.

I was riding my my grandfather a few years back in a 1 ton dually pulling a open car trailer with a newer dodge mini van on it. He used to transport cars for the dealers as a side job. We were coming back at about 10pm (summer night) we had just left the rest area about 2 miles where we had switched drivers and checked the tiedowns and all the lights for the last 2-3 hours of the trip home. just as soon as he set the cruise at 62-64 and I remember him lifting his foot off the pedal because he reached down to itch is leg. out of nowhere we were slammed, I mean slammed in the passanger side rear corner of the trailer, hard enough that everything on the seat hit the floor. we ended up doing a 180 into the center ditch. Amazing enough he never lost control of the truck or trailer and kept everything in line. So all and all we were hit be a drunk driver in a toyota SUV, he was trying to get between us and the guard rail (we were in the right lane) and was doing about 90 when he hit us. we slid across two more lanes and into the center ditch facing south when we were headed north. the frame on the truck was bent, the van on the trailer was fine other then broken windows but it never left the trailer, the trailer was junk, one broken axle, about 3' shorter on the right side, bent all to hell.

In the end no one was hurt and thats the most important thing. To this day I am still amazed that my grandfather was able to keep everything right side up even after seeing the tire marks where we were sliding sideways, he drove a car hauler for over 30 years, his experiance is imo the only thing that kept us upright.

Spurshot · November 20, 2009

Years ago I locked myself out of my car (keys left in the iginition). I had no mobile phone and was several miles from a phone. I was an Automobile Technician at the time and knew I only needed a slim jim to pop the door open.

Suddenly the light bulb turned on....

I removed one of the wheel covers and pulled the spring wire ring it used to secure itself against the rim. I bent it back and forth until it broke and straightened it. I then took some rocks and forged a hook into the end of the wire. I then used it to pop the lock.

A real "MacGyver" moment

Your story reminds me of what happened to me 3 yrs ago while quail hunting alone on a friends farm. The place is very isolated and the owner lives hrs from there. I had access thru a locked gate and was about a mile into the farm from the paved road which has little traffic anyway. I had put my keys into my bird pouch's special pocket the has a velcro closure and put my cellphone, wallet, etc along with the keys in this thing. I didn't lock the truck because of the isolation. When I returned to the truck to leave, I put my bird pouch in the bed/topper, cleaned my birds and closed/locked the topper. When I realized I had locked the keys in the topper, I also noted that I was standing in the middle of nowhere without squat. I remembered the topper lock was kinda cheesy and thought I could pick it if I had something to do it with. I thought about the wiper blade inserts that have that thin metal strip. Off one of them came and within a minute or so, I had picked the lock.

amtz.zero · November 20, 2009

I was riding my my grandfather a few years back in a 1 ton dually pulling a open car trailer with a newer dodge mini van on it. He used to transport cars for the dealers as a side job. We were coming back at about 10pm (summer night) we had just left the rest area about 2 miles where we had switched drivers and checked the tiedowns and all the lights for the last 2-3 hours of the trip home. just as soon as he set the cruise at 62-64 and I remember him lifting his foot off the pedal because he reached down to itch is leg. out of nowhere we were slammed, I mean slammed in the passanger side rear corner of the trailer, hard enough that everything on the seat hit the floor. we ended up doing a 180 into the center ditch. Amazing enough he never lost control of the truck or trailer and kept everything in line. So all and all we were hit be a drunk driver in a toyota SUV, he was trying to get between us and the guard rail (we were in the right lane) and was doing about 90 when he hit us. we slid across two more lanes and into the center ditch facing south when we were headed north. the frame on the truck was bent, the van on the trailer was fine other then broken windows but it never left the trailer, the trailer was junk, one broken axle, about 3' shorter on the right side, bent all to hell.

In the end no one was hurt and thats the most important thing. To this day I am still amazed that my grandfather was able to keep everything right side up even after seeing the tire marks where we were sliding sideways, he drove a car hauler for over 30 years, his experiance is imo the only thing that kept us upright.

Dang.

