Your roadside "MacGuyver" fixes?

[Nayov]

What have you done on the roadside to fix a disaster to avoid a tow and nurse a vehicle home?

The throttle cable broke on a car I had many years ago. I pulled the cable and housing from the firewall, ran it through the hood (left it unlatched) and through the window. I then used a pair of vise grips and held the cable casing with my left hand while tugging on the cable with the vise grips with my right hand, steering with my knees and somehow managing to shift the manual transmission. Made it home OK, about 15 miles.

Another time I dug my car out with an ice scrapper when I was in a ditch in an isolated place. I'm amazed the ice scrapper didn't break and that I managed to free the car. Granted it wasn't a major ditch, but I was still up a creak going nowhere.

Had a flat tire and no jack. So, I found some debris (wood, rocks) along the roadside and built a "jack stand" underneath the frame. Then I dug the dirt from the wheel (RF) which caused the car to sink onto the debris allowing me to change the flat.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Went accidentally offroad over a rock in buddies "repair car" 70 6cyl Nova. Had oil pan small gash and leak. Used Jumper cables in trunk, in car battery and coat hanger to "weld" crack in oil pan. still cant believe we did that.

 

[HM12460]

LOL, Arco, are you serious??? This is gonna be a good thread!

 

[bmwtechguy]

Those first 2 posts far exceed anything I have done. Hats off...

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Went accidentally offroad over a rock in buddies "repair car" 70 6cyl Nova. Had oil pan small gash and leak. Used Jumper cables in trunk, in car battery and coat hanger to "weld" crack in oil pan. still cant believe we did that.

How were you able to weld it with oil leaking out?

 

[eoghan]

I have done the throttle cable thing before on a 67 Plymouth Sport Fury however I had to warp the hood some to make it work for me and I just used a gloved hand to pull on the cable, auto trans so that was good but it was about 20 deg and I had about 25 miles to go.

Not really and emergency type of thing but I once owned a 71 VW square back that needed a new distributor due to the points would get so close they would not open and the car would stall. I was younger, broke, and was told at the time I would have to order a new distributor all the way from Germany "extra cost" so I just wedged some thin cardboard in where it kept the points open to where they would work. I just had to make it just the right thickness to get it started again. I kept some cardboard in the car just for that purpose and drove the car like that for about another year before I sold it. It would die every once and a while when the cardboard either wore out or just slipped out of place and I would pull over to the side of the road and "fix" it again!

 

[Chris142]

I had an upper ball joint in the front of my Toyota pickup pull out of the socked 20 miles from anywhere. We wrapped a motorcycle tie down around the upper and lower control arms to hold the ball joint together.

Got me home and to the shop to get it fixed.

 

[eljefino]

I've macgyvered a bunch of stuff at home, 1 inch c clamp holding a dizzy cap on, alligator clip on coolant temp sender wire b/c the stock one kept slipping off.

Only in the field fix was whaling on my gas tank with a rubber flashlight to get the fuel pump going; it worked long enough to get me home. Said flashlight bounced out of someone elses truck years before; I found it in the street, it was fate.

I broke a wire in the door hinge of my cutlass ciera, rendering the power window inoperable and down, two states away from home. Took the switch apart, figured out the wiring with my dads cadillac cimarron repair manual, stuck a couple nails in the switch contacts and hit them with jumper cables to get the window back up.

 

[Shannow]

First nasty one was when I was 6, we moved interstate, all 5 of us in a Datsun 1,000 station wagon.

Brakes went out driving down the hills into Adelaide, so Dad used the E-Brake. E brake cable went out so Dad pulled the cable up through a drain hole in the floor, and using vice grips made a "lever", for me to yank on when he yelled for brakes.

Things were different in 1972/73.

 

[yeti]

the ball game is boring, so i came here.
a 12V car battery can provide enough juice to weld ????
a coat hanger can be used as a welding rod ????
AMAZING.
have a good night, all, and stay straight.

 

[Seguino]

Used my cell phone to call AAA once. HA HA . You guys are awesome.

 

[Quest]

boombox systems in my friend's 95 4Runner drained down the battery in the middle of the nite while up on the hillside out in the middle of nowhere gazing stars out of the sun roof (got multiple cars lined up side by side). None of us have a jumper cable or tools on hand to swap out the exhausted battery.

Outside temp was around 3C and was just after rain so I scoured the entire parking lot for an empty coffee paper cup, found a water puddle with enough water to scoop, pop the hood and instructed the owner to kill all the music, power amps, head unit, etc. while I tried pouring chilly rain water (from the puddle) all oever the warm battery. 15 mins of chilling with cold water all over the battery case was enough for the battery to turn over the starter motor and voila! It fired right up!

Q.

 

[crazyjake]

Just after the 9/11 attacks I was working with my father's construction crew. We were moving from a site in middle of nowhere Nebraska to up in the mountains Colorado and passing through Cheyenne Wyoming at about 3 in the morning. We were driving through a construction zone and I was about a half mile behind dad when the pintle hitch on his truck broke. Now you have to picture this truck. It's a 1970 Ford U-Haul truck, an F-70 I think, that has been customized to be a welding rig that could also haul a tractor and pull a pintle hitch trailer. It also had a not very original Chevy 454 and automatic transmission, but that's another story. Unfortunately, for all the work we had done to the truck, we had neglected to make sure the hitch was top 'o the line, and that really did us in at way too early in the morning in Wyoming.

