Problems you have had while 500 miles from home

Stuff like that I hear about for the next 30 years, not 30 miles...ha ha. But when my daughter first learned to drive, she called me and said the car would not start. I did not ask too many questions, just got in my car and drove to where she was. When I got there she said everything was fine. I said what was the problem and she replied that Mom had called her back and told her to put the car in park and it would start.....and it did. Now she believes that she knows more about cars than I do. I believe she just knows more about women drivers. Oh well, at least I did not have to fix anything on the road and since she was in the Dairy Queen parking lot, I had to get ice cream. RIGHT?

 

going to rod run a few years back with cowboy vinny in delaware his charging system took a shit about 100 miles from home so we just kept switching the batteries from my ford to his dodge jump the ford and it would recharged the battery made it there and back fix it when we got home

 

No far from home, but a funny story. While coming home at night from a cruise my '51 Merc stalled on the off ramp of the interstate. It was obviously badly flooded with gas as it was pouring all over the manifold. We push my car onto the shoulder of the intersecting 4 lane local highway. My buddy, with his '51 Ford, pulls behind me and keeps his car running with his lights on for some measure of safety.

While I'm disassembling my carb to clear a piece of debris from the float valve, his car stalls. Now we have 2 dead cars, he's out of gas and I have too much gas!

A passing good samaritan takes care of his lack of gas and I reassembled my carb and fired right up.

Another adventure about 60 miles from home had me jump-charging my buddy's battery with a scavenged piece of 14 gauge wire. We had to touch the bumpers to get the ground connection and we let it charge from mine about 15-20 minutes. He would then drive until his battery died again. We repeated the process three times until we got home.

 

Two years ago, I started having some problems on the way to the Roundup from Dallas. It would start bogging down when we would exit and slow down. Seemed like a fuel issue and I patted myself on the back for having an extra carb rebuild kit in the toolbox. We nursed it in to the show and spent the day rebuilding the carb. It still ran like shit.

When we were leaving Austin on Sunday morning, it got worse in a hurry. We exited somewhere around Georgetown and started poking around. Turns out, I had two cylinders on the old 223 that were dead. I was planning on doing an engine swap anyway, so we decided to drive until it completely crapped out. We drove REALLY slow, sputtered and bucked at about 30mph. No major problems as long as I had the throttle almost buried. Let off the gas, and she started to shut down. Of course, with it being I-35, there WILL be traffic! I had one foot on the brake and one on the gas (like Sammy Hagar but not in a Ferrari) for about 30 miles until the traffic cleared.

We made it to my buddy's house in Burleson and literally coasted into his driveway and the engine took it's last breath. That sucked, but was kind of an adventure and the kids still talk about it.

 

i had a 38 ford cruisen down the road and i kept thinking my foot was getting warm the heater box was rite next to it so didnt pay it much attention till i get out and the old lady says whats on your pant leg i look and its oil im like what the heck the oil gauge copper line craked and dripped in the crease of my pants ran in an soaked my boot and sock

 

I was married and she wasn't...


oh...car stuff....nevermind.

 

Well, i may hear about it for years. It's only been 3 days so far. I'm sure I haven't heard the last of it! ...

 

I had a carb float start leaking about 600 miles from home on my '37 Chevy coupe with a 235. I still don't remember why I did, but just before leaving on the trip I tossed an old, unrebuilt carb in with my spare parts and used the spare carb's float to get me going again in no time.

Another time, I wasn't so blessed. I blew the babbitting on a rod & main bearing of a 216 Chevy down in Virginnia (I'm from NY). I had the car flat-bedded to White Post Restorations and they stored it for me until I could come get it the next week and tow-barred it home. I rode in a buddy's car who was with me for the rest of the trip and back home

 

Lost one waterpump on the flathead V8 in my 48 F1 1500 miles from home on a cross country trip. Limped back to the nearest exit on the Interstate. A call to Sacramento Vintage Ford for overnight delivery had one on the motel desk by 10 the next morning.

Changed it in the motel parking lot the next day - temp 20F in central IL with blowing snow. Always carry tools. Old crack in the block had opened so I pulled T-stats out and headed for home with a couple of water jugs and a loose rad cap. Used a couple gallons but the ol' girl got me back home.

Lost a generator bearing once, but only 175 miles out. "Hey honey, can you grab that generator on the workbench and drive over here this afternoon?" "I love you!"

