Just get me home!

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
Joined
Oct 13, 2004
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Location
Tustin, CA
Most ghetto repairs you made to get yourself out of a jamb. Car related...
1. girlfriends pantyhose for a fan/water pump belt. worked great!
2. rope for a clutch cable in a Subaru GL10, got me home
3. Marine "boot band" for a carb return spring, got me home.
4. Water for brake fluid. That was a bad night and I had to get the f--- out of where I was.
5. took a lugnut off each rim to get my spare on when someone snaked my back tire
6. took 3 of 6 allen head bolts out of the right CV joint to get the left one attached after we sheared the 2 that were left in there. they must have come out? VW bus.
I had some POS cars back then.....;-)
 
Cranked up the idle screw to get home when the throttle cable broke on the GTX!!
 
On my 66 chevelle SS broke the Z bar and on the 68 chevelle SS broke the clutch pedal. Started both in gear and made it home...
 
Well it didn't get me home but I had a 95 Taurus that I was using in a demolition derby and a hard hit from another car busted a junk off the aluminum transmission case and left a 3" hole. Got a stick of JB weld epoxy putty rolled it out covered the hole and ran the car in 3 more derbys never leaked a drop.

James
 
1960 comet wagon throttle cable broke. Pulled off shoe laces tied em together and ran through gap in hood and wing window and got home.

Snapped an axle shaft in 98 wrangler, got it to pavement and every few hundred feet had to swerve at the curb to push the tire/axle back in the housing to get home.

Fried wiring harness in my barracuda and it would die if you turned the lights on. It was midnight after a concert and I had school the next day. Drove home with the lights off being pulled over a few times being told to leave the car and ride home with my friends who were following or leading me. Each time got pulled over drove around the block in friends car came back push started my car and kept on going.

My buddy was out of town and let me use his 68 camaro. Now he had wrecked front end doing a burn out leaving are high school so it had no grill. I was on a back road and picked up a rock in the radiator. Was able to get to a small store. Through a couple eggs in the radiator and chewed some gum and wadded the gum into/around the hole and got home. Then brazed the radiator and it was good as new.

I've done the starting in gear and shifting with out a clutch in the Bcuda quite a few times.

Was out wheeling in my cherokee and hit a mud pit to fast killed my jeep. Pulled of the intake tube and used two pen tubes jammed together as a straw to get the water out of the intake, wd 40'd the distributor and drove home.

I've got quite a few more of these stories. Great thread idea!! I get in these predicaments and I just say "What would Megiver do"
 
Ballast resistor went out on my 71 Demon. I found there was a spot between run and start on the key where it would stay running (on full 12 volts) Taped the key into that position and drove it home. I think we changed the points after just to be safe.
 
Driveline blew out of a 58 ford pickup leaving one ujoint cap in the yoke, and the other long gone.
Only had two tools in the whole truck and I found them under the seat ( a half inch open end wrench, and a Craftsman 5/8 socket) PERFECT.
The half inch wrench for the ujoint strap bolts, and the 5/8 short socket made a temporary ujoint cap and got her home 25 miles.

On my way back home from Phoenix AZ in my Dart with the original radiator and the top tank blew off about half way around the top seam. (I always have water with me)
I pulled the thermostat, beat the tank back down with a tire iron and used an entire tube of red RTV to seal the gaps and left the cap off the radiator to get the 45 miles back home.

That's just two of them.
 
Broke both Z-bar and clutch pedal several times in 72Chevelle and just started in 1st and shifted without clutch to get more than just home. Broke Z-bar pivot ball in block so made aluminum bracket for new pivot ball and bolted it to bell housing. That lasted for two years until I finally pulled engine.

Broke lower ball joint in an accident on an icy road (1969 Belvedere) but couldn't afford to replace it. I drove around with a floor jack and a 2X4 in the trunk for two months. Whenever I made a sharp right turn, it would pop out of the ball socket so I had to jack it up and with the 2x4 wedged under the LCA, lower the car so the ball would slide back into the socket again.

Drove with ruptured brake lines on my Denali to get home. Downshifted into low gear to slow down and then applied e-brake to stop. This wasn't too safe, but I was in a hurry. I probably wouldn't do this again.
 
I do'know HOW many times I had a minor "incident," broke somethin in the clutch linkage. No big deal. Just start 'er up in 1st gear, learn to shift with no clutch and try to stay out of heavy traffic. Teaches ya ta keep a good battery in yer cars, LOL.



Blew a heater hose on the 86 Dodge 600 K car a few years ago in the rain, on the freeway, the rain hid it. So it wasn't until the heater went cold that I noticed, and it "killed" the head, blew the gasket.

So I left one plug out, welded a fitting to that plug and ran a piece of hose overboard, and just let that cylinder pump pump pump. Ran a piece of wire through the pressure gasket on the rad cap to break the seal. Drove it for months that way. Sounded like a

fetch_file
 
Lost the rear U-joint in a 4wd pickup, put it in 4 wheel and drove home on just the front diff!!
 