I see sparks flying everywhere from the truck and I try flashing my lights to get his attention, because he doesn't seem to notice. I try getting on the radio, but then I remember that his radio was kaput anyway. Then I try calling him on the cell phone and finally get him to stop.

Well It looks like this; the trailer has not come unhitched, thanks to the safety chains, but the hitch on the truck has come almost completely off the frame/bumper of the truck. Not looking good, except that this truck is a welding shop on wheels. Quick, get out the floor jack, fire up the welder, cut some plate and weld it all back together, and within 20 minutes we are on the road again with a hitch that won't fall off. We inspected our work when daylight came and it looked good, it held for 2 or 3 more years until we finally retired that truck.


Another time, I was driving home with a pickup and trailer that was having issues with not getting a good ground for the trailer lights. I drove for about an hour, then it started to turn from dusk to dark and the clearance lights, right on que, went out. Well, I had a razor blade in my pocket and I found a little bit of 14 gauge electrical wire under the seats along with a roll of electrical tape that I always keep stashed in the glove box. I split the trailer wire for a foot, dug out the black ground wire from the others, and strip off a little bit of it to tie my jumper wire too, then strip the end off my jumper wire and use the razor to clean a little spot of rust and paint under back of the pickup flatbed where I can wrap the wire and tape it on to get a ground. It worked like a champ for the hour I had left to get home. Needless to say, the next day I took to fixing trailer wiring with a vengeance so that wouldn't happen again!

 

[mechjames]

Lets see:

-vicegrip on battery terminals due to the ends falling off
-hammer on a fuel tank to get a pump to work to drive home
-wired a switch in the back seat for fuel pump to work on the explorer due to a faulty ford inertia switch for a while.
-plastic pipe fitting to bypass a blown ford heater control valve while in 44 deg celcius heat
-vice grips on rubber brake line to drive explorer with a seized caliper home
-blown front driveshaft on my friend's jeep, but the old selec trac systems with the solid front axles need the front axle to turn the transfer case to turn the rear one. we were also stuck in 4wd due to a faulty vaccum switch. So we pulled the front driveshaft out to cut the racket down, and drove home in full time low range, because part time high range just doesn't activate the rear axle
-water cooler jugs of water every few miles to get a car with a leaking water pump home

but yea, I can't beat your hanger stick welding jumper cable setup ARCO. I have however used a power inverter to cook hot dogs while on a long roadtrip to camping, and to play with an xbox while waiting to meet up with someone. We were hungry, MacGuyver fix, right? It fixed my hunger:

-

 

[mechjames]

Actually found better pic of the system:

Even has a bun toaster. Throw your hot dogs and buns in and in 20 min its done.

 

[Mustang_Cougar]

I once had an '81 BMW 316 which had a habit of blowing various fuses for no apparent reason. Being as I was 19 years old at the time and earning E3/E4 pay (blown on bier, of course), I decided to forgo going to a mechanic and just started using pfennigs in place of fuses. Yeah, in hindsight it was stupid...but then again there aren't a lot of uses for a one pfennig piece. Consider it "recycling."

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: mechjames


-vicegrip on battery terminals due to the ends falling off



-
Doh! You just reminded me of the time I used a hose clamp to clamp a bare battery cable to the battery post.

 

[Zaedock]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Went accidentally offroad over a rock in buddies "repair car" 70 6cyl Nova. Had oil pan small gash and leak. Used Jumper cables in trunk, in car battery and coat hanger to "weld" crack in oil pan. still cant believe we did that.


That's awesome man. Nothing like backwoods welding.

I welded 4 or 5 of my friends caps into "tweaked" axles during my trip to Moab last year. The first one, was about 40 miles form nowhere, on the side of a dirt road at 11PM at night. To top it off, I had left both my small face shield and my helmet back in my truck.

I used two batteries in series and a 3/32" 6013 rod.

I've used chain crissed crossed from the frame to locate the front axle of a Cherokee when the track bar broke.

I used shoe string as a throttle cable.

I used my windshield washer motor as a fuel pump in my old 'carbed Malibu when the spring blew out of the mechanical one. I couldn't go over 25 though.

I used chain to locate my front axle when I broke a main leaf.

I used chain to fix a motormount.

I welded a front tie rod on a TJ with someone's Premier Power Welder. I want one!

Fixed a sidewall with 12 plugs and fishing line.

I've used chain quite a bit on some other booger fixes, but it's getting late.




Even my "garage" is MacGuyver'd

 

[wiswind]

'72 Dodge Dart 225 slant six.
While on interstate......pin hole in top, back side of radiator......blew coolant back onto the coil.....burned the end off of the Coil to Distributor wire at the coil.

I left the radiator cap loose.....to have no pressure in radiator.
I cleaned up the mess at the coil....and rammed the blunt end of the coil wire down into the coil well......
Drove the hour to get where I was going and had it repaired correctly.
Car actually ran just great.....I kept waiting for it to die when the coil wire fell out.....but that wire stayed put.

 

[sciphi]

I don't have anything like that. Just my dad running his old Aerostar on white/camping gas when we ran out of fuel next to a campground out in the middle of nowhere. That thing pinged like a bucket of BB's, and got us the 10 miles to a real gas station.