 

Lost one of four wheels off my flatbed once - sheared studs, wheel gone, all bad... 6 hours from home, 10 hours to the destination. $250 in service and parts later, I was back on the road.

 

I originally made a rod out of my 75.00 1948 Chev beater pickup to go to the 1973 Street Rod Nationals in Tulsa. We were living in McGregor Tx at the time so the I 35 curse got me too.
After what amounted to about a 2+ month thrash to get it ready we left home in a very freshly pained and upholstered gold pickup. about 75 miles up the road the engine started cutting out and I determined it was the fuel filter getting plugged up with Metallic gold paint. That took a couple of side of the road filter changes to fix.
While going across the Red river into Oklahoma the engine died. Bob Davis of F-100 and TSTI auto Mechanics instructor fame and a fellow club member came to the rescue with a Ford coil. Things were good for about five miles when the yoke decided to weld it's self to the tail shaft of the trans. We made it to a gas station in Marietta where we pulled the smoking three speed and the station attendant directed us to a small wrecking yard. For 15 or 20 bucks he sold me the tail shaft out of a core trans and set out a can of wheel bearing grease to hold the needle bearings and said "lock the gate on the way out when you get it back together". about 45 minutes of trans rebuilding later we were back at the truck stabbing the trans and replacing the front yoke on the driveshaft. Gear lube from the station and away went without further issues except Jean got the bottoms of her feet sunburned as we headed back south on Sunday and she had her feet sticking out the window while using my leg as a pillow.

 

Intermittent ground on the igintion box. NOTHING worse or harder to diagnose than intermittient electrical problems - dread the loose wire syndrome. I should have built it better. Gary

 

3 or 4 years ago, the night before we were heading up to Conn for the Road Agents show, I was out cruising around and the car stalled in the middle of a parking lot. Chalked that one up to burnt points. 57Joe mentioned I'd better bring some spare sets so I grabbed a set I had at the house. On the way up to Conn, I lost about 4 sets of points. Finally ran out of points about 50 miles out. AAA got me to the hotel. Went to a Pep Boys and scored an Accel electronic conversion. Great! After a bunch of flame throwing and some burn outs that night, the engine started to bog down and died. So we pushed it back into my spot figuring I was out of gas. The next morning we put some gas in it to no avail. After some figuring we determined that the motor was cooked. We retarded the timing and figured I'd get as far as I could to minimize the tow bill. 7 hours later I pulled it into 57Joe's driveway and it coughed sputtered and died. It barely did 40mph with your foot to the floor. However I did gain some MPG points on the way back...

 

Well i was 200 miles from home and i was in my 63 buick with a fresh cam in it. I put it in the night before with my buddies (first time i have ever done anything like that) Put it all back together. Well at the first stop of the trip down to Goodguys I noticed a little leak from the water pump.... O well keep going your only 45 min away. Made it there an it was pissing everywhere. Fixed the pump in the hotel lot with there towels and a new gasket. Good to go. Started it up and then died. CRAP fuel pump. Well its a saturday at 8pm called the auto parts store and they ordered me a new pump THANK GOD. next morning put it in and we were good to go. Well now its the drive now and the car starts running HOT!! Well a cooler full of ice and all the water i could carry we tried to make it home. We did but that motor and water pump were smokin. It was a complete nightmare at the time but a great story today!!!

 

wasn,t 500 mi. away but might as well been. Pearblossum [middle of the f--desert] Ca. near midnite on a sunday, 1959. coming home from the 1st Bakersfield Fuel n gas
championships. Me and my buddies headin home to riverside. My 55 ford had intermittant spark and then quit, coasted into an old gas station, not a soul was sterrin' in that town.With a weak flashlite and some lighters, found a lose wire on the points, finally made a connection and it fired up. phew saved from a bad night in the dez.

 

Congrats to everyone of you with a story to tell .these things happen to those who drive. Thank god no one complained about the time a broken
tie down strap caused damage to there car in the trailer.