Got a flat tire out in the sticks one night,no jack.2 buddies found a fallen tree so jammed it under the car and lifted the car while I did the Nascar tire swap.On our way!
 
Driving to CT to pick up a car with my Dad and his Ranger. Well around Schenectady NY the ranger started overheating pretty bad. We stopped and bought out the convenience mart of coolant. This was before we even picked up the car. Kept topping it off along the way, but it was smoking badly. We eventually got to the car and got it put on the tow dolly. On the way back we didn't get far before it was really getting hot. We picked up a can of pepper and a ton of coolant. Filled it up and got another couple hundred miles till we needed to fuel up. Then repeated the next day until we got home. As soon as we got the truck into the driveway where I was storing the car the truck blew out the molded coolant end tanks. Replaced the heads (4.0L Push rod engine) and did the top end gaskets after that.
 
Made it home in a friends VW bus with a piece of barbed wire for a throttle cable and me in the back, pulling the wire when he said GO. Used to keep a bernz-o-matic propane torch head in the box with my propane lantern when camping to start fires in bad weather. My W100 blew out a seam on the radiator when we were hunting 40 miles from nowhere in a national forest. I pulled off a wheel weight, melted it into a tiny ditch in the dirt to make a thin strip, scraped the brass on the seam clean with a knife, and tried to solder it. The solder beaded up and ran off like water. Damm...I need flux....what now....BING! bright idea, dipped a twig in battery acid then soldered away. My repair lasted 2 more years. Lost a heater core on a rainy winter night in south Louisiana, and had a pregnant wife at home, expecting any minute. Pulled into a closed gas station, and cut plugs for the hoses from a branch off a shrub along the parking lot of the bank next door. Found a big gulp cup in the ditch and refilled the rad with ditch water. A panty hose belt got us back to the dock on the boat once, only time we took the boat to go out to eat, nobody wears panty hose on the lake. Got a flat with a friend in his fathers austin healy 3000. Took out the spare, jack, lug wrench, and the lead mallet to spin off the knock off on the wire wheels. Got the spinner off and the car jacked up, and of course the wheel was stuck on the hub. We had to put the spinner back on and he drove around in circles popping the clutch until the wheel loosened. High school girlfriend lost brakes on her 65 mustang late one night. Looked under the car and saw the puddle coming from the compression fitting her older brother used to patch in the line going to the rear brakes. with no tools and no phone, I had to beat the line to crimp it and refilled the "fruit jar" master cylinder with "natures brake fluid". I got tons more, now with cell phones this kinda stuff is rare.
 
Broke the gas tank off my mini bike wiping out on a sand hill about 3 miles from home! Made it home by pouring gas down the carb all the way, and spilling no small amount on self!!
 
cosgig said:
Broke the gas tank off my mini bike wiping out on a sand hill about 3 miles from home! Made it home by pouring gas down the carb all the way, and spilling no small amount on self!!
Click to expand...
Good thing it didn't backfire....you might not be here to tell the tale! I've blown the main fuse on a bike and had to wrap it in a foil lined wrapper from the ditch to get home. I rode my bike about 40 miles to look at another W100 for $500 after work one evening. As I was getting close, it was getting dark, and I realized I had no headlight, my bulb was out on my 650 tiger. I putted down the dark, rutted, gravel road with my turn signal as the only light source. After I met the guy, and bought the non-running truck, I borrowed the battery powered headlight we were using to look at the truck with to use to get back to the pavement. First I wrapped the elastic headband around the bikes headlamp housing, but it shook loose on the gravel road, and I had to ride with one hand holding it up. I stopped and strapped the headlamp on my head and adjusted the strap. It worked good enough to make it back to the interstate, then I got on a big truck's tail and stayed close till my exit. Sure thing, there was a cop car at the only intersection between the interstate and my house. You should have seen the look on his face when ,halfway through the light, I turned my head and looked right at him with that headlight on!
 
Fuel pump went out in one of my old trucks once, up in the mountains where I had no hope of getting my Towtruck or my Rollback...

Filled the Windshield Washer Reservoir with gas, routed the hose into the throat of the carb, and used the foot pedal pump washer to pump the fuel to drive the truck down out of the mountains. :D


Out in the middle of nowhere once, in my Dodge D50, I pulled over to make a phone call (exhaust was too loud to hold a conversation while driving). When I went to start the truck again all I heard was Riiiiinnngg....Riiiiiiiinnng. The sound of a starter spinning full tilt. Great...either the solenoid went bad, or the flywheel is missing teeth and the starter is just free spinning.

I popped the hood, hoping I could smack the solenoid to get the starter to engage. I look down... "Where is my starter?!" It wasn't there.

I crawled under the truck, there's my starter laying on top of the front axle, and most of the bolts in the bellhousing were missing. Fortunately I always kept tools, bolts, nuts, etc in the truck. Bolted it all back together and went about my business.
 
broke a front leaf spring on my Willys wagon while out wheeling (way up in the hills) pulled it back together with my winch cable, clamped it together with some flat bars I had (1/2" thick, 1x5 or so with a hole in each end)... got out of the hills a couple hours later, then 2 more hours home. My friend had been giving me crap about having a pule of those flat bars in my parts box I kept in the rig... no more crap after that!!
 