HeyJoe · November 20, 2009

I was driving my '81 CJ-7 somewhere out in central Pennsylvania many years ago, when the front U-joint on the rear drive shaft broke apart. I was alone and spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out if I could jury-rig it back together, when it hit me that instead of fixing the broken one, I could remove the one on the rear of the shaft. I took the whole drive shaft out and put the Jeep into 4-wheel and drove it home as front-wheel drive. That Jeep has lots of stories.

csheatz · November 20, 2009

One trick that I learned about a newer ford taurus that I found interesting......

In cold weather (20 or below) the plasic door panels shrink enough to turn the interior lights on because the little button the turns them on and off loses contact with the door. A solution to this is taking a cap from a spray paint can and cut the very center out then using two part epoxy stick it on the light botton. After that no more dead battery on cold mornings. A local electrical shop was getting these cars in day after day with dead batteries, they charged $10 a car to fix this problem.

Spurshot · November 20, 2009

I remember a phone call I got from a high school friend back 30 or more yrs ago. He was stranded at a local burger joint. His Pinto wouldn't start.

He said to bring a toolbox, he didn't know why it wouldn't start, it had gas and cranked over good.

I grabbed a flat bladed screwdriver and drove over.

When I got out of the car, he asked where the toolbox was.

I told him I didn't need no stinking toolbox.

I popped the hood, took the cap off the distributor, turned the engine by hand to get the distributor cam under the points rub block and used that flat bladed screwdriver to eyeball a .025 gap, replaced the cap, closed the hood and jumped in my car to leave. He rushed over to me and asked where I was going. I said I'm going back home. He said "how do you know if it's fixed?" I laughed and drove off.

It started.

jro909 · November 20, 2009

my 91 s-10 has silicon holding the winsheild in, silicon in the cracks where it rusted ot between the cab floor and the side panel, a pair of vice grips glued to the hood release, license plates and a whole lot of JB weld makes up the top of the rusty ass fuel tank(the top caved in awhile back)...lol no i don't live in the swamp and play banjo on my porch

doverarjim · November 22, 2009

I've told this one before but I will repeat it here. When in high school (74) buddy had a Henry J if you don't know what it is look in a history book, that he put a 392 Hemi in and the crazy thing would spin rod bearings every once in a while, and our repair that we got down to 30 minutes was to remove the oil pan find which rod bearing had spun and the cut a little off of his leather belt and use as the bearing. In a year and half of driving this thing hard we only had one leather bearing fail and all of the real bearings had been replaced.

hockeypro1411 · November 22, 2009

About 6 months ago, my girlfriend and I were leaving for a camping trip with my buddy and his girlfriend in his '94 2500. We were about 70 miles into the trip and in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We were going down a rock road doing about 40-45, and out of nowhere a dam quail divebombs the truck and plants its face in our radiator. It left a decent size hole right smack in the middle of the radiator and we lost quite a bit of coolant. Two tampons and some water bottles and diet Sprite later, we made it to a tavern/truck stop (shadiest place I've ever been in my life) and got a radiator plug and a few gallons of coolant. Lol we still laugh at his truck for using a tampon.

grayghost7 · November 22, 2009

My best fix was one a friend used to get us back home from camping in Beaver's Bend. Dallas is 3 hours from the campsite and I woke up the last morning, got in my '73 3/4 ton and started it. A huge cloud of steam rose up telling me the head gasket was toast.

Over breakfast I learned that an egg white poured raw into the radiator could temporarily seal the leak so I could get closer to home. Sure enough I made it 150 miles and got within 62 miles of the house [reasonable towing range]. I would never have believed this one had it not happened to me personally.

guido1869 · November 22, 2009

95 Dodge Dakota. On my lunch break I stopped to get food for everybody at work. Got back to the truck and it wouldn't start. Turns out the starter fell off because the bolt came out. The bolt was sitting on top pf the starter but I had no tools to put it back in tight enough. I ended up shoving a rag up under the starter and wedged a screw driver to hold everything in place so that I could get back to work and eventually home.

Finally got the bolt back in then the bracket on the starter broke off. This happened to the next two starters with me using my rag and screwdriver to get home each time. Eventually the threads on the bolt and block got messed up and couldn't get a new bolt from the dealer (discontinued) or find a matching part from any of the 15 or 20 salvage yards around my town. Now I have a Silverado.