 

I rebuilt the entire front end of my 57 Chevy--some of the parts sure were expensive!
A week later I headed to the Roundup in Austin Texas.
Way out in the country at 75 MPH, I was on a bridge with concrete guard rails when there was a loud pop and the left front of the car dropped.
It pulled Hard to the left and all I could do was hold on and let go of the gas pedal, afraid to touch the brakes.
A woman driving a Cadillac was coming at me in the other lane and I was hoping she would realize I had a problem and give me room, but NO, she didnt yield any of her lane.
Luckily, she passed without hitting me and by that time my speed had dropped and I was beginning to be able to steer back to the right.
As my speed rapidly dropped I was able to force the car to the right shoulder past the bridge and stopped.
Both front wheels were toed out to the max and the drivers side had scrubbed off so much rubber that steel was sticking out.
I found that the drivers side tie rod end had no cotter pin and no nut and the tierod end had come out!
It didnt take long to figure out that a lugnut fits on the tie rod stud and I drove slowly to the next parts store.
I guess I was interrupted before I tightened up the nut and didnt get the cotter pin in.

 

I went to a swap meet at the Ballpark in Arlington Texas not long after the Roundup.
Its a long drive to Arlington and I wanted to be there when it got daylight so it was still dark when I got to Arlington.
I got off the Interstate one exit too soon and was just going to keep going and come in from the south side.
I turned right and saw no reason to change lanes since I would be turning right again.
I dont think I was going all that fast but my lane disappeared and was replaced by a concrete curb dead center of my lane, .
I whipped the steering wheel left as hard as possible to avoid dead centering my oil pan and transmission.
I still hit the curb hard and blew out the right front tire.
I changed it, kinda shook up and tried to drive off but something was wrong.
Turns out the right rear tire was destroyed too. Along with both rims.
I only had one spare but hopefully I wasnt far from the ballpark, so I drove there with the flat tire making lots of noise.
I was able to buy an inflated spare.
I put it on and drove into a proper parking space, again with a lot of noise.
By now it was daylite and I could see that my front wheels were toed out severely...AGAIN!
The idler arm was seriously bent.
I was able to find one at the swapmeet and put that on but had to run out the adjustments to get the wheels kinda straight ahead.
After the swap, I drove 200 miles home at a reduced speed and got a good look at the suspension.
The right ball joint stud was stretched and bent back, and the lower A arm was badly bent.
I replaced all the damaged parts but that side of the car still sits low

 

Sheesh, what hasn't!!
Let's see here, all on the power tour or at a goodguys show one year or another:
Scattered trans, driveshaft and converter on a chassis dyno pull.
Broken and bent pushrods on a vortec headed engine when they first came out, before anyone said they needed self aligning rocker arms. Which caused a screwed up rocker and pulling the intake, with only GM gaskets avaliable.
Relocated shock brackets pulled out of the frame.
Electric fan siezed up and melted the wiring.
Broken oil fittings going to the turbos.
Broken oil lines going to the turbos.
Fuel return line screwed up and dumping fuel all out the back of the car.
Gas tank strap pulled out of the trunk bracket and about lost the tank!
Of course, ran out of gas, keys locked in car, dead batteries, thrown belts and starter replacements!
Oh, and a split CYL wall at a dragstrip in Tulsa!
Crank lost the balancer bolt somehow and ate up the balancer and the end of the crank.
The last two were the only ones I couldn't fix "on the road".
These were all in the camaro BTW!
Wagon.....well, starter replacement and the radiatior split (on the top thankfully!) and I think that was all on it!
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, on the Camaro at least!

 

OK I'm gonna ramble...I used to work in N.California as a Forest Service Fire Fighter and Smokejumper and would drive back and forth to Texas when it got too cold/snowy for forest fires..If anyone has driven the road from Reno to Las Vegas they know what I'm talkin about, course this was in the 70s and my ride was my 57 Dodge Powerwagon, civilian version with the "Forward look" 323 Poly V/8 three-speed on the column..in 2WD, I had lock-outs, 3rd. gear high range it would easily cruise at 90mph..So, I'm heading south out of Reno,at night,in a snowstorm,with my Boxer Tugboy and a load of fresh cut Christmas trees headin for San Antonio where its warm!..all I can see ahead of me for reference is one set of tire tracks and when those turned off into some ranch I was blazing a new trail in about 2 ft. of snow..not being too stupid I decided to pull slightly out of the way so as not to get rear-ended but still out of the bar ditch..Me and Tugboy curled up on the front seat in the down bag and dozzzed off with the heater on as it was about 25 degrees..woke up bright and bitter cold outside, all toasty and dog/boot smelly on the inside..Ccrrraap! we dozed off with the key on to run the heater and burned the points/regulator/dead battery..I got out and stood by the Hwy. holding up a set of jumper cables to the cars that were coming by about every 30 minutes..I had to talk the good folks into letting me charge as long as they could stand it cuz a charge would only get me about 10 miles till it crapped out again..That was a long trip on in to Indian Springs Nev. where I could replace everything and keep going..