1 1/2 ton ford flat bed truck, (68 I think) auto trans, single pot master cyl, up in the mountains cutting firewood. On the way down with 3 cords on it I hit the brakes to slow down for a tight bend in the road and,,, nothing! Managed to get it stopped, (miracle ) boss puled up and asked why I was driving that way and I just pointed under the back of the truck at the brake fluid running out of BOTH rear drums! Ended up I drove the thing down out of the mountains with no brakes, just kept it in low and prayed.

78 buick wagon, 400 v8 auto. Carb inlet plugged up on the far side of town. Took the needle from a veterinary syringe and some rubber hose I had in the car strapped a gas can to the roof, started gas siphoning through the needle, stuck it in a vacuum hose and drove home. Slobbering rich at idle, anything more than just off idle went lean but it got me home.

Got others but that's it for now.
 
I had loose tie rod on 55 Plymouth and bought set in town. On way home to farm the tie rod fell out on gravel road. Got car stopped before it hit the ditch. Pushed socket up on stud and used some barb wire to hold it up to get last 2 miles home. Lucky on that one. Several times driving w dead alternator/generator with parking lights only. Back in day when driving old cars and no money.
 
Buddy of mine had an old Pinto years ago. For some reason the starter wouldn't work, and it was an automatic so you couldn't push start it.

So he would wrap a piece of clothesline around the front pulley, stand on the front fender, and give it a mighty yank....it would start every time! lol

Another friend had an old VW van. I saw him start it with a ratchet and socket many times. Just put the ratchet and socket on the generator pulley nut, bring it up on compression, and it would start with a crank of the ratchet.
Dallas
 
1. 87 Pontiac, blew a hole into the block with #5 piston, *I THINK is was #5 anyway*, (this was a long time ago) and stuffed the hole in the motor with a few rags from under the front seat tied in knots and stuffed them in the whole, smoked like a bastard for about 20 minutes and then it ran "OK" to get me home on 5 cylinders. Sheared off wrist pin.

2. 89 Oldsmobile, drove around 8 months in 2nd or 3rd of a 5 speed automatic as the overdrive and drive forward gears were nothing more then a "neutral" after the wife drove 20 miles to Manchester, NH and hit a pot hole in the road that poke a hole in the tranny pan and puked fluid the whole way to and probably from, and I was at home and the next morning seen a few "fresh" spots of tranny fluid on the ground next to the driver side front tire. and I knew that wasn't a good site.......... that car, with a 3.8, V6 just would NOT die either, the cost of fuel had to have broke me to say OK, enough is enough......

3. Same car above, the wife went to the bank in January BEFORE the tranny issue happen went to wind the window down at the drive-through, and it was a power window and blew the freakin window out, freezing cold, and she came home got out plastic bags handed them to me and I was like WTH is this fer? She replied to fix the window I blew out of the car, and I was like, its to freakin cold to blow through the window for me, (she didn't want to hear me say that one! DAMN NEAR got slapped over that comment) then went and showed me. I was like to hell with a rattlin damned bag.......I went to home Depot, back then, bought a quarter inch thick Lexan, cut it to fit, and jambed a 2 by 4 under it, to wedge in the Lexan, and went on my merry way... the car in the summer sucked as the window in the driver door didn't wind down, BUT it kept in the heat, and AC, and could be seen through, was in it, the day the car went for scrap!

4. My wifes old Ford (4 lettered F-word) Taurus wagon, hit a raccoon put a tooth through my high pressure line to the power steering. New part? Ford Dealership? $250, part cost, another $225 installed on top of it. In my shop? Trip, strong armed the thing to Home Depot, bough 3/8th thick wall high pressure copper pipe, and 2 fittings for mating straight sections and then a telescoping fitting to fit the 3/8th thick walled, to telescope with the other 2, to make them "thick" chucked in my lathe, cut double barbs for the hose ends into the fittings AFTER being soldered to themselves (the fittings) and then soldered the fittings to the pipe after being cut to length. THEN 2 turn-screw small diameter hose clamps, 4 total 2 on each end........ the whole part, bought, made installed, cost? $14.00 was on the car, when it too went for scrap! Lasted 4 years, with that pipe zip tied to the factory part, covered in house-hold pipe insulation....To keep vibration from wearing a hole through it from the Ford factory steel part it was zip tied too.....

5. Same ford, rotted off lower radiator hose in the local Wal-Mart parking lot, 6 miles one way home. Fix? Making a hose, NOT fitted factory part from 1 inch copper pipe to fit INSIDE some radiator hose I had laying around that were all angles or corners to get around all the damned lower A-Frame and control arm of the steering rods and hold pressure and not leak. the factory hose........ $125!!!!! Piss on that. I made my own, cost? time I had, and left over parts, that I saved from years of past cars, laying around that were paid for just from the original reason for having them! GLAD I saved all that "JUNK" today for that very reason.......
 
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