 

Gas tank strap busted and it ended up resting on the exhaust for a couple miles on the way home from Paso about 6 years ago. Gotta love those CA potholes.

Nothin a small trailer tiedown couldn't fix.

 

Same trip back and forth from San Antonio to Susanville Cal..Me and Chuck and Lee are headin back to Texas for Christmas, this time we are cruisin a 51 GMC Pkup, tan with copper fenders..and an Irish setter everyone called Lugnut..We are going through Phoenix and it is right in the middle of the gas embargo of 75?..I mean it was long lines and fist fights at the gas stations, total anarchy, we said screw it and kept driving to Tucson or Mesa or somewhere on that wretched stretch of Hwy. with all the "out of gas" signs. Finally ran out of gas and camped out in a cotton field next to a closed gas station. Next morning ,Sunday morning, a guy stopped and asked us what we were doing, we said we were hoping the owner would show up and sell us some gas, he said I know where he lives I'll go see if he will..Owner showed up later and sold us some gas..We didn't tell him Chuck and me had spent most of the night trying to syphon gas out of all the cars behind the station not knowing if anyone was going to show up on a Sunday..We made it to S.A. Christmas Eve...

 

Not 500 mi. but well out of reach of nearest buddy, had an old rochester 4g with pin holes in the float, pulled the air horn punched a hole, drained the gas and got back on the road, just made it when it filled back up.

 

I had a Jeep J 10 pickup with a trailer load of wood going up I 5 at 70 MPH when 3 teeth came off the ring gear and locked up the rear end It knocked the transmossion out of gear broke the rear mount and scared the crap out of me. Ran it home in front wheel drive.

 

I'm not really sure if this belongs here but my most interesting 'Broke down' story happened while I was in the Army.
We were nowhere, quite literally. In an unnamed country during a pretty deep recon trip. We had a five man patrol in a LRPV (Long Range Patrol Vehicle), me the medic, Vehicle Mechanic, Patrol commander, Radio Op and Gunner. We had been out there for almost a week, a good few hundred miles into Indian territory. Well so the map said, we hadn't seen shit!
One night we were to R/V with a para insertion team to give them water and to pick up there rigs before we bugged out ourselves. After meeting them they gave us a GPS point to locate the cached para rigs. We twoddled off to find them and struck an issue. The other team had a different GPS to ours, the result? Different point locations, some have errors up to + or - 300m!!
So we were on the vehicle going in widening circles looking for the cache. In doing so our six wheel drive vehicle got a flat. No biggie we carry a few spares.......... Just not the 5 we ended up with!
So off with the flats we couldn't change, tyre off and stuff with local foliage, works a treat, we locate the cache load up and head off home.
After the first night of driving it seems the clutch is slipping so some of the lay up day was spent adjusting it, then that night a spray of the stickiest cordial mix we could muster to get us going.
We did alright for about two or three hours until we get another flat...... then another...............
By 3am we had gone through all our tyres, all six on the vehicle were flat and so to were the four spares! Back to the old trick of filling with foliage, by the time it was all done we needed to find a Lay Up Point (LUP or Hide) for the day as we were sitting out like dogs balls in the middle of a sandy plain.
Off we go when there was a loud 'Clunk', the engine revved, we stopped.
Hmm, didn't jump out of gear, was still in range, yup...WTF?
FUCKING gearbox detonated, grenaded, blew up, let go, you get the picture.
So there we are, five guys a couple of hundred miles into 'enemy' territory, more flat tyres than you can point a stick at and a blown up gear box.
We did what every good soldiers would, pissed and moaned and kicked things. Screw radio silence discipline, we were on the blower to HQ.
There solution?
Take all you can carry and walk home, cam net the vehicle and report GPS location for future recovery.
Great! We hot footed it out of there, four days of walking, I mean its not all that bad, its what soldiers do. The one thing that pissed us off was on our second day we watched our vehicle fly past our position sling loaded from a US helicopter. The vehicle was to important to leave there, we obviously were.
Doc.

 

We drive all over the US. Too many to list, just a part of the game I guess.

 

About 5 years ago I drove my '62 Chevy with a hopped up 283, four speed and 4.10's down to Reno for HAN from Boise Id. About halfway between McDermott and Winnemucca, the engine died. no town for more than 100 miles and I was alone with no phone. after about an hour of troubleshooting, I found the power wire on the in cap HEI coil had broke. It was too tight to twist togetherbut luckily I found some kind of wire in the cab and spliced 'er in there and made it to Reno. Then that first night there I pulled into the A&W show and parked next to some assholes painted pretty, Torq-Thrust II wearing, smallblock with an automatic '68 Camaro. Immediately he's giving me shit about how I can't park my no exhaust, 2 inches off the ground, whitewall wearing truck next to him because it was in primer. I told him too bad and walked off. Later, when I saw him leaving, I figured I'd try and settle this on the street. I met him at the red light and he knew it was on. I beat the piss out of the poor guy. Just blew his doors clean off!!!! But on the way back to Del Taco in sparks to meet up with all my buddies driving in from Boise, the motor developed a dead hole and a severe backfiring problem. I didn't figure out that it was a broken valve spring 'til after I paid for a month of storage just to keep the truck there for a week. I trailered it back and then while I was diagnosing the problem, It bacfired so hard that it blew the carb off the manifold where it promptly landed upside down, draining fuel all over the flaming engine compartment. I had to replace any and all wiring under the hood after that.

Then, two years ago, in the same truck, I went on a trip to Salem Oregon. This time the truck was the same, but on full air ride and with a pile of shit 283 that I paid 100 bucks for about a month earlier. I'm surprised that motor could make it around the block!!! So, the whole trip I was losing water. In July. Of course I had a water jug with me, so no big deal. on the way back, on a sunday, the starter crapped at Multnomah Falls. Manual transmissions are the fruit of the gods. We drove to the Dalles and stopped for food at denny's, with my truck parked downhill and 5 minutes before the parts store closed and we still had to find it!!! We got there just as they locked the door, but thankfully let us in and sold me the starter. Back to Denny's and when I pulled out the starter, low and behold! The freeze plug directly behind it was rusted through!! That motor lasted till winter time when it started filling the cylinders with green. I still have it and have never pulled it apart to see why they fill with antifreeze.

I've also driven to oregon and back wth third gear missing, laying scattered inside the tranny. Done the no headlights at 2 a.m. for 50 miles drive when the generator crapped. had the tie rod nut come off and the tie rod come out in 5 o'clock traffic. Thankfully the truck was so low that the tire just hit the fender and I kept it straight at 40 mph. Driven 30 miles into town from the jobsite then had to deal with 5 o'clock traffic with no brakes at all. Downshift into first and kill the motor!!

That's about it for now.

 

Somewhere in PA, on a trip from Upstate New York to Maryland, the tower holding the floor shift lever spring broke, leaving me no way to shift gears.

I wound up removing the access panel on the floor, manually shifting the gearbox into 3rd gear and drove all the way to Maryland in 3rd gear. Wasn't too bad, if you could crawl up to the traffic lights and not have to stop or be on a down hill when starting up. Probably used up a few hundred extra miles from the clutch facing prematurly!

Had my son-in-law next day air one from my stash at home to me, installed it, continued the tour and drove her back home.

 

Driving to the Nats East in my recently finished '34 coupe one year, it quit on an exit ramp during rush hour in Harrisburg,Pa.I was with 3 other cars and a trailer queen. We all pull over and cars are wizzing by us inches away on that ramp, but somehow we managed to unload the trailer queen and load mine on the trailer with out getting killed.

Turns out you should never use silicone sealer on a gas tank. I had used it to install the sending unit and the silicone that ended up in the tank plugged the fuel line. We got it running in York and I drove it all weekend but on the way home it plugged up again,so the coupe became a trailer queen for the rest of the way home.

When I got it home ,I fixed it right but that was a hairy trip. Buzzing along at 70 never knowing if it was going to stay running or quit.

 

heres an odd one.
I hit a pothole and then there was a dragging noise.
I was in heavy traffic with no shoulder so I drove up a hill about 1/2 mile and turned right into a parking lot, then right again into a parking space.
I found the tie rod disconnected on one end and dragging in the road --the tie rod end had stripped about 3" of threads and came out of the tie rod.
You would think the wheels would have toed out to the max but it drove and steered OK.
A stranger came by with two 1/2" wrenches which allowed me to reassemble and drive away....slowly!